Casey Costello: Customs Minister on Ministerial Advisory Group recommending a minister be in charge of organised crime

Organised crime is being described as the number one threat to New Zealand's national security.

The Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime see it as such a significant issue, it's recommending the government should give one minister the responsibility of tackling the problem.

A new report says police and customs regularly encounter drug shipments which were once thought unthinkable. 

Customs Minister Casey Costello told Ryan Bridge she sees merit in the recommendation.

She says it's been done before, in the 80s when the Serious Fraud Office was set up to respond to a specific type of criminal offending.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Casey Costello, his colleague has got an organized crime task
Force and the latest report reckons we need to create
a new ministerial portfolio responsible for fighting it. The report
was out this morning. Casey Costello, Customs Minister, Associate Police
with US Now, Minister, good morning, Hello, minister, can you

(00:21):
hear me? Good morning?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Oh there, we are good to have you on the program. Now.
I've read, We've spoken about these before. I've read all
these reports with great interest, and some of them been
quite good. But this one seems nuts to me. Do
we really need another ministerial portfolio?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, I think what you're highlighting is the position of
the understanding of what organized crime as. We're not talking
about a new minister. We're talking about a minister responsible
for bringing ocasion. We've done it before. We've had the
Border Executive Board was established during COVID, We've had the
COVID earthquake at Canterbury Earthquake, Recovery Authority, the Infrastructure Commission,

(00:57):
the Center of Sexual Violence and Family Violence, where we
put responsible ministers in charge. This is about cohesion and
the challenge that we've got is that we have all
of these agencies doing small about small amounts of things.
It's about ensuring that we understand why this is a
priority because at the end of the day, as you've
seen in the other reports, the cost is being paid

(01:18):
by the most vulnerable communities and the poorest communities are
bearing the biggest brunt. And we need to ensure that
all of the agencies that can impact, effect, reduced to
ter disrupt organized crime have a cohesive response. And that's
what this report is asking for, and it's what they
asked the Ministerial Advisory Group to do is be bold,

(01:38):
be innovative, think about the things that can make us
most effective in this space, and that's what they're going for.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
So we wouldn't see a minister for organized crime specifically,
we would just see a police minister who has an
extra group working under them.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, and this is the part is whether where this
responsibility sits. Is that we have you know, we have
leavers with an eye within the company's office, within customs,
within immigration. All of these agencies have responsibilities to have
an impact in this space. And how do we make
sure that our response is connected in the cohesive as

(02:14):
the criminals are. Well, that's what we're really asking for.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So you will so, will you recommend to cabinet that
we get that, you know, we should have a new portfolio.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
As you've seen in the report, they want to make
the final report, which will be later this month, as
to how do we bring all of these recommendations together
to have the most impact. And I'll wait for that
final report as to how does this work. This is
just one of the aspects of all of the reports
they put forward and we'll look at that. But I
see this in real merit. We've done it before. I mean,

(02:44):
we've been the eighties. We set up the Serious Fraud
Office to respond to a specific type of criminals. Ending
we've done these things before. Let's look at what the
best solution is.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Has any of the stuff that has been recommended thus
far actually stopped any organized crime.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
We've seen a lot of cohesion coming through. We've we've
had a really good stepping up of the involvement of
ir D. We've done some innovative stuff around our response
in the Pacific with customs and police continue to work effectively.
We've seen a massive step change in the amount of
methamphet I mean, we're recovering, We're starting to see that

(03:22):
wastewater result tracking down. We're definitely not there, but we
are seeing some impacts in this space.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right. Are you with Shane renationalized the gent tailors?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, I mean, of course I'm with Shane. I think
there's some real merit and what we can do. We
need an affordable economy and we need energy as a
huge part of us growing our economy.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
So you're in favor of renationalizing them.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, you know, I think we need some better controls
over it, and that's what that's what we're asking for,
is we need we need to put New Zealantes first
in this space.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
All right, Caseie, appreciate your time. Thanks so much for
being with me. Casey Costello, the minister who's getting these
organized crime reports. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks itt B from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.