Hayes John: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hayes John: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18516. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I was polite and held back because of the seeking of leave caused by the noise of some members on the floor which did not enable the three people at the top table to hear the vote that was cast.  
I rise again in support of this legislation and I would just like to draw the Committee’s attention to a headline in this morning’s  
Dominion Post 
: 
“Kiwis get half the pay of Aussies in same jobs”. Madam Chairperson you might ask: what is the relevance of this to the legislation before us today? It comes back to a point that I made when I spoke previously. This is common-sense legislation and therefore National is supporting it. If we run this country in a common-sense way with a light bureaucratic touch we will create conditions that will enable us to keep Kiwis in New Zealand and will enable us to help increase people’s pay by cutting their taxes.  
As we think about making this country a better-run place we want to have pragmatism. We want pragmatic Government policies in this country because we want our communities to be well governed. The first part of this legislation helps us to adopt a more pragmatic regime in respect of the forfeiture and seizure regime contained in the Act.  
The second area where we need to cut down bureaucratic overhead costs is underlined in this legislation by allowing the Customs Service management to be flexible about where it locates its staff. Clearly it will keep most of its staff in the bigger centres where there are a lot of craft—both air and sea—coming and going but it also enables the Government to operate good friendly policies by sending staff where it makes sense to small locations as I have said like Houhora or Milford.  
The third element of this legislation is that the Government has to be funded—there is no question about that. Taxes have to be charged. But as a Government we must make the smallest possible impact on our communities—often as in my case in the Wairarapa where people earn quite low incomes. When we take money from their pockets we have an absolute obligation to make sure that that money is well spent. I am comfortable with this legislation because it will help us to do that. I hope we can do that across the whole gamut of legislation in this Parliament not as we have seen in this last period under urgency with the emissions trading scheme the affordable homes legislation which will not make homes any more affordable and the real estate agents’ legislation. Those are bills about theatre not substance. In contrast this bill is about substance not theatre. I absolutely think that it is important that all parties in the Chamber embrace this legislation because it is an example of good legislation. It will help us to run this country better. It will have a smaller impact on the pockets of individuals and provide a far more flexible way of imposing bureaucracy on our communities. I absolutely support this legislation and again commend the Customs Service officials who have helped to prepare it. Thank you. 
Clause 1 agreed to. 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 241 in the name of the Hon Nanaia Mahuta to clause 2 be agreed to.