Guy Nathan: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3878. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries):I move That the Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill be now read a first time. I move that the Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill be introduced to amend the Biosecurity Act 1993 and the Customs and Excise Act 1996 to create an obligation on arriving and departing air and sea passengers plus crew to pay a border clearance levy. The levy will fund the costs of border processing incurred by the Ministry for Primary Industries and the New Zealand Customs Service and ensure that border services are sustainable going forward.Our border staff work incredibly hard to prevent and stop threats at our border. The success of New Zealand as a trading nation depends on making sure these risks are controlled and managed so our economy can grow and prosper. As our trade and travel links have expanded over recent years not only have the numbers of travellers entering New Zealand increased but also the diversity of those travellers has grown. Today we have more travellers arriving and departing from more locations than ever before and commercial air and cruise operators are continuing to look at opening up new routes to New Zealand. This is good news for New Zealand but it also brings with it an increased risk at our border. Border clearance activities are driven directly by the volumes of travellers arriving at and departing our shores. This has been steadily increasing with international passenger numbers rising by 3.5 percent a year and this trend is set to continue and may even expand.The border clearance levy will help the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Customs Service futureproof border services as it allows the agencies to meet the demand of increasing traveller and also crew numbers. It is obvious that both agencies must be able to manage the growing risk of biosecurity incursions and harm from prohibited goods or persons and be able to put New Zealand on a sustainable platform for the future. We only have to look at recent incursions like the southern saltmarsh mosquito which cost $77 million to deal with over 12 years or didymo which cost $10 million in 2004 and the ongoing costs associated with didymo of around a million dollars a year and the Queensland fruit fly in Grey Lynn this year which is likely to cost around $17 million. This is why we have a multilayered biosecurity system that has continued to be strengthened.The Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill makes important amendments to the Customs and Excise Act 1996 and the Biosecurity Act 1993. Amending these Acts means there will be a consistent approach to consultation implementation and administration of the levy. The Customs and Excise Act did not include a suitable provision to authorise a levy and the Biosecurity Act provides the ability for only a general levy-making provision. The overall effect of the bill is to impose the obligations to pay the levy and to provide that the detailed levy design be set out in levy orders after consultation.The detailed design will include for example when and how the levy is to be paid who is responsible for collecting the levy and the rate of the levy. It is likely that the cost for passengers arriving and departing New Zealand will be around $22 inclusive of GST—around $16 on arrival and up to $6 on departure—but further modelling and consultation with stakeholders and the wider public needs to be completed before the final amount is decided upon. Officials are preparing a discussion document outlining the proposed options which will be released for public feedback in June this year. It is proposed that the levy will take effect from 1 January 2016 and I expect it will be added to the price of tickets purchased on or after this date.The border clearance levy is just that—a levy. It is a payment by a specific group for a specific purpose—in this case border clearance functions and activities carried out in relation to the payers of the levy. Levy funds will go into a memorandum account and will be used only to pay for Ministry for Primary Industries and Customs Service border clearance functions. The fundamental principle behind the introduction of the border clearance levy is that it is fairer that the travellers who generate the need for these border clearance services and who benefit from them contribute to the cost of these activities.Many other countries have a passenger levy in place to cover these costs. At $22 the proposed border clearance levy will be set lower than in most other countries. Australia currently charges around NZ$58 and the UK’s long-haul passenger charge is almost around NZ$150. An additional charge of around $22 is unlikely to stop travellers coming to New Zealand. It is less than 1 percent of a long-haul international airfare which is a very small component of people’s overseas travel costs. Some biosecurity events could have a significant impact on tourism. In the UK during the foot and mouth disease events in 2001 the total tourism revenue dropped by almost £8 billion which if you equate that to today’s Kiwi dollars is around $15 billion.I am proud to bring this bill into the House because I have always said that biosecurity is my No. 1 priority as Minister. The primary industries are the backbone of the New Zealand economy and we must protect them from unwanted pests and diseases. The primary sector makes up around three-quarters of our merchandise exports. It is worth around $35 billion a year. It is the hard work of our farmers growers and fishers that helps us as a Government pay for things like schools roads and hospitals. We are fortunate that our isolation has helped protect us but we must always be vigilant and prepared for new and emerging risks. The introduction of this levy and the injection of almost $27 million from Budget 2015 into biosecurity will further strengthen the overall biosecurity system. It will go towards improving import health standards more detector dogs and more X-ray machines.Also in April this year I announced Biosecurity 2025 a project to refine our biosecurity strategy out for the next 10 years. This will be looking at how we can strengthen the overall biosecurity system to make it resilient in the future from the growing pressures of trade and the increase in tourism numbers as I have already mentioned. This bill is another important step in protecting our borders and I commend it to the House.