Choudhary Ashraf: Airports (Cost Recovery for Processing of International Travellers) Bill — Second Reading 
Choudhary Ashraf: Airports (Cost Recovery for Processing of International Travellers) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17737] 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY (Labour) 
: 
 It is a privilege to speak on the Airports (Cost Recovery for Processing of International Travellers) Bill. As has been said before this bill is designed to recover costs and share costs between the Government and travellers. The idea is to ensure that our aviation security biosecurity and customs costs are shared between the Government and travellers. But clearly the issue here is biosecurity. It is not so much the cost but the biosecurity. That is where I have a problem with this Government. I know that the hearts of the members opposite who sit on the Primary Production Committee are in the right place. But the policies the Government is following in relation to biosecurity are questionable particularly when it cuts costs in relation to cutting jobs—54 front-line jobs as my colleague said earlier; they were front-line jobs. 
This Government is always saying that it wants to cut down backroom jobs and bring in more front-line jobs. The 54 jobs that the Government cut were front-line jobs. That does not give a good answer to the question that farmers are asking. This question was often asked by people who were presenting to the Primary Production Committee on various issues. This Government is not serious enough about biosecurity. That has come about because we are quite aware of some of the organisms that are brought into this country. Last year alone 400 organisms came into this country. It is simply not acceptable that we cut corners and we cut the biosecurity staff at our airports and ports particularly with the trade in cars—the number of cars imported is now going up again—and with the Rugby World Cup which is coming up. Clearly thousands of people will be coming here from Australia Europe Asia and Latin America. I personally worry as a scientist because I know that some organisms can get into this country and unbeknown to people they can cause a lot of damage. The recent example of  
Pseudomonas syringae 
 pv.  
Actinidiae  
(Psa) 
in kiwifruit has cost us $75 million already and we do not know how much more it could cost us over time to control something like Psa in our orchards.  
With hindsight we can be very wise but when this Government came in the first thing it did was cut Fast Forward research funding which the previous Government had allocated. A part of that funding was also designed for research into areas like biosecurity. Research is very important for us to determine which dangerous organisms can affect our agriculture. Be it plants animals or our fisheries we have to guard against all those potentially dangerous organisms coming into this country. Despite the Government’s promises that it is looking after biosecurity what it is doing is definitely not in keeping with what it said it would do. 
Labour supports this bill because its intent is very clear. We want to make sure that any new airports opening up have the ability to recover costs. As has been said before the Primary Production Committee agreed that there should be a 2-year cost recovery period. But the important point is that thousands of people will be coming into the country for the Rugby World Cup. A lot of those people may come on routine flights and some of them may come on non-routine flights like charter flights for example. We now have SmartGate working and the concept is very good I agree. It allows us to get in and out of airports very quickly. But as we said at the time we are really worried about potential organisms coming through SmartGate. As my colleague Damien mentioned earlier we know—and we had some information provided by the ministry—that given how many fruits for example are brought in by some of these passengers and some of it is probably not by design— 
Colin King 
: I think it was Pakistan or India. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: Well they come from somewhere. But the point is that sometimes very savvy travellers come into the country and maybe unbeknown to them or unconsciously they bring in some apples or other fruit. That is a worry particularly for those who are very regular travellers. They come through SmartGate. The worry is that unless we have the biosecurity side of things covered we could have problems in this country. Pests like fruit flies Asian bees or stuff like that could come into this country and create real damage. 
The other thing I will say is that the Primary Production Committee heard only three submissions on the bill. I know that my colleague has already said that time was short it was getting close to Christmas and people probably did not have enough time to submit. We received eight submissions and we heard three submissions. I agree with colleagues on the other side of the Chamber that there were submissions from airports there were combined submissions and most of them agreed that there was a concern about food coming into the country and bringing organisms with it. 
Clearly there were other issues such as what costs should be covered what should be the aviation security cost and how long it should take to recover those costs. As has been said we agreed on a 2-year cost recovery period. We think it is appropriate in the circumstances. 
Although this Government promises that it will look after farmers and look after agriculture its deeds clearly show that it is not really interested. It is not interested whether it is agricultural science or biosecurity. This is really a worry when all this freight is coming in and cars are being imported. We have a potential problem with ballast. Those are issues of concern and the fact that 54 jobs were cut in MAF Biosecurity will not be helpful. I just hope that this Government will take note that in a few months’ time thousands of travellers will be coming here and it is about time the Government planned for that. I know that it has no real plans but for the sake of biosecurity it should at least make some plans ahead of time. Maybe it should have more staff trained and ready to be at our airports and ports so they can ensure that we do not have any of those organisms particularly unwanted organisms coming into the country. If that happened it could create a lot of real biosecurity problems. 
As I said this Government is not serious about some of these agricultural issues. I know we will be discussing a number of issues in relation to agriculture bills that are coming forward— 
Colin King 
: And biosecurity. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: —and a biosecurity bill—but it is piecemeal work. This Government never does anything in a considered way. It is always in a piecemeal way. This is a biosecurity bill there will be another biosecurity bill there will be one agriculture bill and then another agriculture bill coming up. The Government is never serious about it. There is no long-term planning or long-term thinking about this. In relation to the economy for example where is the plan? Where are the opportunities for jobs? The Government is looking at now— 
Shane Ardern 
: Watch this space Ashraf. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: I say to Mr Ardern that he knows very well that the number of agricultural students in our agricultural universities is going down.