Andersen VirginiaVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): It is a privilege to speak on the Customs and Excise Bill a bill that enables the New Zealand Customs Service to respond to the ever-changing border and environment that we now operate in. I'd have to say that one of the interesting things for me is I actually worked on this bill as an official within the New Zealand Police and got to see the close coordination happening between a range of Government agencies.A large part of this piece of legislation is about information sharing and we've heard a lot of that already this evening. A big part in terms of information sharing is always striking a balance between increasing the ability of having a joined-up Government of not wasting time of Government agencies putting paper back and forwards and of quickly being able to share information that's appropriate and efficient and works well in Government. We also need to be balancing that with the privacy and the rights of individuals and we've heard already how the role of the select committee in the development of this legislation has provided a valuable insight into making sure that balance is appropriate.So what does this bill do in terms of information sharing? It continues to provide in areas such as the Inland Revenue Department as they have always had access to making sure that there's an information-matching agreement or direct access agreement for the purposes of student loans and for child support. Secondly the Ministry of Social Development has the ability for information sharing for matching information in terms of benefit entitlement or eligibility and recovery of benefit debt in giving mutual assistance. Thirdly the Ministry of Justice is under an information-matching agreement for the purposes of fines enforcement.Now these areas of information sharing have been extended by this piece of legislation to take it further. So now the Ministry of Social Development can facilitate having greater access to customs information for the purposes of verifying benefit entitlement or eligibility and benefit debt recovery. Secondly it can enter into an agreement with a Government agency to facilitate that agency having direct access to customs information for the purposes of sharing agencies to perform its functions particularly the prevention detection investigation prosecution or punishment of offences. This is where I worked on it in terms of New Zealand Police.The other big area that's an interesting development in this space is enabling agencies to enter into agreements for ongoing information-sharing. This is a new thing so there'll be an ongoing ability for information to go from agency to agency. This is the area we have just heard about from Louisa Wall that has had big improvements in terms of having that oversight.While Government departments are always eager to share information to make their life easier—to make their information flows go better—they're not always considering the impacts of the everyday person in their life and this is the valuable role that the select committee process provides in the development of legislation. The select committee has asked for a bigger balance in that space by having those changes publicly notified on the customs website so if there are changes to how those information exchanges are being done then the public have the ability to see those.From having seen the inside of how this bill was developed I would like to acknowledge the role of the New Zealand Customs Service for conducting a significant consultation process to engage in a number of agencies and to make sure that a balance was struck with agencies that have different focuses different priorities different work programmes and different ways of getting their work done. To get consensus across a range of different agencies and develop a bill that fits all of those needs is a commendable piece of work and I wish to acknowledge those officials that put in many weeks and months of work to make this happen. Secondly I'd like to also acknowledge the Ministers who have worked on this bill in the past the Hon Maurice Williamson and also Nicky Wagner and also the important work that our current Minister of Customs Meka Whaitiri continues to do in this space.There are clear benefits of working more closely together. There are clear benefits of protecting our border particularly where I've seen in the role of law enforcement. Methamphetamine is a big problem for New Zealand. Our biggest seizures come from far more cooperation between police and customs and the vast proportion of methamphetamine comes from those interceptions. I note that this piece of legislation expands the ability for controlled deliveries to be conducted by the New Zealand Customs Service—an area in which we need to continue to be watchful that is a growing problem for New Zealand. To be able to expand the ability of controlled deliveries is an important area when we're looking at the ability for Government agencies to work collectively to make sure that we are doing the best job possible to keep New Zealand safe. And again this goes back to the very purpose of the bill: to make sure that the New Zealand Customs Service is fully equipped to be dealing with a changed environment a far more fluid and interactive world where we need to be making sure we have all of our information up and lined up to be able to be giving the best response to the challenges that continually face our borders.I would like to conclude by again acknowledging the great work done by the select committee process. The two sides of good work done by Government officials and an excellent watchful eye through a submissions process conducted by the select committee have resulted in an excellent piece of legislation coming forward to benefit all New Zealanders. I would like to thank all those involved and I commend this bill to the House.Bill read a second time.