Tripling of budget to stop boat people arriving
WELLINGTON: The Government tripled a Budget bid to $33.5 million to stop boat people reaching New Zealand despite Treasury warning there was no evidence the risk of mass arrivals had increased.
The funding boost followed a ‘‘strong steer’’ from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Immigration Minister Iain LeesGalloway, revealed in a tranche of documents released to The New Zealand Herald under the Official Information Act.
The immigration division of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) had originally asked for $11.3 million over four years for ‘‘maritime mass arrival prevention’’, but the bid was boosted in February to $33.5 million following feedback from ministers.
On February 10, Immigration New Zealand head Greg Patchell emailed his MBIE colleagues: ‘‘Given the [redacted] the PM and MoI’s (Minister of Immigration’s) strong steer on ‘not understating Budget 2019 for Mass Arrivals’ we probably need to revisit, forthwith, the current bid.’’
This was followed up by an email the following day from MBIE manager Brent Matthews, who had spoken to Immigration NZ general manager KJ Dillon.
‘‘There seems to be a view high up in political circles that we may be under funding our mass arrivals budget bid and there is a desire for us to up it [redacted],’’ Mr Matthews wrote.
The bid was then hurriedly boosted in the following two weeks, going from two to six extra offshore liaison officers, substantial increases in annual funding to disrupt peoplesmuggling ventures, and additional onshore staff, including six intelligence analysts and a senior investigator.
Mr LeesGalloway signed off on the revised bid, and in the end Budget 2019 set aside $25 million over four years.
Ms Ardern said on Budget Day the money was aimed at stopping boats before they had a chance to depart on their dangerous journeys.
A spokesman for Ms Ardern said this was an area that had been underfunded for years and this year’s Budget bid was an attempt to rectify that.
MBIE referred questions to Mr LeesGalloway, who did not address why a request was made to increase the Budget bid, nor whether there had been any intelligence to suggest New Zealand was more vulnerable as a peoplesmuggling destination.
In a statement, he said peoplesmuggling was of increasing concern both internationally and regionally.
‘‘We discussed a number of options and decided the final bid was best.’’
It was approved despite objections from the Treasury, which said there was no evidence that the risk of boat people reaching New Zealand had increased, or that the current system was inadequate.
MBIE officials responded by saying the funding would plug the gaps in the current system, though details about those gaps were redacted in the documents.
Mr LeesGalloway has defended the funding by saying there was a credible and increasing risk of peoplesmugglers targeting New Zealand, even though no boat people had ever successfully made the journey. — The New Zealand Herald