Prosser Richard: Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeProsser Richard: Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 20 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16939. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RICHARD PROSSER (NZ First):I am pleased to rise and take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the third reading of the two bills we currently have before us the Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill and the Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill. These two bills have been divided from the Border Processing (Trade Single Window and Duties) Bill which we have been debating.New Zealand First has supported these bills—the singular bill as it was—through all stages of the parliamentary processes thus far albeit we have had reservations in so far as this Government’s biosecurity agenda is concerned. We have raised these concerns as I alluded to in the previous debate during the Committee of the whole House. We were encouraged by the Government’s signalling that it intended to split the bill into two bills which we are now addressing. The greater part of the Customs and Excise (Border Processing—Trade Single Window and Duties) Amendment Bill deals of course with the Joint Border Management System which is being developed by the New Zealand Customs Service and the Ministry for Primary Industries.The Customs Service’s website says of the Joint Border Management System: “JBMS will enable smarter swifter border processing for goods passing in and out of New Zealand. The first stage of JBMS includes Trade Single Window (TSW) which will ultimately let exporters importers and others in the cargo industry send all shipment details electronically to one place rather than separately to several government agencies. This involves replacing the current cargo and craft reporting messages such as import and export entries with new messages that contain the information each of the agencies need. These new messages are based on version 3 of the World Customs Organization’s international trade data model so are called WCO3.” This we believe is a good thing.The part of the bill that deals with the Joint Border Management System is Part 11 inserted by clause 16. It establishes amongst under things how the Joint Border Management System is to be accessed and utilised what information will be required by it and how the form of that information will be standardised how regulations pertaining to the operation of it will be set and what enforcement and penalty provisions will apply to its misuse. The lesser part of that bill the first part deals with several other concerns including—strangely enough—the provisions around regulation making with regard to excise duties on motor spirits. I say “strangely” because it is unusual to say the least for any Government much less this one to devote the smallest part of any bill to the matter of how much coin the Crown can give itself reason to extract from the already desperately squeezed citizens of this fair country—in this case the ever-downtrodden and hopelessly overtaxed motorist.But that said it is not this first bill that concerns New Zealand First the most. We are largely in agreement with the provisions of the bill and we regard the Joint Border Management System and indeed the Trade Single Window as being good things. If they work as advertised they will simplify procedures speed processes and reduce costs associated with the importation and exportation of goods into and out of New Zealand and that can be no bad thing. Less bureaucracy is usually better bureaucracy in our view. Rather it is the second of the two divided bills that is of greater interest to New Zealand First and I would posit to the nation as a whole.This second bill the Biosecurity (Border Processing—Trade Single Window) Amendment Bill is of greatest importance because it deals with biosecurity as the title of course suggests. Biosecurity is a drum that New Zealand First will keep on banging as will colleagues on this side of the House. And it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the typically fine contribution from the Hon Damien O’Connor who as all members will know has both great knowledge and deep concern about this matter. He and other colleagues on this side will also continue to bang that same drum. We do this because it is accepted by New Zealand First and other parties on this side that biosecurity is perhaps the single most important issue faced by this country. It is an issue that the National Government does not always appear to appreciate in terms of significance or treat with appropriate priority.Three-quarters of New Zealand’s economy depends on agriculture and a goodly chunk of the rest relies on tourism. Both those industries depend entirely on the protection of plant and animal species from introduced pests and diseases: bacteria viruses bugs insects pathogens contaminants and other nasties that have the potential to take our primary industries out at the knees quicker than you can say “foot-and-mouth”.This National Government on occasion—more often than not in fact—appears to approach the issue of biosecurity in a rather cavalier fashion. At times it is blasé and at times fatalistic and always it seems to us on this side there is consideration given to the dollar outlay ahead of the importance afforded to the utterly imperative requirement to keep the threats out at all costs. So we are tentatively encouraged—as I said during the Committee stage—that this bill has been divided and that biosecurity has been given some separate regard in a manner that appears to be beyond lip-service. We intend to watch developments in this area very closely.It is not yet time to remove the biosecurity boot from the Government’s throat. Fruit flies and mosquitoes and viruses and bacteria do not exist solely in departmental reports and computer models. They exist in shipping containers in second-hand tyres and in used construction machinery imported still dirty from other parts of the world with less stringent procedures than our own. They exist and they can exist in the luggage and hand luggage of visitors from overseas who are allowed to waltz across our borders without so much as a by your leave let alone an X-ray or a sniff from a detector dog simply because they belong to the frequent flyer programme of a foreign airline. It is all well and good having a shiny new whiz-bang Joint Border Management System with lots of flashy acronyms and trendy buzzwords and pretty PowerPoint presentations but the real dangers to this country and our economy exist on the ground in real life where adequate staffing and proper inspections and unrelenting vigilance are still required.So we greet the new regime that these two bills will bring with a measure of guarded optimism. We are as I say tentatively encouraged and we will be watching this space very closely indeed. So in that light and in closing New Zealand First will support these bills and we hope and trust that our cautious endorsement of them will not come back to bite the entire nation. Thank you.