Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour—Rangitata): Thank you Mr Speaker. It is a pleasure to take a call on this bill in the name of Jacqui Dean who I recently had the pleasure of travelling to Canada with. I actually enjoyed just listening to the member's contribution this evening and it's very clear to us—right across the House I think—the member's passion that she has for biodiversity and protecting I guess what you would call our way of life here in New Zealand from potential threats of pests coming across our borders and upsetting our farming our rural sector and our horticultural growers etc.I'd just like to begin my contribution with something that we are probably all familiar with every time we take flight around New Zealand or into New Zealand if you are on a plane that has one of the wee videos that plays. It talks about tiaki. On the video it says Tiaki knew that we don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we only borrow it from our children." And I think that's a really nice way to start off speaking about this bill this evening—Simeon Brown: It's not even a safety video anymore.JO LUXTON: —which I am pleased to say Mr Brown this side of the House will be supporting at least until the select committee stage.What this piece of legislation does is it increases the conviction from $1000 to $2000 for making an erroneous declaration regarding possession of specified goods; it increases the infringement fee from $400 to $1000 for the same offence; and it provides an immigration officer with the power to refuse entry to a temporary entry class visa holder if the person has failed to comply with the requirements of the Biosecurity Act 1993 or if the person has failed to comply with any direction of request made by a biosecurity officer.So I am looking forward to having this piece of legislation come to our select committee. I think right across the House it's fair to say that we are all in support of anything that increases and strengthens our efforts to protect New Zealand and our biosecurity. But we just need to determine whether this bill is the right way to do this.Defending or strengthening biosecurity here in New Zealand is actually a responsibility that's on all of us. It's a responsibility for all of us to ensure that we do our best to protect our farmers and growers particularly here in New Zealand. Now that we have the borders reopening our risk begins to increase further. One of the other things that increases our risk in this space is also our warming climate so that's something that we need to bear in mind as well. As the member mentioned before we are a trading nation and we trade off our clean green and pest-free image. I just want to acknowledge all our farmers and growers who've actually carried us through COVID and who've ensured our export-led economic recovery and we support efforts to increase the protection for our primary sector.We've seen—and the member Jacqui Dean spoke to this very briefly—some of the impacts of what can happen when we have an incursion of certain types. She's talked about myrtle rust as an example. But I just want to touch on M. bovis which the member also mentioned before. You know it certainly has an impact on our economy; there is no doubt about that. I think there's been more than $660 million spent over the last four years fighting M. bovis.But it's actually not just the economic impact that happens when we have an incursion; it's actually the toll it takes on humans. It's on our farmers it's on their families and it's on all those that are perhaps involved in the whole primary sector relating to the type of incursion that has happened.Our farmers—and I'm thinking of our dairy farmers in this particular conversation when I'm talking about M. bovis. The electorate that I represent—Rangitata—Ashburton has been one of the hardest-hit areas in the country with M. bovis.I've seen firsthand the toll that it has taken on our farming community: the angst the tears. When you know that you've got M. bovis on your farm you are milking cows—you're able to milk them until the end of the season—you care for them you look after them like you ordinarily would but you know that when milking finishes they are going to be destroyed. And you have spent years and years and years putting time effort sweat and tears into your herd to get it to the space that you want producing the milk that you want the best that you can.This member's bill actually ties in quite nicely with one of the bills that we heard about from my colleagues earlier tonight which also amends the Biosecurity Act—the member that had that bill: Steph Lewis—whereby it is going to be a requirement that all incoming passengers on certain craft must be shown or displayed a video about what you can and cannot bring into the country.That's a really important piece of legislation that we're seeing coming through the House as well. Again our select committee has worked on that bill and I have to say that when it comes to things like that you know we're a very collegial select committee and we take these things very very seriously.So I see that this piece of legislation—or this member's bill I should say—could potentially be an additional tool that we have in our toolbox alongside the likes of the one that we have had in committee stage around the incoming passengers earlier this evening.When I talked a bit about the economic impact that we have when we have biosecurity incursions I just want to take a moment to talk to the House—when I find my piece of paper that tells me about it—about when we have had things such as the Queensland fruit fly and I just want to run off a few figures. In 2012 when we had to respond to it it cost $1.5 million. In 2014 it was $1.2 million and again in 2014 $1.1 million. In 2015 it was $16.1 million and again in 2016 $1 million. That is a lot of money that it costs to fight to try and eradicate and rid pests from our country.Hon Member: It's a huge challenge.JO LUXTON: It is a huge challenge. I just want to also talk about the fact that we have one of the most beautiful environments here in New Zealand where people love getting outdoors enjoying our bushwalks enjoying our flora our fauna our fishing and everything that we have to offer from a tourism perspective.If we have incursions of certain types all of that is put at risk. You know we risk losing fish we risk losing certain flora and fauna and often those sorts of things are a taonga and specific and native to our country. And we already have several thousand species of flora and fauna that are at risk of extinction. So we need to do everything that we can in order to protect those. So I want to thank the member for bringing this bill before the House. I want to congratulate her for having had her member's bill drawn from the ballot box. Fourth time—according to the member across the House. That's pretty impressive. There's some people that spend all their time—many many years—in this place and never have one bill drawn.So I want to congratulate the member on having her bill drawn a bill that I think is hugely important to us here in New Zealand for us as a trading nation and a country that has some of the most beautiful flora and fauna around the world. I commend this bill to the House."