WELLINGTON
The Customhouse, 1 Hinemoa Street, Wellington
PO Box 2218, Wellington 6140
Phone: 04 901 4500 Fax: 04 901 4555 All general enquiries phone: 0800 428 786
Email: [email address] Website: www.customs.govt.nz
3 July 2020
Ref: OIA 20 - 173
Kelly Watson
By email
: [FYI request #13145 email] Dear Kelly Watson
Request for information under the Official Information Act
Thank you for your email dated 24 June 2020 to the New Zealand Customs Service (Customs)
via the FYI website, in which you request the following under the Official Information Act 1982
(the Act):
“New Zealand citizens are concerned at the impacts of high short term migration;
particularly financial, infrastructure, and on the COVID-19 response. I'm requesting the
demographic information of the people returning so that I and other New Zealanders
can prepare and research the demand for businesses that are hoping to expand or
pivot to providing for the incomers. E.g. Age ranges, Genders, Income bracket, Familial
Statuses.”
On 26 June 2020, Customs contacted you to clarify the time period that your request for
demographic information of the people returning to New Zealand related to, which you clarified
as “from 14 March 2020 to present”.
In response, the attached document titled
‘Arrivals by gender and age’ contains the
information you have requested. The information in the tables is accurate as at the date of
extraction from the Customs database, 29 June 2020. The tables may contain different
information to what has been previously publicly released by Customs, as the information in
the database can be updated or amended at any time.
Customs does not hold data on income brackets, or familial statuses, for passengers arriving
into New Zealand. Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section 18(e) of the Act
as the information does not exist.
You have the right, by way of complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman under section 28(3)
of the Act, to seek an investigation and review of the decisions conveyed in this letter.
Please note that Customs proactively releases responses to Official Information Act requests
on our website. As such, we may publish this response on our website after we have sent it to
you. Your name and contact details will be removed.
If you have any queries about this response, please contact the Correspondence, Reviews
and Ministerial Servicing tea
m at [email address] .
Yours sincerely
Debbie Kay
Manager, Correspondence, Reviews and Ministerial Servicing
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