Dear New Zealand Customs Service,
We request the following information for the purpose of participating in the Royal Commission inquiry into the attack on Christchurch Mosques.

Relevant Operative Mentions:
1. Copies of Customs documents, correspondences and addresses (including but not limited to emails, letters, presentations), for periods A, B, C and D, referring to any of the following terms:
a. Arab / Muslim / Islam / Islamist / Islamicist / Jihadist /
b. Terrorists / Extremists / Radical / Far-right / White supremacy
Training

2. What professional cultural advice or training or resources has Customs requested or received on Islam or Muslims for periods A, B, C and D?

3. Who is Custom’s on-hand cultural advisor/negotiator/facilitator for:
a. On-going strategy
b. Emergency Situations

4. Do all of your staff receive comprehensive cultural intelligence and full competency training and review?

Intelligence Principles
5. What proven intelligence principles is your work based on?

Contact with Mr Tarrant
6. What contact did customs have with Mr Tarrant?

Policy
7. What policies did customs have in respect of extremism?

8. What policies does Customs have in respect of far-right extremism?

9. What other forms of religious extremism do customs have a screening policy and strategy for?

Actions and White Supremacy threats
10. How many white extremists have Customs stopped at their borders over the periods A, B, C and D?

11. How many people have Customs stopped or picked up as sympathisers with Serb-nationalism or Bosnian Genocide?

Consultation with or regarding the Muslim Community
12. How many experts on the Muslim Community or faith have you engaged or consulted over the periods A, B, C and D?

Consultation regarding Far-Right Extremism
13. How many experts on far-right extremism have you engaged or consulted over the periods A, B, C and D?

General Consultation
13. How many experts on other ethnic or religious nationalism or extremism have you engaged or consulted over the periods A, B, C and D?

Diversity
14. What is the ethnic cultural composition over the periods A, B, C and D of your
a. senior management
b. senior operational staff

15. What diverse perspectives have been embraced and resulted in reform of organisational culture that promotes diverse experiences and perspectives?

We request information for the following time periods:
Period A: October 2017 – present
Period B: November 2008 – October 2017
Period C: December 1999 – November 2008
Period D: November 1990 – November 1999

For the requests that ask for information from Periods A, B, C and D please note we do not require that all the information come through at once.
We request in order of this priority: Period A, then B, then C and finally period D.
Word-specific requests: please include variant spellings for these. E.g. For a request pertaining to “Muslim”, please include variants such as “Moslem”.

We appreciate that our requests are extensive. However, they are not disproportionate to the significance of the matters we are engaging in with the Royal Commission.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Mahrukh Sarwar

Dear Michael Papesch,

Thank you for responding to my OIA requests. Please find relevant comments and clarifications below. Please note that all of the clarifications and comments below, while arising in the context of individual requests, apply to all requests as a whole.

As a general question, we ask how Customs’ distinguishes information they would rather not disclose for public relation reasons (both domestically and through foreign relations) from the reasons you provided. We have noted that in several instances, information has been refused or partially answered without any compilation, disclosure or analysis of the information and without providing details for why information is theoretically prejudicial. Under section 19(a)(ii) of the Official Information Act, we are entitled to ask for the grounds in support of the reason for refusal. The High Court has stated that the test in section 6(a) requires evidence (Kelsey v Minister of Trade [2016] 2 NZLR).

You claim that some of our requests are unclear. Please refer to responses we have received from NZSIS, GCSB, NZDF and DPMC. These agencies show a thorough understanding of our requests.

Question One
Premature refusal
The information requested for has been withheld under s18(f) of the Official Information Act. Under sections 18A and 18B of the Official Information Act (OIA), you were required to consider whether the reason for refusal can be removed by either consulting us, fixing a charge or extending the time period for a response. Failing to follow the steps in sections 18A and 18B of the Act was held by the High Court as unlawful (Kelsey v Minister of Trade [2016] 2 NZLR).

Ideally, you could have fixed a charge if you are to believe that collation of requesting documents is substantial.

This also indicates that you have not made any effort to make this information available, despite the avenues set by Parliament which attempt at ensuring agencies engage with requests before refusal under section 18(f).

Contextual significance
The question asked is contextually significant to legal and other processes in response to the Christchurch attacks, and will be useful for future prevention and research. We note the context of this request would appear to outweigh even substantial inconvenience to Customs in the collation process. The context is highlighted by the historical significance of the Christchurch events, demanding the need for a comprehensive investigation which the Royal Commission and other civil society organisations are undertaking. Customs is a primary agency in this regard and we would have expected that several months after the attacks the priority of this issue would by now be self-evident.

Timely collation
We acknowledge that the number of documents is significant, but we note that this is not an individual case. Rather, it is a case of national importance and this should be evident to you.

