Anderton Jim: Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
Anderton Jim: Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:852] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister for Biosecurity) 
: 
 I move  
That the Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 The key provisions of the bill are first that specified ports are treated as having been designated or approved as places of first arrival under the Biosecurity Act 1993 for all kinds of aircraft that is for airports and vessels for seaports from 1 July 1995 for certain specified ports and from 25 May 1998 for certain other specified ports. 
Secondly the biosecurity control areas are confirmed as having been established in these specified ports if biosecurity control area agreements exist. Third the deemed approval of ports and confirmation of biosecurity control areas will not apply to convictions entered or sentences imposed from a certain period of time until the date on which the port approvals were given or the bill is passed whichever is the earlier. Fourth the deemed approval of ports and confirmation of biosecurity control areas will not apply to any court proceedings commenced before the date on which this bill is introduced. 
The bill is needed because when the Biosecurity Act was enacted in 1993 the ports used as a place of first arrival were approved as a transitional measure. The transitional measure ceased on 1 July 1995. Unfortunately at the time the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry failed to approve the ports and consequently the ports were not approved as a place of first arrival after 1995. The 1997 amendment Act enabled an approval to impose a limitation on the type of craft that could enter a port. Consequently the amendment provided transitional approval of certain ports of entry for a period of 6 months. At the end of the 6 months the approvals expired. 
During the 6-month transition period the ports were required to be approved under the amendment Act. However the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry failed to make the necessary approval and consequently the ports were not designated a place of entry under the Act. The ministry—apart from apologising to everybody—is now in the process of issuing new approvals for relevant ports in accordance with the Biosecurity Act. However the ministry’s failure to do this prior to now exposes the Crown to civil action by those who might seek to challenge the actions of ministry staff operating at ports and airports over the intervening period even though of course this was unintended and without malice of any sort. 
The bill is urgently needed to deem retrospectively certain ports to have been approved as places of first arrival. This will effectively eliminate the risk of future civil action being taken against the Crown for those historical oversights. Although clearly undesirable the bill will effectively validate the ministry’s operation of the respective ports and airports in the intervening period only. The bill will not validate the three invalid convictions entered or sentences imposed during the period when the ports were not approved. Convictions will be quashed and affected persons will receive redress. Fortunately those convictions are relatively minor. Any civil proceedings commenced before the bill is introduced will not be affected but thus far as far as I am aware there are no such proceedings. 
The Government proposes that the bill is not referred to a select committee for consideration as it is desirable that the legislation be dealt with expeditiously for obvious reasons. If the bill were referred to a committee there would be a period after introduction and before enactment when persons would be aware of the Crown’s exposure and could take civil action. The passing of this bill through all its stages will remove the opportunity for any person to take civil action because ports were not approved—unintentional as it was—as places of first arrival. I gratefully acknowledge the support and cooperation of other parties in the House in assisting with the introduction of the bill.