Ardern Shane: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 February 2007. Volume:637;Page:7709. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the National Party to support the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) in the Committee stage. Basically the National Party is in full agreement with the proposal put forward in this legislation. The purpose of the bill is to strengthen New Zealand’s border security by clarifying the Customs Service border-management role and improving its ability to work cooperatively with other agencies at our border. The bill amends the Customs and Excise Act 1996 to ensure that individuals and items arriving in or departing from New Zealand are unable to slip through border processes without proper scrutiny. 
I do so with some reservations. The reservations are in the area of whether this Government—a Labour Government that is I have to say typical of most socialist Governments around the world—has missed an opportunity. 
Tonight in the Committee stage I particularly want to highlight new section 175C “Seizure and detention of goods suspected to be certain risk goods or evidence of commission of certain offences” inserted by clause 15. It states: “(1) A Customs officer may seize and detain goods or documents that are presented or located in the course of exercising any power of inspection search or examination under this Act if he or she has cause to suspect on reasonable grounds that the goods—(a) are risk goods (within the meaning of the Biosecurity Act 1993) for which no biosecurity clearance has been given under that Act;”. It is that point that I think this Government could have taken full advantage of but once again it has failed to do so. 
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence. People regularly come to me as an Opposition spokesman from within these organisations and state that there is a massive advance in technology around the world particularly—but not just—in the US as a result of attempts to not only stop drug trafficking but also eliminate terrorist acts. The opportunity provided by that technology is being missed. There are pieces of equipment that have the ability to detect biomass down to the size of a matchstick. The reason why New Zealand does not have that is not because of cost and not because the equipment is expensive but because we do not have the personnel to then inspect that biomass once it has been detected. Given that we have had 229 new biosecurity incursions in the last 5 years clearly there is an opportunity here for more synergy between the Customs Service and Biosecurity New Zealand in that regard. 
In the second reading of this bill the very honourable member Dianne Yates—who is sitting in the House tonight and I welcome her back here—said that there were no extra taxes in this bill and that I should read it. Well when I made the comments that triggered her response I had. If the member believes that that is the case I suspect that she has not seen in the index of rates and excise duty on alcohol and tobacco the ability now to inflation-proof that tax based on the consumer price index adjustment every year and that she has not seen the provision which I think was very good work on the part of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee where the increase in taxation has been harmonised with the excise duty. 
I say to the member that she should go back to some of her constituents—good Labour-voting people who enjoy having the odd tipple or the odd dram here and there or the odd wee drink—and ask them whether they think that is fair. I bet they do not know that tonight we are passing legislation without any reference back to Parliament that will automatically increase the tax on the little bit of enjoyment left in their lives. So I ask her to look at that. 
I also bring to the Committee’s attention the ability under this legislation to increase surveillance in the area of importation of drugs or of the components that make up methamphetamine and other such P drugs which have become almost an epidemic in this country. The increase in that area has been my notes tell me sixteenfold in recent times and that is an indictment also on this Government.