Faafoi Kris: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:677;Page:465] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 It is nice to see members opposite so happy that I am taking a call on the Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. Can I thank the Minister in the chair the Minister of Customs for his brief synopsis of the bill; it has been some time since it has been before the House and again for his glowing praise of the SmartGate system. You know it is a rare occasion when we talk about SmartGate in the Chamber so it is nice to hear some praise around SmartGate!  
This is a bill that the Opposition is supporting. We think that in this day and age—and we have seen other bills before the House in recent days looking at a time of increased technology and better technology—we should be making sure that we can share information between agencies to make sure that they can do their job more effectively and efficiently. We think especially that in the job and task of policing our borders we should take advantage of the increased technology and make sure that we can keep our international reputation of having a safe and secure border.  
Can I just make the point again that this bill is about the effectiveness— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Let’s talk about border control. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Excuse me Mr Henare? 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Let’s talk about border control. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Border control—someone lets you back in Mr Henare so in terms of data sharing between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Customs Service I am sure you will not pop up on their radar. Effectiveness and efficiency letting our Customs Service agents and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry agents do their job better at the border is what this bill aims to do.  
Can I thank the Minister for responding to concerns that the Labour Opposition had in the previous Parliament around the sharing of information and the privacy of that information. I know that my predecessor in the customs portfolio Su’a William Sio certainly had some concerns when this bill was introduced into the House around the provision for privacy and it is good to see some changes have been made. One for instance is that the Privacy Commissioner will look at this after 5 years to see whether the level of information or type of information that is being shared between these border policing agencies is appropriate. Can I also say that it is great that we are looking at making sure we can be more effective and efficient at the border.  
But we must also have suitable and adequate resources at the border to make sure that we can effect some of the intelligence and some of the efficiencies that we can get from these new systems. Some of the noises made recently from the National Government around its move to scale back numbers in the Public Service are a concern when we are spending a significant amount of money to increase intelligence and maybe the Minister in the chair might be able to clarify that. In the first instance it was thought that the system was going to cost about $75 million and there was some suggestion that it might rise to around $200 million. Maybe the Minister in the chair might be able to clarify that.  
But going back to my earlier point it is a concern around the noises that have been made by National—[ 
Interruption 
] Yes some of them may not have eaten; they are getting a bit ratty. It is a concern around some of the noises that have been made by the National Party in terms of cutting the Public Service as to whether we will be able to take advantage of some of the efficiencies that come from information sharing and may come from this bill. We do have serious concerns around the level of resourcing especially when this is a party in Government that said in 2008 that it would cap and not cut the Public Service then over 2000 jobs went missing over the last term of Government. So we do have serious concerns around the ability of the Government to implement some of the efficiencies and the effectiveness that we may benefit from from this bill and the investment in better technology if we do not have the people on the ground the people at our borders to make sure that we can benefit from the move that is in this bill.  
Also it was good to see some changes around the regulation-making powers that the Minister may have. It is good to see that he is going to have to consult with the agencies concerned in this information-sharing exercise before he expands the amount or the type of information that these agencies can share. Also there is a provision within this bill to make sure that again the Privacy Commissioner is—