Tirikatene Rino: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3789. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am pleased to make a contribution to this Committee stage of the Biosecurity Law Reform Bill. Before I go into talking around Part 1 I will say that biosecurity is critical to our prosperity as a nation. This bill is all about protecting our pa protecting our industries and our livelihoods protecting our brand protecting our resources and protecting our mana. So Labour does support this bill. We have supported it right since its introduction but we do have some reservations over a couple of aspects to the bill particularly around the Government-industry agreements which my colleague Mr O’Connor has touched on. 
I want to just take this opportunity to talk on Supplementary Order Paper 88 which Te Ururoa Flavell has tabled. The proposed amendment is to insert new clause 8A which inserts new section 5A “Principles of Treaty of Waitangi” into the Biosecurity Act. Labour supports this Supplementary Order Paper and the inclusion of this new clause. As we all know the genesis for the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi came out of the Treaty of Waitangi Act its architect Matiu Rata and the Labour Government of those days and it has been central to the whole modern-day era of the past 30 years of Treaty settlements. There is a long line of Treaty jurisprudence around the principles of the Treaty but in terms of its inclusion in this bill it is very important in recognition of Maori iwi and Maori as the tangata whenua and as kaitiaki for our natural resources and the partnership between Maori and the Crown. So we do support the inclusion of this clause. 
It is unequivocal in terms of the wording that “This Act must be interpreted and administered so as to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.” I know Mr Flavell has tabled another Supplementary Order Paper but I believe that it might come under a different part. We will discuss that at a later time. But in terms of Part 1 and new clause 8A we support this Supplementary Order Paper. 
Returning back to the thrust of this bill we do support the measures—for instance the new tools for more effective and efficient border biosecurity placing more duties on importers to take more reasonable steps in terms of their importation and compliance with health standards the modern-day framework for the use of information on risk profiling; and one that was endorsed by my colleague Ms Mackey which she spoke to last evening and that is the expansion of the Biosecurity Act and its application to the exclusive economic zone. So those are commendable measures in the bill. 
I said that it is all about protecting our pa. Having worked with Maori economic interests I know that Maori are significant stakeholders in our primary industries whether it is our agricultural industries our farms our orchards our marine farms fisheries or forestry. In fact the bulk of Maori assets are in the primary sector and therefore our trade and our ongoing viability in those industries are really critical in terms of our biosecurity. We are in terms of the Maori sector very very keen to see boosted protection of our pa. 
That leads me on to the Government-industry agreements. This is an area I know where Labour does have reservations. It is a classic example I guess in terms of the inequity between big industries and very small industries and the resourcing that is required but also the fact that these agreements are between two parties. We are seeing it with the New Zealand pork industry at the moment. It is taking litigation against the Government over the non-recognition of the scientific evidence that the industry is putting forward in opposition to the lowering of the import standards for the some 800 tonnes of pork that comes into our country every week. That is a critical issue for the pork industry and in terms of these Government-industry agreements I think that it is a classic example whereby the industry itself cannot even get the Government to pay recognition to its own scientific work. This is a Kiwi New Zealand industry our pork industry. I think we need to give a lot more consideration to the Government-industry agreement provisions to make sure that there is a greater equity and not too much cost borne. There is a disproportionate cost when the industries are so small when it is a small fledgling emerging export industry. We all know that we want to broaden the base of our exports sector of our tradable sector so I think it would be good to just focus on the Government-industry agreement area and make sure that that is tightly drafted and meets the interests of the industry itself. That really concludes my contribution at this time. Kia ora.