O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Madam Speaker how exciting is it to have a customs bill in this House? I have waited a very long time for this—as the shadow Minister of Customs I am absolutely delighted. But the nature of parliamentary time means that my speech will either be cut off at 6 past 5 or earlier so we'll have to make the most of it. But can I commend the Minister for bringing this bill here. National will support it to select committee. Obviously the collection of information is vital to the security of the Realm. And first and foremost what customs—and the Minister knows it herself—what the customs team do already is fantastic and I would suggest one of the top operating Government departments and ministries. So thanks to what they are doing there.Because of the issue of time I'll truncate some of my thoughts. Look first and foremost collecting information is a good thing. We will want to see in select committee—and it's picking up some of the Privacy Commissioner's concerns in that at the moment basically the legislation says the chief executive the comptroller can decide what information is or is not collected. On this side we're probably interested in whether or not we have to define that clearly. As the Privacy Commissioner's noted we don't want oversharing of information. As the Minister will know there's already an enormous amount of information collected. The advance passenger name record the advanced passenger processing info—long and short before you get on a plane there's an enormous amount of information about who you are which Customs can use. And I suppose where we're a little bit concerned Minister is not so much about the bill but it is around the New Zealand Traveller Declaration system and how that that operated.And again in the interests of time—the fundamental concern is that it was a whole lot of information being asked of Kiwis it seems to us. Well we do know that very little of it was actually used. So it was in a massive processing—wait sorry actually I'm going to back up the horse and cart. There was a lot of work for people to submit information but it basically went nowhere and it wasn't used. And that's something we just don't want—on this side of the House—to see. If information is going to be collected it has to be used in some way. The Minister touched on usability. She'll know that the traveller declaration—and I understand that the New Zealand Traveller Declaration is not what exactly is being proposed from June next year—was hard for people to use; particularly our older New Zealanders. So we will be very interested in the select committee process to understand what the Government has in mind to design a system that is quick easy intuitive to use and obviously provides your department the information it requires and then to understand how that's going to be used—particularly if the chief executive or the comptroller is going to have that power.We do understand why this is a truncated process. We know that the Government is wanting this to be active by the middle of next year. There is a question; it's probably more just a statement of why it's therefore taken this long to get this piece of legislation to the House. A little bit—I'm not sure if it's Minister disappointment. It would be good to have had it earlier so we didn't have to rush this through. But fundamentally it's a good bill. Again for those at home to understand it's helping us move—Shanan Halbert: He's being so kind today.SIMON O'CONNOR: —actually clearer. Yeah I know I'm in a really good mood today so—take it take it while we can!It is a good bill. It's providing just that little bit more flexibility. The Minister rightly pointed out that the existing customs Act would allow us to make these changes anyway but this does make things just a little bit clearer and importantly brings about that infringement system. Again it will only be a small matter of debate I think—was it still $400 if you bring in a piece of fruit—which I don't encourage people to do but this is suggesting $1000. So whether or not there's an equity between those—is bringing fruit in a higher risk and I would argue yes on a biosecurity level than someone not quite filling a form out? Although I am aware it's a maximum of $1000.But again look fundamentally collecting information is a positive thing. But on this side of the House we want to be absolutely clear on what that information is going to be used for. And again I turn back to that traveller declaration. Having used it a few times myself it did feel just like a massive data collection. It didn't always make a lot of sense. And once we found out through written questions and otherwise—and thanks to the people in Customs who have to answer all my questions; it is gratefully received. We know that a lot of that just didn't get used. I know I'm somewhat repeating myself here but fundamentally we want to have absolute assurances through the select committee process that all information being collected is for an absolute purpose and that it's going to tie in with the passenger name record the advance passenger processing info how that's all going to interact and ultimately that it will bring about the goal which the Minister has indicated which is a much more efficient system at the border because actually we still need to get that border fully open. We want people to be coming back in; we want them to have a very simple near seamless experience. And the final point—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order!SIMON O'CONNOR: Oh I was just about to compliment the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee chair—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The member is welcome to complete his speech after because it's obvious he's passionate about Customs. However this debate is interrupted. I'll resume the Chair after dinner at 7 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.