Rich Katherine: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Rich Katherine: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:7056] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: I was very disappointed not to take a call on clause 2 “Commencement”. It was an important clause and it was very disappointing that the National Party had only one speech. Part 1 is also very important because basically it sets out the guts of the changes. It sets out the importance of the processing of unaccompanied goods the duty of the general public to let the ministry know if they see an incursion of some sort and the importance of penalties which are to be expected if members of the public do not do their duty and let the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry know when there are pests or incursions that put our economy at risk. 
I confirm my colleague Lindsay Tisch’s comment that this bill will greatly affect the whole health of the economy. If we get it wrong and something comes in—as we have seen under the management of Marian Hobbs the first Minister for Biosecurity—the effect on the economy could be dire. Members should look at what the painted apple moth has done to Auckland. Ninety million dollars is being spent there to get rid of that moth. Had changes been made at the border and the painted apple moth been caught that money could have gone into health and education. The bill is short but we will take our time debating it as we need to do justice to quite an important subject. 
If we look again at the Government’s track record on biosecurity we have deep deep concerns. Since the 1930s there have been only about 10 major incursions but since this Government took over and handed the reins to Marian Hobbs—it obviously thought this was a very important portfolio—we have seen floods of incursions into this country. As I mentioned earlier there were the yellow flower wasp the kentia palm seed borer two lesser-known but very damaging incursions such as the saltmarsh mosquito—[Interruption] Ian Ewen-Street is giving me the benefit of his knowledge in this area by listing a few others. 
Hon Murray McCully 
: And Clayton Cosgrove 
KATHERINE RICH 
: 
 And Clayton Cosgrove. I have just seen two members from the Opposition parties walk in—two most damaging incursions—one being Murray McCully and the other Rodney Hide. They have seen how important this debate is so have graced the Committee with their presence. I do hope those members take a call. 
Rodney Hide 
: Parekura Horomia. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: 
 Parekura Horomia is mentioned here as coming in in 1999—no that is the banjo frog. He is mentioned as one of the more harmless incursions to be inflicted upon the New Zealand economy but is certainly costing this country a lot of money as we speak. 
In terms of the amendments to Part 1 it is important to talk about some of the changes we are expecting in this bill. I think it is worthwhile talking about changes to the regional pest management strategy—such as how the Government will try to deal with things like the ever-extending varroa bee mite which is causing a shudder in beekeeping circles around the world. We also need to look at the contents of the levy provisions. It is called a levy but it is nothing more than another tax. A Government that said it would not introduce any new taxes has introduced at least 15 in the past 3 years and others are included in this amendment bill. 
 As I have said this bill has nothing to do with biosecurity. It is more to do with bio-risk because we have seen incursion after incursion. Going through the vast number of invaders that have been inflicted on the New Zealand population has certainly been a science lesson for me. It is not surprising given that 5 to 10 percent only of the containers that come into the country are looked at. It is a very unlucky pest that is caught by our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that is for sure. It really has to be an unlucky incursion to be caught at all.