O'Connor Simon; Rurawhe AdrianSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. I'm very pleased to take a call on this third reading of the Customs and Excise Bill. I sort of wear two hats in this space now that I chair the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee so customs fits under that but in recent days I've also taken over spokespersonship for customs. I'll be honest I'm bringing myself up more and more to speed in this space but fortunately I'm relatively familiar with this bill.Can I acknowledge the Minister Meka Whaitiri who has taken her seat as she shepherds this bill to conclusion and I think it was a relatively quick but good summary in her speech of what this bill is about. But if I might I also want to acknowledge the previous Ministers very briefly: Tim Macindoe but particularly the Hon Nicky Wagner who was primarily responsible for this bill and I think has put it into really good shape and into the final shape that it has as I said by Meka Whaitiri been brought to this House.Look I've raised it before and I know there is a quiet calm in the House; there is always a slight disappointment for me that still—you know 100-plus days in—we are dealing with bills from a previous Government. I commend the Labour Government and the coalition for obviously finishing our bills. That's a jolly decent thing to do but I am looking forward to some new legislation coming forward too.Simeon Brown: Keep looking forward for a long time.SIMON O'CONNOR: I'll be looking forward for a long time my honourable colleague Simeon Brown says but you know I'm an optimist at heart.We have always been on this side of the House very committed to supporting customs' work particularly in promoting trade and travel across obviously the likes of Australia and the Pacific but further abroad as well. So I think it's of no surprise—as I say Nicky Wagner and others have worked on the bill—that National is supporting this and not only the bill itself but the concept. I know that the Minister will continue to be working in this space of how we continue to make customs and—well trade of course is that of David Parker's—trade to be even more efficient.Look the previous Act was dated 1966 so a lot of the nomenclature a lot of the words are now—well the concepts are out of date. I think it's important for clarity—and that goes for any business and so it's the same if you're in customs freight forwarding and the like—that you clearly understand what the bill is outlining and it's certainly the intention of this bill to make that much much clearer.It's also to try and reflect a much more modern environment and I say that in two respects: first and foremost a recognition that we are in a modern environment. Things now and how they operate in the customs space are very different to what they were 40 or 50 years ago. But really importantly too the mechanisms in this bill will allow customs to evolve and adapt more swiftly and we're seeing that in particular areas where we're moving aspects out of the core legislation and into regulation which will allow us to adapt because—well we know it ourselves as we travel around the world. The way we do things now is different.One of the main things which has attracted people's attention—this is around customs' power to basically look inside your suitcases and in particular around your electronic goods so we're thinking of the likes of cellphones and laptops here. As I understand things in many ways customs already had those powers but it was important in this bill to make that very clear and very definitive. As I say a lot of the more public face of this to the layman rather than the experts in the field—as in those working in customs directly—has been around you know how much customs can look at your laptop or on your cellphone. As I say that's a pretty standard ability but this bill has put effectively a two-tiered function in there. The two tiers are really around the level of suspicion there is around what you may or may not have on those devices and a proportionate response there.As I was saying too the bill has been seen—or sorry the previous Act actually—to be completely correct. The previous and current Act is seen as highly complicated and complex. This is going to tidy it up there. Business is at the heart of what this is trying to achieve making it more friendly for businesses. One of the elements is issuing around the valuation of goods. We're trying to take out the ambiguity in the current processes about actually valuing goods. That'll give some certainty to businesses of what they have to do and if they can declare a provisional value then we're able to look at the customs and the excises required there. It's going to be a process for customs to review these duty assessments. I probably won't try to waste the House's time by going into all the details but the long and the short comes back to making it simpler and clearer so that the businesses will know what's required and customs is able to enact that as well.The Minister talked about the changes to sanctions. That's going to basically introduce a new infringement scheme. It's going to replace a whole lot of previous petty infringements. I think that's a really positive step forward. There's a whole element around the disclosure of information. Again in this customs space but even into the wider intelligence space the information is important and getting quick and timely access to that. I think the introduction of the biometric side when needed is really important. I think that's the really critical takeaway. You're not going to necessarily have any biometric data taken all the time but if it's absolutely needed because someone is basically not presenting the information then that's a really really positive thing there.I think you can hear we're supportive of this bill. Again I commend the Minister for bringing it to the House. I am pleased to see it reaching its third reading relatively early in this year. But a lot of the support from this side comes from the fact that Ministers before have worked very hard on it and again I'd like to acknowledge Nicky Wagner for her stewardship of this. And as all Ministers will know it's that listening and engaging with the sector hearing what they have had to say and then along with officials articulating that into a clear bill. So it's my hope that this will obviously—well I hope—have the unanimous support of the House. We'll see what some of the other parties say. But it'll be good to have this in force to bring that clarity to bear. So with that I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Before I call the next speaker I omitted earlier to say the question is that the motion be agreed to.