Chief Customs Officer Janna Binning has been announced by the organisers of Women in Security Awards Aotearoa (WiSAA) 2023-24 as the winner of the ‘Protecting borders, trade, and biosecurity’ category in her role as a liaison officer in the US.
This category recognises a professional who has through their commitment, capability, professionalism, advocacy, innovation, and/or leadership made a significant contribution to the protection of the New Zealand community either at the border or along the routes through which people and goods pass prior to arriving at the border.
Chief Customs Officer Binning joins the winners of seven other categories as a 2023-24 WiSAA recipient. Her Category Winner citation reads:
Customs Technical Specialist Janna Binning is recognised for her successes in identifying risks facing New Zealand’s border. In the first eight months of 2023, Ms Binning supported the USCBP with detecting and preventing more than 500kg of methamphetamine from reaching New Zealand (an estimated 25,000,000 doses).
Ms Binning engaged in real time information sharing with Brazilian colleagues, US-based Immigration staff and the NZCS Integrated Targeting Operations Centre resulting in multiple drug couriers being refused entry into New Zealand.
Over three years, her work directly prevented at least 1,300 kilograms of illicit narcotics entering New Zealand. Additionally, she is an active member of the International Customs Attaché Group and Community in Washington DC, actively supporting New Zealand border security internationally.
Commenting on Chief Customs Officer Binning’s achievement on LinkedIn, the New Zealand Customs Service commented “Janna has provided invaluable support in the intelligence space and is highly regarded and respected by our partners across the United States, Canada and Latin America for her hard work and dedication during her time based in the United States as a liaison.”
“Since commencing her liaison role in September 2020, Janna’s work has directly prevented no less than 1300 kilograms of illicit narcotics entering the New Zealand border. This liaison work is an integral part of our Customs offshore disruption to stop drugs reaching New Zealand or other destinations.”
Chief Customs Officer Binning is one of two New Zealand Customs officers recognised in this year’s awards, with Customs Technical Specialist Tamara Gould awarded Runner-Up in the ‘Countering incivility and violent extremism’ category.
The Women in Security Awards Aotearoa (WiSAA) initiative was established in 2020 to promote the role of women in sectors where they are still significantly under-represented, and to recognise women who are advancing Aotearoa New Zealand’s security, risk and resilience sectors.
Nominees must be women, or identify as women, with more than three years of experience in any occupation within the defence, law enforcement, physical security, personnel security, information security, national security, cybersecurity, investigations, intelligence, risk management, emergency management or resilience domains, and be actively practising either in Aotearoa New Zealand or overseas in the interests of New Zealand’s security.
Nominations for the 2023-24 awards were received from across the government, military, law enforcement, private, and community sectors.
Winners were announced via the Defsec New Zealand website on 05 June. It is anticipated that a call for nominations for the 2024-25 awards will be made in late 2024 with winners to be announced in time to be celebrated on International Women’s Day (08 March) 2025.
