SpeechHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you Mr Speaker. The issue that this bill is tackling is a very serious one for our nation no question of that. I speak in this debate having been the last Minister of Customs in the previous National-led Government and it is a fabulous portfolio. I want to pay tribute to the outstanding work of the men and women of the New Zealand Customs Service. It was a great privilege to be their Minister and I saw them tackling this very issue during my time as a Minister when I visited customs facilities around the country. I acknowledge that the Hon Jenny Salesa will have done the same and that will be in part what is motivating her to bring the bill to the House this morning.Of course it's a bit of a revolving door portfolio for the current Government. The Hon Jenny Salesa is already the third Minister to hold the customs portfolio so I imagine the Customs Service are waiting to see who their next Minister will be after the change of Government on 19 September.Hon Member: Tim Macindoe.Hon TIM MACINDOE: I would love it to be to Tim Macindoe. I would really be delighted to pick up the portfolio again. So I do hope that my leader is listening and that I'll have the support of my colleagues.Let me just repeat though that this is a serious issue that is being tackled right at this moment by dedicated professionals working for the Customs Service. I can be pretty confident that somebody working for the service just in the last hour or so has probably detected illicit tobacco coming in because it comes in in the most bizarre ways often very crudely disguised in heat pumps and other appliances in ornaments and all sorts of bizarre packages for the reason as the Minister noted that they just rely on being able to get some of it over the border. A huge amount is detected because our Customs Service people are very good. They are great professionals but you also have to sympathise with them for having the odd fist pump when they detect another of these packages because when they are having to scrutinise huge volumes of packages and other sorts of things coming through the service every so often to realise that they have detected another illegal importation—often it's drugs not necessarily just tobacco. They are doing great work for our nation and in many cases saving lives. The motivation of course for the smugglers to try to get the tobacco into our country is that they can do so at a dirt cheap price. And I don't know because I don't smoke tobacco and I certainly don't try to make contact with illegal smugglers or—Hon Jacqui Dean: How do we know that?Hon TIM MACINDOE: How do we know that? You'll just have to take my word for it the Hon Jacqui Dean but I appreciate that vote of confidence.The point I'm making is that those who are receiving these packets of cigarettes around the country—and there'll be many of them—are knowing that they can buy them for a very cheap price and they probably flick them on making good profit. So it's all about profit on volume. Even if goodness knows 60 percent whatever it might be is forfeited they can still make a profit out of it.So it is a serious issue but it isn't an issue that is going to rebuild our country. It isn't an issue that is going to create jobs and at a time of the greatest fiscal crisis this nation has ever faced it is utterly extraordinary that this is a measure that we are being asked to consider through all its stages because not a single job will be created out of it. Yes some illegal activity may be stopped—although I'm going to be asking some questions of the Minister during the committee of the whole House stage as to how exactly that is going to be achieved.For now I will simply say I welcome the measure. I'm happy to confirm my support for it because I've seen the problem firsthand through the privilege I've had of having been the Minister of Customs. But I am utterly bewildered as to why this measure is being considered under urgency as we should be looking at measures supposedly related to a Budget that is all about rescuing our economy trying to secure job growth trying to save businesses trying to save jobs for people trying to save their livelihoods. This bill does none of those things.