Mahuta Nanaia: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Mahuta Nanaia: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:669;Page:16237] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call on the Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I listened very carefully to the Minister of Customs’ speech introducing the bill and tried to figure out what was urgent about it. If it was so urgent we would be doing not only the second reading but we would be completing the final stages of the bill. So one has to wonder what the Government’s underlying agenda is with specific regard to this bill. 
I want to comment also on the fact that for all the bills that have been pushed through under this urgency motion by the officials from the Customs Service being present in the House they have shown their diligence for ensuring that whatever they put their hand to they will do good work on. My comments are regarding the sophisticated nature of the way in which the Customs Service is currently working at the border but also in terms of the backroom functions. So the fact that the Government is continuing to pursue a joint border management system bodes well for an integrated at-border service of all our various agencies. 
There are a number of issues that I want to bring to the attention of the House. In summary they are aspects that I think are improvements. The point was made previously that Labour is happy to support the bill with specific regard to information sharing at the border and the way in which the Customs Service and MAF Biosecurity New Zealand can work better together. I suspect that although it was an omission in previous legislation the opportunity to strengthen information sharing between the Customs Service and MAF Biosecurity will lead to some operational efficiencies that can only improve risk profiling and identifying how at-border services can be conducted better. 
I have a particular question on operational efficiency. New Zealand is in the position of the 100 percent X-raying of for example passenger luggage at airports. If that is to change then it is absolutely necessary that the Customs Service and MAF Biosecurity are sharing information and identifying potential areas of risk in terms of the origins of the passengers. It will require not only border agencies to share information but for them to have a better arrangement with airline companies so that they are sharing their passenger records and more comprehensive risk profiling is able to be conducted. In my small time managing this portfolio we had some vociferous objections from some airline agencies about releasing the records and we went through quite a convoluted process. At the time it was still marginally unresolved. I highlight the point that although information sharing of the border agencies is necessary—absolutely necessary—a comprehensive risk profiling assessment has to include the airlines as well in order to make sure that that information is comprehensively included into an at-border strategy of this nature. 
In the minor amendments I noted about four particular amendments that would be useful to business. Firstly the amendment outlined previously about no excise on domestic biofuel production and clarifying that within the legislation is very helpful. It is much the same type of clarification that exists in the way we treat tobacco for personal consumption with no excise charged for that. I think the issue raised by my colleague Damien O’Connor is a very valid one and in terms of further policy work it could be a useful approach to forecast where the opportunity could be in biofuel production for domestic use in farming operations. I think that is an absolutely valid point and should at some point in this debate at least be responded to or acknowledged. 
The other technical amendment is the enabling of imported goods in multiple shipments to be managed as if they were a single shipment. That will be an improvement to the way in which things are accounted for now and business will welcome that improvement. Another improvement will be allowing for the regulation to define the point at which an export entry is deemed to have been made and providing the specific method for calculating the value of temporarily imported goods at the time of exportation. Those specific amendments I can see are very useful and business will welcome that. With regard to the issue of improving administrative and petty offence provisions for the Customs and Excise Act this legislation gives the chief executive powers to set penalties more in line with the times. I think that that again is a useful enhancement of the legislation. It also updates and modernises the penalty provisions to be in line with offences that are being caused. So those are very useful technical amendments there. 
In my last point I come back to the issue of information sharing at the border because information sharing is as good as the systems we have in place. I am not on the Justice and Electoral Committee and I have not been a part of the financial review but I hope there will continue to be a strong platform to invest in the CusMod computer system that the Customs Service has and also to invest in the interoperability of the Customs Service information technology systems immigration system and the other at-border agency systems so those systems can at least talk to one another. It is one thing to share information but interoperability of information technology systems is where it needs to get to and that will be a real opportunity especially with immigration in the first instance. 
A number of issues were brought up at the Justice and Electoral Committee. Damien highlighted one of them regarding the Minister being amenable to information being shared with for example an airport company. I have a concern about that. I am absolutely supportive of information being shared for the purposes of risk profiling and maintaining security of New Zealand’s interests at the border but if it is for retail or commercial benefits to an airport company I cannot quite see why the Minister would want information shared for that type of outcome. In whose interest is it? It is certainly not in the Minister’s interest to forward the financial or retail opportunities for any airport for that matter. I have raised a concern on that front because it was also highlighted through the submission process. 
The final point on the issue of information sharing is that in the bill there is a provision for the chief executive to review the way information sharing has been implemented after 5 years . That is useful because we know with a service like the Customs Service that we should expect at least every couple of years it will need the Customs and Excise Act to continue to be updated and improved as operational efficiencies arise out of a joint border management system. So we can expect that the review will bring forward only further efficiencies and improvements to the way things are done at the border. Kia ora.