Impact of $200 Fines
It is now a year since MAF introduced an instant fine regime at international ports of entry to help enforce compliance with NZ’s biosecurity laws. Statistics to 10 June 2002 show there had been 9,406 instant fines issued by MAF Quarantine Service for failure to declare risk goods at airports across NZ. Of these, 90.4% have been paid, generating about $1,658,200 over the 12 months since the infringement programme started up. A small number – 41 fines amounting to $8,200 – went to court to be settled.
Other Findings
Undeclared seizures dropped from 28% before the infringement programme to 24% in the year since the programme started. Likewise, declared seizures rose from 72% of all seizures to 76% after the same period. Other findings include:
- NZers and Australians have the lowest infringement rates, at 1.7 and 0.99 fines per thousand passengers, respectively;
- passengers of Asian (not SE Asia) and Middle Eastern nationality have the highest infringement rate at 7.5 fines per 1000 passengers, followed by Europeans at 4.8 fines per 1000 passengers, and African nationals at 4.3 fines per 1000 passengers;
- North Americans and Japanese nationals have similar infringement rates at around 3.6 fines per 1000 passengers entering NZ, while passengers from South East Asia, Central and South America and the Pacific Islands have infringement rates close to the average rate of 2.6 per 1000 passengers;
- fruitfly host material makes up 48% of the undeclared risk items and appeared on more than 4200 infringement notices;
- failure to formally declare contaminated equipment (e.g., footwear and tents), meat products, stored food products and bee products made up more than 30% of notices;
- with one exception, fines against age groups have corresponded to the proportion of travellers in each age group, e.g., 23.7% of travellers were in the 25-34 age group and that age group attracted 22.1% of fines; and
- the one exception was the 15-24 age group which, at 13.7% of all inbound travellers, accounted for 17.3% of all fines.
See www.protectnz.org.nz for details of Protect NZ Week |
Contact for Enquiries
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 00 83 33
Fax: +64 4 894 0720
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