Street Maryan: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Street Maryan: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4522] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise in support of this bill and I recognise the support of National members conveyed by the previous speaker. I have just a couple of points. Clearly the September 11 event has provoked new requirements in the modern world—new requirements around travel security and protection. To traverse some of those things would be hackneyed and is unnecessary in this House but I do say we have discovered that smarter technology tends to produce smarter crimes which in turn require smarter legislation. I think that this bill is a measured and constructive response to border control issues for New Zealand. We have recently seen improvements in passports for example and a large part of those improvements has been occasioned by those smarter crimes in the forging of fraudulent identities and by people trying to enter this country in other guises. 
I also mention the fact that with the increased protections necessary for the New Zealand community—which is what border protection is all about—comes the need to balance human rights and the right of people to move in a way that is free and without hindrance but is without threat to people in the New Zealand community. So constant vigilance is required as the world situation changes and has changed because this debate is always about balancing provisions for human rights with provisions required for the protection of communities and inhabitants in New Zealand. In fact it is about balancing two sets of human rights. 
I think that this bill has the balance right. There are increased powers—and I will talk about those briefly in a moment. But I think the balance is right and certainly it will be up to the select committee to look at this bill and ensure that the kind of balance in it is a modern balance. We should ensure that we are not simply harking back to one extreme or another that might have characterised the debate in the past where there would have been an excess of emphasis either on individual human rights or on police authority—or in this case on border control authority. 
Because some of the provisions in this bill are modelled on Australian legislation I would just like to give as a bit of an illustration an example of my own experience last weekend on returning from a conference in Malaysia via Australia where I saw provisions that are very similar to those in the bill being applied. I was impressed. Certainly the control over mobile phone usage before getting through border control was enforced. A passenger getting off the flight I was on proceeded to use his mobile phone—I am sure for quite innocent purposes—but he was told quite quickly that he had to cease doing so. 
 The other thing I found of great interest—it was kind of like a field trip I suppose—was that I was randomly selected to be searched for explosives on the way through. I thought I was not somebody who might normally fit the profile; however it was a random test to make sure the process was working. I found the test neither invasive nor very inconvenient and I was interested to see what happened and how the border control personnel in Australia conducted that exercise. At no point did I ever feel that my human rights were being infringed. I thought it was a good process and at the end of it I said to the border control personnel that I had been interested to see how the process worked and how it was conducted. 
The kinds of things provided for in this bill—as the Minister said in her introductory speech—go to the questions of national security national identity the protection of the New Zealand community and the maintenance of New Zealand’s international obligations in line with other countries’ measures. I imagine that a number of submissions will come to the select committee on this bill. I hope that the balance of the bill is maintained in the discussions during the course of the select committee process and I look forward to this measure becoming legislation in due course.