Simmonds PennyPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Speaker. As my colleagues before me have said National supports this bill to select committee the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill which amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to provide for clearer arrival information obligations to help with customs-related border management matters.So we know that technologies are changing and advancing. And of course we want to be in a position to take up the opportunities that that technology brings to make things more streamlined to make the experience better for people coming in and to make our borders more secure.I would like to acknowledge just as we are speaking about this bill the tremendous work that New Zealand's customs staff do. Coming from the agricultural sector I know just how incredibly important their work is.Often when I'm coming through customs they'll be apologetic for stopping us and asking us to take off our shoes and wash them and things. I'm always at pains to say Don't apologise for it. We want you to do this. We want you to be particular. We want you to have a really robust service at our borders." So can I just acknowledge all those New Zealand customs staff who I know get a bit of abuse from time to time but they are doing wonderful work for our country.The uptake of technology—as I've spoken about—is really important but it's also important to make sure that we get that balance between being at the forefront of the use of technology but also making sure that what happens is seamless that we're still providing a friendly experience for those coming through that our security is being maintained. So we have got a number of things that we're flagging that we will want to see satisfied at the select committee stage.Now Customs is looking to replace a paper arrival card. This is just a sign of the times with technology but it's already been touched on by a couple of speakers that there will be people who are uncomfortable or don't feel capable using an online service for this. In fact we don't know yet how that will be presented to them. Will it be days in advance? Will it be using phones? Will it be using kiosks on entry? So we have to be sure that the elderly grandparents coming into the country—having not travelled a lot and not familiar with systems and processes and are not particularly comfortable with online services—still feel that they get a good service when they enter our country.We also need to be very aware of those with disabilities that may find it more difficult using an online service. So I think we need to be very careful.I heard the Minister say in her opening words that there will still be the option of being able to do the paper form but just how difficult is that going to be in practice? Are you going to have to ring and wait for someone to come down to give you the paper form? So I guess working through the actual operational implementation of this is going to be really important.That matter of amending your form—I was thinking often of when you fill out the form and you suddenly remember the chocolates that you packed for aunty or something that you didn't initially declare. So that ability to be able to amend what you've done if you input it at the other airport before you left can you still make changes so that you're not misleading or putting false information in? So there are a number of things that we do want to see just how they would be worked through—how they would be implemented—because it may not be a particularly easy system for a number of people.It's an absolute priority that we get that balance right of keeping our borders secure particularly in the agricultural sector because we absolutely rely on that and we must have those borders kept secure but it's also that balance of being welcoming and friendly to people coming into our country and being an efficient service and making it more reliable for our staff dealing with it.So thank you Madam Speaker. We support the bill to select committee stage."