Do customs redirect staff to ports to deal with the arrival of cruise ships; if so, are those staff repurposed from other ports?

Answer

I am advised that Customs does not routinely redeploy staff between ports to respond to cruise ship arrivals. Customs has developed a seasonal cruise resourcing model that forecasts staffing requirements across all roles based on passenger disembarkation volumes. Under this model, staff from Intelligence and Investigations, Enforcement, Border Operations, and Trade Revenue and Compliance may, on limited occasions, provide supplementary support to Customs’ Maritime officers. This support is confined to Auckland, where the majority of cruise passengers permanently disembark. At regional ports, cruise ship processing is managed by local Customs teams. Staff are only redeployed from other ports when required.