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Speaker 1: The latest Organized Crime Group report. This is the advisor

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Speaker 1: group the government set up is out and it says

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Speaker 1: corruption is getting worse here and in the Pacific, mainly

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Speaker 1: to do with organized crime importing drugs, that sort of thing,

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Speaker 1: but also the fact that some of our trading partners

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Speaker 1: are more corrupt than us and there's a risk there

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Speaker 1: of the rock spreading. Casey Costello, Minister in charge of

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Speaker 1: the group, with me this morning, Minister, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning Ryan.

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Speaker 1: I'm just having a look at some of the examples.

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Speaker 1: There are some bad ones, you know, we've got border

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Speaker 1: agents being compromised and allowing meth to be brought in, etc.

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Speaker 1: But there are only a couple spread over a few years.

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Speaker 2: Is this a.

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Speaker 1: Major problem or is this one we need more data about.

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Speaker 2: No. I think this is a major problem because we're

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Speaker 2: talking about those agents being targeted by organized crime, so

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Speaker 2: as opposed to it being someone who's chosen a different path.

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Speaker 2: This is about organized crime trying to find ways to

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Speaker 2: weaken our borders, weaken our controls and paint our supply chain.

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Speaker 2: And this is why we can't sit on our laurels

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Speaker 2: and think, well, this is something happens in other countries.

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Speaker 2: We need to step up in line with our Five

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Speaker 2: Eyed partners and do more.

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Speaker 1: When you say do more, do what exactly?

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Speaker 2: So this is about you know, if you in the report,

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Speaker 2: it talks about the fact that we are the only

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Speaker 2: Five Eyed partners that doesn't have a natural corruption strategy.

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Speaker 2: Our legislation isn't really fits a purpose when we talk

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Speaker 2: about corruption and our Crimes Act, it's quite a weak

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Speaker 2: phrasing of how we look at corruption in New Zealand

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Speaker 2: always about official capacity. What we need to look at

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Speaker 2: is bring our legislation up to play. And the biggest part,

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Speaker 2: which is all of these reports are talking about, is

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Speaker 2: how our agencies connect up better to strengthen. As we

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Speaker 2: do with our border, we look at how we can

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Speaker 2: strengthen our border to make it stronger. This is about

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Speaker 2: our internal borders, making sure that we are connected, we're

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Speaker 2: working operatively, that all of our agents are sharing information.

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Speaker 1: That all sounds good do you? This is all about

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Speaker 1: organized crime and it's about money, isn't it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if your if you work for customs, it's about money.

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Speaker 1: Do you know which department has the lowest pay of

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Speaker 1: all the departments?

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Speaker 2: No, I don't know, but it's.

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Speaker 1: Not Customs has the lowest average pay. I mean, do

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Speaker 1: you think so If it's not about money, what is

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Speaker 1: it about? Why else would you help you organize crime

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Speaker 1: group if you're.

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Speaker 2: A customs official, Well, it is about money. It is

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Speaker 2: about as it says in the report, it's about familial

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Speaker 2: collection connections. It's about customery connections. We're talking about the

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Speaker 2: reason people drive do things is to help family members out.

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Speaker 2: It's to protect a family member who's got to debt,

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Speaker 2: those sort of things. It's not necessarily about driven from

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Speaker 2: making money also, and that's the part that we have

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Speaker 2: to be really serious, and it's not when we talk

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Speaker 2: about the organized crime component is about little players doing

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Speaker 2: little pieces of work that might not seem like a

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Speaker 2: major thing until it's.

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Speaker 1: Talking next about Minister. Appreciate your time this morning, Thanks

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Speaker 1: for coming on the show Casey Costello who has Customs

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Speaker 1: and associate police but also minister in charge of this

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Speaker 1: group looking into organized crime. For more from Early edition

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Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to News Talks it'd be

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Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.