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Speaker 1: Good afternoon. The final report on how to tackle our

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Speaker 1: organized crime has landed. It says organized crime is now

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Speaker 1: New Zealand's greatest national security threat. We need a dedicated

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Speaker 1: Minister of Organized Crime and implementing anything less than the

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Speaker 1: recommendations in full will not be enough. Steve Simon is

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Speaker 1: the chair of the advisory Group. Hi, Steve, Hey, how

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Speaker 1: do you judge it to be the greatest national security

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Speaker 1: threat that we face?

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Speaker 2: From speaking to senior members of the police and customers

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Speaker 2: and other agencies, talking to them about the size of

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Speaker 2: the threat that we have now, and also by looking

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Speaker 2: at the international experience, whether that's the UK, the Pacific

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Speaker 2: or Australia and seeing eure it could go and get

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Speaker 2: particularly worse. So we see it as both a threat

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Speaker 2: now and potentially getting much worse as a threat for

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Speaker 2: New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Right, I mean I can see it as a health threat,

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Speaker 1: right if you've got drugs being done. I can see

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Speaker 1: it as a crime threat if you've got criminals involved.

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Speaker 1: But how does it come a security three?

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Speaker 2: Because organized crime is effectively affecting every New Zealander, whether

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Speaker 2: it's because our wastewater results have doubled in the last year,

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Speaker 2: so we have the effects of a greater community of

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Speaker 2: people consuming meth andmphetamine and whether that results in myth

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Speaker 2: related violence or in myth related car accidents causing fatalities.

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Speaker 2: Whether it's fraud where one in ten New Zealanders has

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Speaker 2: been a victim of fraud within the last year and

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Speaker 2: that number is growing, and so we're seeing the vulnerability

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Speaker 2: of our community to cyber fraud and the like. Whether

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Speaker 2: it's emerging threats like migrant exploitation, which means that the

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Speaker 2: products we buy, the services we use may be contributing

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Speaker 2: towards migrant exploitation. Whether it's simple things like black market tobacco,

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Speaker 2: people getting the cigarettes getting through the black market at

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Speaker 2: a cheaper price, but New Zealander is bearing the social

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Speaker 2: costs and the health costs that associated with those cigarettes

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Speaker 2: not having paid revenue on.

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Speaker 1: When you go to ministers and you tell them that

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Speaker 1: this is your view, do they take you seriously? Can

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Speaker 1: you see that it lands?

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Speaker 2: Yes. I've been pleasantly surprised at how much support there

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Speaker 2: has been at a minister level. It helps that Minister Costello,

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Speaker 2: who was the person driving this, has a background in

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Speaker 2: the police and also did a lot of work in

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Speaker 2: the migrant exploitation space. Obviously, mister Mitchell similarly has been

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Speaker 2: in the police and so they know from the front

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Speaker 2: lines the issues we're talking about and live from the

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Speaker 2: reporting that's been done from their agencies as to how

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Speaker 2: big the threat is, and so that there has been

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Speaker 2: a lot of support. We're just hoping that support will

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Speaker 2: translate into our recommendations being adopted.

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Speaker 1: Do we really need another minister though? Could we not

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Speaker 1: leave this with the police minister?

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Speaker 2: We could? I guess my point would be, at the moment,

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Speaker 2: our response organized crime has split over some thirteen different agencies,

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Speaker 2: and so what we have at the moment is thirteen

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Speaker 2: different agencies and arguably more being involved in that response.

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Speaker 2: What we have as a police Minister and a police

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Speaker 2: commissioner who are dealing with a wide variety of work already,

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Speaker 2: so whether that's domestic violence, shoplifting, meth related harm, all

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Speaker 2: of those things falling within the ambit of police. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: organized crime is a big component of that. But what

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Speaker 2: we need is someone who can pull together the work

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Speaker 2: the police are doing, customs are doing, the ia MPI,

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Speaker 2: all these other agencies, but also tie in the private

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Speaker 2: world and the communities to be part of one global

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Speaker 2: well sorry, one complete response to organized crime. We need

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Speaker 2: that accountability so the public can know who is taking charge,

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Speaker 2: who is responsible for our for responding to organized crime.

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Speaker 2: Point to them and be able to say, look, we're

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Speaker 2: holding your accountable and for them to also hold all

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Speaker 2: these agencies to account as well.

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Speaker 1: Steve, Thanks very much for you time appreciated. Steve Simon,

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Speaker 1: Chair of the Ministerial Advisor Group on Organized Crime.

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