Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a real pleasure to speak on this bill. Like those before me I'd like to congratulate colleague Steph Lewis for bringing the bill to this point and also acknowledge another colleague the Hon Kiritapu Allan for her role in making this bill happen.I didn't sit on the select committee that heard the submissions but I do understand the real significance of the primary industries to our economy and so making sure that we've got effective biosecurity systems in place. I think as a country we've got real natural advantages because we don't have many of the pests and diseases that other countries have. That puts our growers and our farmers at a distinct advantage gives it that competitive edge in the international markets because they're not having to manage a lot of the other conditions and pests that people have to overseas. As a child I spent a couple of years overseas in a country where they did have significant issues with fruit flies. We'd often go to the markets and you learnt very very quickly that you needed to check the fruit especially if it's gone a bit brown for fruit flies before you actually bit into your banana or your apple otherwise you would regret it.I think many people coming to New Zealand for the first time may not fully understand our unique situation and the fact that we don't have many of those pests that there are overseas and so may not actually understand the need for many of those biosecurity measures. I think it's very easy for somebody just not thinking to have that apple in their bag and then not quite understand why they need to declare it—get it back to the motel or somewhere else find it's a bit brown and throw it in the rubbish. Then it ends up in the landfill where potentially the fruit fly larvae emerge.Looking at 2019 they found 11 Queensland fruit flies in Auckland. What that cost to actually eradicate that outbreak was $12 million. What they needed to do there was they had over 2000 traps being deployed across Auckland they had to put out about over 1000 biosecurity disposable bins around the city 1.5 tonnes of fruit chopped to look for the larvae and they basically had to restrict fruit and vegetable movements. The issue was that if that was not successful the cost would have been so much higher. So every layer of protection that we've got—whether that's pre-border at the border after the border—is incredibly important to make sure that our country's protected from imported pests and diseases.So what this bill does—it's a relatively short bill but it's relatively important one. Even though the select committee recommended a whole range of very detailed changes the essential element of the bill remained intact. That was making sure that information is provided to people coming into New Zealand right at the point where they need it the most.Just going through some of the changes that the select committee made—and many of them really just related to the practicality around the implementation. The first one was the commencement. When the bill was introduced commencement was from the day after Royal assent. As a select committee they recommended that that should actually be delayed and the commencement should be made by Order in Council or no later than 12 months after Royal assent. That was to give time for officials to work with the airline industry with the cruise line industry and to make sure that they had all the technical aspects in place so all the information required in this bill could be delivered.Some of the other changes looked at narrowing the scope of the bill a little bit. So basically thinking about somebody coming in on an aircraft and the bill as introduced suggested that everybody on that aircraft needed to be provided with information whereas the select committee recommended that that got narrowed down so that it was only passengers because the crew would be really really familiar with the rules of what they could bring in.Similarly thinking about the craft coming in narrowing that down to commercial passenger craft with 20 or more passengers. So what that did is it meant that a range of small crafts could then be excluded from that. Things like air ambulances fishing vessels and the defence force aircraft because they'd be very familiar with the biosecurity rules—so making sure that it really was only focusing where that needed to be focused.One of the other core changes made was the reflection that the financial penalties in the bill as introduced were actually disproportionate to what we were trying to achieve. What the recommendation was was maintaining that strict liability offence but reducing the penalty down to $1000 for an individual and up to $5000 for a body corporate to make it more proportional to the fact that somebody hadn't provided that biosecurity information.Just coming back the essence of the bill is to make sure that what we're getting is the information that people need right in front of them at the very point when they need it. Coming back to why this is important I think just having a look tonight I didn't have the pleasure of listening to the submitters but I did take some time to go through and read some of the submissions.I think the one from Horticulture New Zealand highlights what's at stake here. In their submission they said basically The horticulture industry is valued at $6.73 billion" and that's "$4.55 billion in exports annually."—so a huge contribution to our economy. "Employs over 60000 people occupies 80000 ha of land" and thinking about the crucial impact it has in terms of regional development. They also highlighted in their submission that "New Zealand growers supply the majority of fresh and processed fruit and vegetables to the domestic [market] as well as exporting … overseas." So this is basically about food security and making sure that our producers and growers can produce high-quality food without additional cost. In their submission they said "Biosecurity is essential to support production secure market access and provide confidence for investment—all critical to ensure the horticulture industry continues to prosper." So incredibly important for many many regions around the country.Similarly Federated Farmers in their submission actually noted how easy it was for somebody to find themselves in breach of the biosecurity measures inadvertently. Basically they said they'd received anecdotes from another members finding themselves in that situation. Just reading one of their quotes from the submission "Our members are fully alive to the importance of biosecurity and the impact this could have on their growing and farming operations. Our members note that it is all too easy for passengers to forget the piece of fruit they were given on the aircraft and only be reminded once they were in front of New Zealand border staff."What we're doing here is we're protecting our farming communities we're protecting our horticulture industry from the incursions from pests and disease. Certainly thinking through while this is only a small aspect that we're strengthening here what we learnt in the health system and when we're thinking about how we protect from risks with accidents potentially occurring it's about a multi-layer approach where you put one barrier and prevention followed by another followed by another so that as a system you've got multiple barriers for protection in terms of something getting through.I think what this does is it means that if you're there in the plane and you're basically thinking about "have I got something that I need to declare?" having a video having it clearly explained what our biosecurity rules are and making sure that's consistent in every aircraft and cruise liner that meets this criteria will mean that we've got that added level of protection. What we're protecting here as my colleague Steph Lewis was talking about is our biodiversity as well as our industries and our huge primary industries' export value to our country.I think other things you often forget until you're in the plane thinking "have I been out on farm in another country?" "What are the state of my boots?" "What have I got that I've picked up and might be in the bottom of my bag?"—so making sure that that information is there and that people are reminded. This is an important bill adds an extra layer of protection and I'm very happy to commend it to the House."