Yates Dianne: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Yates Dianne: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7651] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour) 
: 
 It is sad that the previous speaker Shane Ardern was not on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee because he has some misunderstandings about the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2). But I thank him for his support for the bill and I thank the Opposition members of the committee who played a very good part in progressing it. I point out to Shane Ardern that there is no new tax—what was changed was the date around a tax. I point that out as a matter of clarification. It would help if the member opposite had read a little more carefully and engaged his eyes before he spoke about something that was not in the bill. 
I thank in general those who are involved in the New Zealand Customs Service. I thank the Minister of Customs Nanaia Mahuta and the chief executive officer and staff of the Customs Service for the tremendous work they have been doing apart from this bill in apprehending all sorts of irregularities in relation to customs. We have seen some tremendous work around drugs and around people trying to get illegal material into this country—everything from false exam qualifications to drugs and to weapons. Recently we heard that stamps are coming into New Zealand. So I thank the Customs Service for the tremendous work it does—it often goes unnoticed and unheralded. The Minister who is a very good Minister understands that she has a very good ministry working for her. As the member has pointed out this bill is not about party politics; this is about “New Zealand Ltd” and this is about keeping our borders secure. 
I will read the introduction to our select committee report to remind people what the bill is about: “The purpose of the bill is to strengthen New Zealand’s border security by clarifying Customs’ border management role and improving the Customs Service’s ability to work cooperatively with other agencies at the border.” I point out to Mr Ardern the last part of that sentence which relates to working with other agencies at the border. “The bill amends the Customs and Excise Act 1996 … to ensure that individuals and items arriving or departing New Zealand are unable to slip through border processes without proper scrutiny. A particular area we examined in our consideration of the bill was that of controls over prohibited exports on the New Zealand Strategic Goods List.” 
The Minister has pointed out the changes to clause 8 that the committee recommended. The changes as has been pointed out are largely technical and I thank the Law Society for its recommendations. The amendments are designed to make the bill more workable and the law more enforceable. There are amendments around dates relating to inconsistencies with other legislation and those amendments will ensure that the law is able to be enforced. One of the interesting things was the definition of “New Zealand”—as has been pointed out by the Minister—and the definition of nautical miles and how the Customs Service can enforce the patrol of New Zealand borders. So there was some discussion about definitions. 
As has also been mentioned we checked the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act as there were some issues about detaining. The members of the committee were asking whether in some cases the Customs Service had asked for sufficient time for its officials to respond to someone who had been detained and they asked whether the officials were able to detain that person long enough to travel to the place where the person was detained. Officials assured us that the amount of time provided for in the bill was sufficient and I think that the committee was quite vigilant in looking through those particular areas. Generally the committee was in agreement and I thank the members of the committee for their cooperation on this bill. 
The bill is not about socialism and it is not about party politics; it is about our country and it is about New Zealand—and I think that Mr Ardern very well knows that. Once again I thank all the committee members the staff who assisted us and those who made submissions. We look forward to the further progress of the bill.