We allow Customs consideration of any reasonable consequences to the extent of this request, such as focussing on the order of priority, and/or prioritising certain searches. In other words, you can decide which searches you consider inconvenient to take on first as per Customs operation processes or resource use etc. However, we request this is made available as soon as possible so as to inform the current surge of public resources already going into inquiring into these matters, in comparison to which your agency's costs will pale into insignificance. We request being updated in whatever process is undertaken.

Question Two
To confirm, Customs, an agency which demands extensive cultural training in the protection of New Zealand’s border, has no record of requesting or recieving any professional cultural advice, training or resources on Islam or Muslims for Periods A, B, C and D.

Question Three
By “Protecting New Zealand’s Border”, it is obvious from this role that various interactions with other cultures beyond the border must take place in various situations including emergencies and through on-going strategy. Yet, to confirm, Customs does not have a cultural facilitator or adviser, when this role demands that a cultural adviser is or ought to be in place.

Further, we have requested NZ Police to provide us with similar information, however they have not responded to us. Nonetheless, the information we seek if from your agency specifically.

Question Four
We acknowledge that Customs is an agency involving a significant amount of intercultural interaction, yet it does not provide comprehensive cultural intelligence training to its staff.

We also acknowledge that Customs provides some role-specific intercultural training. Can you please expand on this by providing more information on:
1. What this training actually contains.
2. What roles it is aimed at.
3. Whether it is compulsory or not. If not compulsory, please provide the number and percentage of staff participating in this module.

Further, we infer from Customs “offering” Unconscious Knowledge and Bias training that this training is optional. If so, please provide the number and percentage of staff participating in this training.

Please expand on the notion of “inclusive leadership” and how this may provide cultural intelligence, if any.

Question Five
We understand that information may be withheld under Section 6(c) of the Act, where disclosure of that information may prejudice maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation and detection of offences and the right to a fair trial. However, could you please expand on what connection exists between information regarding Customs intelligence principles and section 6(c), if any connection does exist.

Question Six
We understand that information may be withheld under Section 6(c) of the Act, where disclosure of that information may prejudice maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation and detection of offences and the right to a fair trial. Please confirm that this information has been provided to the Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Questions Seven, Eight and Nine
We acknowledge your statement that “Customs does not target or profile passengers based on race, religion”. Yet, we know Customs has “created risk profiles based on trends and known indicators of potentially illegal activity” and assesses pre-arrival passenger information against these risk profiles and identifies passengers that could pose a risk(1). The information we seek pertains to these trends and criteria for assessment that creates these risk profiles. Can you please expand on what these trends are and what the criteria for assessment are?

The Human Rights Foundation reports from a human rights perspective that Muslims are in fact targeted at New Zealand airports(2). You state that this is not based on a policy in respect of extremism. Is there any other Customs policy that involves this or are we to infer that it is simply unconscious or conscious bias held by Customs officers?

Among one of many incidents, we have provided the following case study: https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/6...

In your response, you refer to international protocols. Can you please expand on what these protocols for profiling/targeting passengers are?

Questions Ten and Eleven
We understand that information may be withheld under Section 6(c) of the Act, where disclosure of that information may prejudice maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation and detection of offences and the right to a fair trial. However, could you please expand on what connection exists between information regarding Customs stopping “white extremists” and “sympathisers with Serb-nationalism and Bosnian Genocide” principles and section 6(c), if any connection actually exists.

Question Twelve

Thank you for acknowledging that a number of individuals have complained about feeling disproprtionately interected with by Customs on arrival or departure from New Zealand, principally because they are Muslim.

You state that a dialogue is taking place to abate this feeling shared by the New Zealand Muslim community. Can you confirm that the only events taken place in this dialogue are:
1. Presentation by OEC to Customs Diversity and Inclusion Council meeting (March 2016)
2. FIANZ’s public forums on Airport Arrivals at Avondale Islamic Centre (July 2018) and West Auckland Mosque (October 2018), attended by only Customs’ Manager Investigations and Manager Auckland Passenger Operations.

Can you also provide the number and percentage of attendees at the presentation by OEC to Customs Diversity and Inclusion Council meeting in March 2016, and provide further detail as to trainee expertise.

Question Thirteen
To confirm, Customs, in carrying out its role to protect New Zealand, does have any record of engaging with experts on far-right extremism in Periods A, B, C and D, when this role deems it important that Customs should or ought to have some record.

Question Fourteen
To confirm, Customs, in carrying out its role to protect New Zealand, does have any record of engaging with experts on religious nationalism or extremism in Periods A, B, C and D, when this role deems it important that Customs should or ought to have some record.

Endnotes:
(1) https://www.oag.govt.nz/2017/border-secu... at [3.10].
(2) https://humanrightsfoundation.files.word...

Yours Sincerely,
Mahrukh Sarwar