New border security screening coming for Australian permanent residents visiting New Zealand

Wednesday, 20 March 2019

Long planned measures to tighten pre-entry screening would not have covered the Australian man charged over the recent mosque shootings even if they had been in force.

From October people from 60 countries who currently do not need visitor visas – including Australian permanent residents – will have to apply for an electronic travel authority (ETA) and declare any criminal history before departure.

Australian citizens travelling on Australian passports will still have to declare any criminal convictions on arrival cards, but they will not require an ETA.

So even if the ETA system had been in place, it would not have applied to the man charged over the recent mosque shootings that left 50 dead because he is an Australian citizen who was not on any watch lists, and was said to have no criminal convictions.

Immigration New Zealand says an electronic travel authority will strengthen border security and reduce processing times.

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The $21.8 million ETA system was in the works long before Friday's terror attacks and is due to begin processing applications from July, well in advance of them becoming mandatory.

Immigration NZ said the improved pre-entry screening would bring border security in line with international standards, speed up border clearance times, and greatly reduce the number of passengers turned back on arrival.

Immigration director of policy integration and immigration Nick Aldous said about 1 million Australians visit New Zealand each year.

Last year more than 4000 international visitors never made it to the arrivals area because they were banned from boarding flights or turned away at the border.

He estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 of them would be Australian permanent residents and from October 1 they will need an ETA costing $9 for applications done through a mobile phone app or $12 online.

However, both Australian residents and citizens will be exempt from the $35 per head tourism and conservation levy collected via the ETA.

Immigration general manager Stephen Dunstan said prospective visitors denied ETAs – for example if they had serious criminal convictions – could then apply for a visitor visa, which would allow a more in-depth look at individual circumstances.

'A visa officer can weigh the balance, they might have quite pressing reasons to be in New Zealand – it could be a funeral or that sort of thing.'

Dunstan said the ability to risk-assess ETA passengers before they set foot on a plane was a major advantage.

'Currently people coming to New Zealand visa-free, the only time we know they have a criminal history is from the arrival card when they tick that box, so we have to assess it at the border.

The tourism industry has called for introduction of the electronic travel authority to be carefully handled to avoid deterring visitors from coming here.

'We need to get information much sooner so we can vet them properly before they arrive, rather than the person spending a lot of money travelling to New Zealand and we turn them around.'

Last year 1173 passengers were denied entry on arrival, 52 of them Australians.

A further 3000-plus passengers were prevented from boarding aircraft bound for New Zealand, mostly because they had no visa or did not meet entry requirements, and 436 were subject to alerts.

'In a perfect universe if all this works perfectly we should be able to reduce those [turn arounds] to a trickle, and that will allow our border operations to focus on where the risk is and will also take a bit of pressure off the airlines,' Dunstan said.

Airlines can be heavily fined if they ignore 'do not board' directives for passengers, and in 2018 there were 14 infringement notices issued to airlines for failing to meet their obligations.

Development of the technology for handling ETA applications is well advanced and Dunstan is confident it will be ready in time for the planned start date.

He said travellers can take a selfie and the mobile app will automatically download that, together with their passport details and photo, and comparison of that information would help pick up passport fraud.

'We can face-check the photo they have provided and their selfie with any records we already have, and if they match up against a different identity, we know we've got a problem.'

Waikato University academic Dr Joe Burton lectures on international security and he said the ETA system, which is based on similar systems in other countries, was a good move.

But there was no guarantee a pre-authorised visa application process would pick up on security risks.

'The perpetrator of the attacks in Christchurch did not have a criminal record and had not been known to security services in New Zealand or Australia.

'I think there's an acknowledgment on both sides of the Tasman that we need a tighter focus on right wing extremism.'

Burton said a multi-agency approach was needed involving intelligence agencies, police, and local government and maintaining border security was a balancing act.

'I think we need to do as much as we can to protect visa free travel between Australia and New Zealand, recognising our historic links and the regular trans-Tasman travel of our citizens.'

'In widening the net in this way we need to be careful we don't create overly intrusive surveillance processes or regimes, or start to target legitimate political beliefs.'