Ardern Shane: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Ardern Shane: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7649] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 That was a very good call from Nanaia Mahuta. I rise on behalf of the National Party in support of the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2). Can I say at the outset that a bill like this makes the role of an Opposition spokesman quite difficult in the sense that we are supporting it and of course the Opposition’s role is to oppose expose and then propose. The Queen’s honourable Opposition will endeavour to do that in the course of this debate. 
The legislation was referred to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee on 1 August last year. It was a very good select committee with very good National members on it: my good friend Tim Groser sitting next to me Dr Wayne Mapp John Hayes and of course the Hon Murray McCully. So I know the work of that select committee would have been robust—I can say that with a high degree of certainty. Can I say also that this is good legislation because it harmonises and modernises customs control at our borders with that of our international friends and neighbours around the world. It brings it into line with issues exposed after the 9/11 terrorism attack and the growing problem of terrorism around the world. 
It is very hard to read through a bill like this and find the wrongdoings as it were of a socialist Government. I thank the officials for their obvious guidance and the work they did in helping the Minister to prepare her speech so that we had an accurate ministerial statement and in helping the select committee with their advice. But there are some socialist misdoings in it—let me tell members—and I have to expose them. First of all the poor old hard-working railway worker who is living in Taumarunui the seat of the Minister of Justice—the old engine driver who has retired there and is trying to enjoy in his twilight years a quiet durry on the side while sitting in front of the old railway station—is to have his taxes increased incrementally on that durry every June I understand without any reference back to Parliament. They will be consumer price indexed—up they will go and never mind whether there is justification. It will be the same if he decides to go down to the RSA for a wee dram. The taxes will automatically rise on that at a set time every year. 
I agree with the fact that the Government has harmonised them; there was an issue about that which needed to be addressed in that the excise tax went up at a different time from the consumer price index in terms of inflation. So that is sensible. I understand that that is probably due to some of the good work of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and I congratulate it on that. But the question still remains of why a Government with a $12 billion surplus—or some such figure—needs to have another crack at that poor old former railway engine driver who is living in Taumarunui by banging another automatic tax increase on to him for his wee dram down at the RSA and for his little smoke while he sits on his seat in front of the railway station. 
It is typical of socialist Governments that they always attack those who support them. What this Government does not and cannot understand is that if we look at the voting records from polling booths in Taumarunui which used to be in the Taranaki - King Country electorate we see that over the years those voters overwhelmingly have voted Labour. Let us remember that this seat is described as a true-blue hard-core National seat but if we look at the voting records from Taumarunui polling booths we will find that overwhelmingly the voters have voted Labour. There have been only two exceptions—when the town was in the Taranaki - King Country electorate and yours truly was the local member. On those occasions voters voted for the other side; they voted for the member for Taranaki - King Country in three booths out of five. I welcome the fact that the poor folk of Taumarunui were inflicted with Mr Mark Burton the Minister of Justice as their member because here he is sticking it to them again with more taxes that are totally unnecessary. 
On a more serious note the fact that the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill does harmonise with the international community as I said is a good thing. But here is the other issue—members should listen up. This is the proposed part. Here is the other area where socialist Governments always fail and always miss opportunities when they are given to them. Here was a golden opportunity to increase the synergy between the Customs Service and those doing border control biosecurity Biosecurity New Zealand. Here was a massive opportunity which is obvious to anyone who has looked at the issue for an increase in cross-pollination and cooperation between those two organisations that work at our border. It would give a whole of border protection if you like. Here was an opportunity and the socialists overlooked it. 
The Government has been offered opportunities on many occasions I have been informed to import sophisticated X-ray machinery that would not only detect the increasing amount of drugs that are flowing across our borders—and overwhelming that is the case; I have press releases as recent as today that would back that up and the technology exists—but also help to detect biosecurity incursions of which we have had 229 in the last 5 years. Overwhelmingly that could have happened. But what does this Government do? It says: “No no we don’t want to look at that. Those are two separate Government departments and they have to stay separate.” There are people involved in those departments who obviously support this Government. Government Ministers and their officials have not taken this opportunity to realise that synergy and that is a tragedy because there was a huge opportunity there. 
So I say to the officials that they should look at this legislation next time it comes up for amendment—which it will because the 1996 Act has already been amended and this is another amending bill so I imagine that it is fast-moving legislation as it were because of technology. Next time the officials have an opportunity to look at this legislation—it certainly will not be under this Government; it will be under a National Government—they should look very closely at in particular some of the sophisticated American equipment that has been designed post-9/11 to detect biosecurity and customs risk items and bring the two together at our borders. We have here a lost opportunity. Section 175C “Seizure and detention of goods suspected to be certain risk goods or evidence of commission of certain offences” substituted by clause 15 is where that provision could have been inserted. I notice that there is a reference to risks with biosecurity goods. The Government has gone part-way; it could have gone a lot further. The question is why it did not take that opportunity. It is the failing of every socialist Government around the world and we have no exception here. 
So I say in closing that overwhelmingly the National Party supports the direction this bill takes. Overwhelmingly we congratulate those on the select committee on bringing back the bill in a form we can support through the House. The officials have done a very good job. Why does the Government have to whenever it can bang in an extra tax even when it is not needed? Why does it not always maximise the opportunities presented to it when it has the chance to do so? That is the problem with socialist Governments. That is the reason why this Government has expired. That is the reason why there will be a change of Government at the next election.