Turei Metiria: Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
Turei Metiria: Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:855] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party will be supporting this bill through all its stages. We do not often do that for bills that have not first been referred to a select committee but we recognise that this bill is solving a problem that happens from time to time in legislation and it is quite right that Parliament should fix it. 
Biosecurity is a critical aspect of the Greens conservation policy and process and we take it very seriously indeed. In our view any biosecurity strategy must be based on a precautionary approach and must recognise that many pest incursions are irreversible and should therefore promote the lowest practical risk approach to the way biosecurity is managed. We need only consider the didymo incursion to understand that it is not good enough to take time over these incursions when they occur. Didymo was found in the Lower Waiau and Mararoa rivers in Southland in October of 2004 and although I think that Biosecurity New Zealand did some good work on this issue it is not good enough to wait until the problem gets bigger before serious and severe measures are put in place. For example the research on how to kill didymo should have begun immediately after it was found not a year later because in September 2005 didymo was found in the Tasman district in the upper reaches of the Buller River in the Otago region in the Hawea Upper Clutha and Von rivers and in additional rivers in Southland the Oreti and the Upper Waiau. Of course the whole of the South Island is a controlled area and it is not good enough that we allowed this to happen. 
I do not think and the Greens do not think that the extreme dependence of our biosecurity measures on the education of New Zealanders and on individual responsibility will work effectively. It is not the best strategy. But it must be said that if New Zealanders do truly appreciate their environment and do hold it in the esteem that we frequently say we do then we should all take more responsibility for the impact that our actions have on the environment and on the biosecurity risks that our behaviour imposes. The Greens believe that from the outset all possible restrictions must be used to prevent the introduction and spread of biosecurity risks. Biosecurity processes must consider the harmful effects of toxins on human and non-target species and ensure that chemicals are used only as a last resort. The National Party suggested that somehow all the rivers in the South Island should suffer some form of chemical blasting with chlorine. That would kill everything in an effort to get rid of potentially this one little thing. [ 
Interruption 
] It was an insane suggestion clearly made by people who have no concept of what it means to be environmentally responsible and I am so pleased that nobody has taken that suggestion the least bit seriously. Instead people have recognised it as being ridiculously stupid as it was. 
We would like to see the Biosecurity Act include as part of its purpose the need to protect New Zealand from pest diseases and from GE organisms. We would like regional councils to be required to develop pest management strategies that cover both public and private land and we believe we should encourage the preparation of pest management strategies that are ecosystem based as well as species based. There is no point in trying to attack individual species if we do not take an ecosystem approach and that in fact is increasingly a part of the policy development process for conservation in general. We would like to see it included more in biosecurity and of course there must be consideration of the cumulative impacts of biodiversity associated with imports. 
Importers must have and take a greater level of responsibility for the biosecurity risks they pose. We would like to see increased funding for implementing biosecurity risk assessments and invasion response measures supported through a levy on importers and people arriving at our borders. We believe that importers should be required to pay the full cost of eradication when negligence or non-compliance has been demonstrated by them. We need to enhance our ability to prevent exotic species from entering New Zealand and our ability to respond to any incursions that do occur. We have to continue with public education. We should be looking more seriously at the offshore inspection of containers at increasing staff training and providing staff with the technology they need to do the job they want to do and at making sure there is an emergency response fund that is well supported so that it can be effective. We also need to begin permanent pest surveillance programmes in and around all ports. We need risk assessments for exotic organisms to consider their potential impacts on indigenous species and ecosystems and on rural and urban environments in addition to those on primary production and human health. 
This is a significant issue for the whole country. If we do not impose severe and costly penalties on importers who through negligence or non-compliance put our country at risk New Zealand will be seen as too soft on these issues and the cost to our environment our economy and our people will be extreme. We have only one little country and we have to protect it as best we can. We must give equal importance to biosecurity threats to the marine environment as we do to the terrestrial environment. We need much more caution and more stringent measures for marine biosecurity threats. We must take more seriously the risk that pollution for example imposes on our marine life. We have an exceptional abundance of marine life and ecosystems in our seas. Research is being undertaken in the Sounds to look at the medicinal properties of marine life that were hitherto unknown to us. 
 One of the major threats for example to the Hector’s and Maui dolphins after gill-nets is pollution of their habitats by toxins flowing into the sea from rivers the dumping of sewage into the sea and the dumping of wastes from dredging and seabed prospecting and mining. Biosecurity forms one part of the protection measures we can take to ensure that our endangered and critically endangered species are protected and that we do not continue to lose species in this country. If we do not take biosecurity issues extremely seriously and impose severe and mandatory controls and penalties we risk a huge amount in our country. So in terms of this bill we are very pleased that the legislative lacuna will be filled but it is only a small part of what needs to be done to truly protect our beautiful country.