Shearer David: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3893. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert):That was an excellent speech—an excellent speech. This is a tax. We know it is a tax. Government members might pronounce it “levy” but it is spelt t-a-x—tax. That is what it is that is what the Oxford Dictionary says it is and that is what it really is. Why does the Government not just front up and admit it? The reason it does not want to front up and admit it is that at the last election the National Party promised not to put up taxes. It also promised to get us back into surplus. The whole murky tangle of web is all around this. This is about trying to narrow down the deficit by putting through these sneaky taxes and cutting our KiwiSaver kick-start contribution. Those are the things that we see so transparently that the Government is doing in order to get us back into surplus. The National Party said no new taxes; this is a tax.Why is it that we are sitting here on Saturday night putting through a bill under urgency when there is nothing on the Order Paper? The Order Paper is empty. In a few weeks’ time Gerry Brownlee will stand up at the beginning of Parliament and say: “There is nothing to do today.” because there actually is not very much to do. Why are we sitting here under urgency? The only reason is that we do not want to give New Zealanders the opportunity to sit down and debate this. Why would New Zealanders want to be coming in front of a select committee? Because they would point out to the Government in front of the media day after day after day that this is a tax. It is not a levy; it is a tax.There is no secret as to why this Government needs to lift its game when it comes to biosecurity—not if you live in the Mt Albert electorate which I live in. It is currently infested with Queensland fruit fly. Maybe some of the money that it raises can be used to compensate the fruitgrowers and the shopkeepers in my electorate because they have suffered by most calculations of the supermarkets there 50 percent in terms of lost revenue from the sale of fruit and vegetables. They have been infested because this Government has taken its eye off biosecurity. There is nothing more important to the economy of this country than biosecurity. Steffan Browning said it before and I totally agree with him but he got his numbers a little wrong. It was 91 front-line staff who were cut in 2009—91. We stopped X-raying a lot of bags. We cut back on the number of dogs that were checking baggage coming into our airports. And the result is that we have had two outbreaks of Queensland fruit fly and one of them is still alive and active. That is a desperate and wanting policy and that is why this Government has to step up and really put some money behind it.But that is not the end of the problem—that is not the end of the problem. The other part of it which my colleague Rino Tirikatene pointed out is the JBMS. That is a shocker. The JBMS is the Joint Border Management System. It was supposed to revolutionise everything coming into New Zealand. Well it has failed. In 2010 it was on the books costing $75 million. In 2013 it had jumped to $90 million. In 2014 it was up to $104 million and it is still not doing what IBM which is the main contractor said it was going to be able to do. I would like to ask Nicky Wagner when she has a chance later on in the Committee stage to stand up and say: “No we are definitely not taking IBM to court.”—we are not taking IBM to court—because there is a very big rumour around town that IBM is under the gun and is going to be taken to court. This smells and tastes like Novopay and that is another reason why this Government has to bring out another tax—another tax—to try to cover the books.This is a disgrace. The biosecurity has let in more pests in the last 2 years than in any other time in our history and the Joint Border Management System and the customs system is falling over and costing this country millions. This is a tax a tax a tax and let us not forget it. Thank you.