King Colin: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
King Colin: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
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COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 National supports the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) going forward. The needs that this bill deals with have been well spoken about. It deals with the way we find New Zealand today. I take on board not only the comments made in the House this afternoon but also those comments that highlight the risks we face today in a modern New Zealand in a modern world with its idiosyncrasies and variations from yesteryear when we were living a long long way away from our markets and from other nations by virtue of distance. With distance now being so easy to cover in a short time we are confronted with such things as terrorism biosecurity incursions by all manner of means people-smuggling and of course ever-increasing amounts of drug trafficking. So it is very very important that we have the appropriate balance in regard to our customs and excise legislation to empower those people at the coalface to be able to deliver what we expect of them what New Zealanders expect of them and what our trading partners throughout the world expect of a first-class economy. 
It has been reported on previous occasions that New Zealand is a soft touch and a launching post for drug operations and possibly for people-smuggling. I do not know of any reported cases to make me confident that is true but the occurrence of such reports is so regular that we would be naive to take them for granted. This bill is certainly long overdue when we consider what prompted and pre-empted it. Given the events in New York on September 11 it is very much a concern that we have taken as long as this to do something. 
I come from a rural background. I sensed that those people who spoke in the House this afternoon were conscious of the individual traveller. No doubt when we think about customs and excise we think of those sorts of people because they are the people we encounter when we come and go from this country but it is significant that those people also have responsibilities under the Biosecurity Act. That part of the functions of customs and excise is an important aspect of future-proofing our economy. When we consider the trade and tourism now coming out of Asia—and that will only increase—we realise it is significant that some of the concerns for our economy come from that area. This nation is dependent on its land-based industries. If we ever have the problem of foot-and-mouth disease in this country under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry model it would cost our economy something in the region of $10 billion which would substantially affect the living standards of this nation. We are also very concerned about the issues in relation to bovine spongiform encephalopathy which could also affect our economy. There is an ongoing conflict between on the one hand the need of our country to attract tourists and give them a first-class time and on the other hand the need to maintain our platinum level of food safety for the agricultural exports that we distribute throughout the world. There are obvious conflicts there and we hope the bill addresses those. We are putting a tremendous amount of faith in this legislation. 
The bill is highly technical and it will require keen eyes and full attention from whichever select committee it goes to. We do not want to miss this opportunity to do something that brings us up to speed if not to take the opportunity to move us forward and be a leader when it comes to the issues that this bill endeavours to deal with. A point I take from the member across the House there is that with smarter technology comes smarter crooks. It is something we have to be mindful of. Again we have to do our utmost to guard against that. 
Among the issues around this bill is that it is deemed to cut down on the need to present documentation on inward journeys. That is something that really does interest me—that whilst we are continually reinforcing ourselves with a view to protecting ourselves against false documentation and suchlike we also trying to find that balance whereby we can fast-track things and make sure that people do not have to comply with an overload of documentation. 
The issue around the 4 hours I am perfectly comfortable with. I think National would be very very supportive that whatever was done was done with a view to ensuring that we do not allow ourselves to be boxed into a corner by laws such that we cannot expedite whatever necessary actions are required in the event of frontline customs staff being aware that there is a major issue but not being able to do anything about it. There are feelings and fears around the pandemics that will eventually strike us. It is very appropriate that with the powers we have at our disposal through this bill we will do our utmost to retain and isolate those infected people in what is deemed to be the best interests not only of ourselves but also of the infected people whom we consider ourselves to be responsible for. 
The bill goes through a number of things. As a wee nation of 4 million people we have to be quite aware that our responsibilities far outweigh our size. We have equal responsibility for ensuring that we carry out our responsibilities for global security in a very sensible way that we do our utmost to detect terrorist and criminal activity and that we do so in a very very professional manner. 
One point that I feel needs to be fleshed out considerably—and I would encourage the select committee to do so as well—is the way in which customs officials are able under the Biosecurity Act to control and confiscate any goods that are deemed to be a risk. From that point of view it would be very appropriate for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officers also to be able to operate under the Customs and Excise Act. That has not been put forward in the bill in its present state and I would recommend quite strongly that when this bill comes before the select committee it gives due consideration to that. 
When we stop to think about it we realise there is a lot of work to be done. It is a very technical bill and on that basis it is very important that we do not allow this opportunity to slip away. Unauthorised goods would be a far more appropriate title than undeclared biosecurity risk goods because that would cover up the situation whereby the comment is made that something is undeclared or inappropriately documented. There will be opportunities to do that when this bill goes before the select committee. 
Thank you very much Mr Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this bill. I look forward to it progressing and to it coming back to the House to be debated in a far more robust manner.