Tighter rules are being enforced at customs following James Nolan, a member of the unruly tourist family, skipping the country in January .
Minister of Customs Kris Faafoi today announced new rules that mean if a person is rejected at an eGate, they must be checked face-to-face.
Mr Faafoi released two reports on the eGate system - work commissioned after Mr Nolan left the country while he was a person of interest who should have been stopped at the airport.
He deliberately evaded authorities by using an eGate and a passport that belonged to someone else.
"This should not have happened and I wanted to understand how it had," Mr Faafoi said. "I also wanted to ensure no one else could depart or arrive through an eGate by using another person’s passport."
The reports also identified learning and development training; and resourcing without the Decision Review Tool as areas for improvement. Customs is already implementing several of the improvement actions, with the longer-term actions due for completion in the coming months, Mr Faafoi said.
The reports also identified two issues that required further clarification, which were the level of false accepts and override errors and the circumstances around a similar incident in 2016 when a person of interest departed New Zealand by deliberately using a genuine passport of another person.
"Customs has provided additional information in relation to both these issues and assured me that its systems continue to provide a secure border while providing a positive experience for 14 million arriving and departing passengers each year," Mr Faafoi said.
"No passenger processing system, be it electronic or manual, is entirely immune if a person seeks to deliberately break the law and deceive the processing system. We do need to be sure however that Customs' eGates provide the most accurate processing system, with best practice biometric settings available."
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