Sio William: Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 20 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16943. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere):I am really excited—thrilled in fact—to be speaking on this legislation. This is perhaps the sexiest and most exciting legislation to come before the House this week—the Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill and the Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill. I think every MP in this House should be given an opportunity to speak on legislation such as this. The Joint Border Management System is an idea conceived when Labour was in Government. Joint border management will bring about more efficient transactions enhancing tourism and facilitating overseas trade. The sophisticated computer software will enable our border agencies to identify and link people and goods moving between our borders. A Trade Single Window will be a hub for exchanging information electronically about importers exporters and travellers between all border agencies.Facilitating better coordination of people—importers exporters and travellers—or goods that leave or arrive at our borders is an important element in creating a more productive economy. This facilitation process for border transactions is a crucial element in Labour’s vision to give New Zealand an economic upgrade. The Joint Border Management System and the Trade Single Window are important ingredients as Labour works to give New Zealand an economic upgrade to a high-value economy that will support better jobs and higher incomes. New Zealand needs an economic upgrade because our economy has been running on old software. Labour wants better jobs and higher wages for all New Zealanders and the Joint Border Management System and the Trade Single Window are two important ingredients that can help us achieve that.But we have got to make the point that the Government must give us assurances and confidence and must give the public of New Zealand assurances and confidence that the continued underfunding of our biosecurity—the monitoring and clearance—must not put our borders at risk. We need to ensure that our borders have the appropriate funding to keep them secure. National needs to make sure that the Customs Service’s IT systems do not result in ridiculous debacles on the front line of our border similar to the debacles we have seen under this Government with ACC and Novopay. National also needs to ensure that New Zealanders’ information is protected when these information technology systems are sharing data between agencies and between other businesses.It all seems really easy and uncomplicated but where there has generally been a let-down when we see new IT systems being put in place is the incompetence—and I am reluctant to say this—but so far the experience that we have seen and the experience that New Zealanders have seen is the incompetence of Ministers and again it is the examples of Novopay and ACC. Labour substantially boosted New Zealand’s border security capacity. Scientific and operational systems were changed to more effectively investigate eradicate or manage biological threats. Labour set up Biosecurity New Zealand to coordinate the agencies that manage and protect our country against these threats. We developed a comprehensive biosecurity strategy applied to all of New Zealand’s environments—land fresh water and marine—and to both indigenous and introduced flora and fauna.I want to then conclude with the two main concerns and again I want to say that it is the Government’s challenge and we put that challenge on the table. It needs to be giving confidence to this House and to all New Zealanders that it is working to ensure that there is no stuff-up with the information and communications technology—with the Joint Border Management System as well as the Trade Single Window. It is disturbing to hear previous speakers on this legislation say that there is a scrap between the Customs Service and the information and communications technology provider. Another point I want to raise is that my colleague Damien O’Connor found that although funding for border systems—and that no doubt includes the Joint Border Management System—has increased Budget documents also show that funding for border biosecurity has been cut by $6 million.Bills read a third time.