Carter Chris: Border (Customs Excise and Tariff) Processing Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter Chris: Border (Customs Excise and Tariff) Processing Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8224. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand in support of the Border (Customs Excise and Tariff) Processing Bill. I guess it is unusual to have legislation in this House that is supported by both sides of the political divide. As my colleague the Labour Party member for Mangere Su’a William Sio said the genesis of this bill lay in the previous Labour-led Government. I want to take this opportunity to thank you Mr Assistant Speaker in your role as a former Minister of Customs in our Labour-led Government. You were the first person to bring to the customs area a focus on practicality and a common-sense approach to things. I think few New Zealanders realise when they line up at the airport and see a sign saying: “Australian and New Zealand Citizens” that Rick Barker was the person responsible for that. You took Chris Ellison the Australian customs Minister to our airport and you said to him: “Look! We allow Australian citizens to line up with New Zealand citizens to be processed.” and he did the same for Australian airports. That has made travel for New Zealanders to Australia quicker more efficient more effective and a lot easier. I think few New Zealanders know they can thank you for that very practical approach and that was just one example of the approach you took to the customs portfolio. Your successor in the Labour-led Government Nanaia Mahuta and now Maurice Williamson have attempted to bring to customs an efficient practical hands-on approach so that the critical task of border security services—customs immigration and so on—is about finding effective ways to keep our borders safe but at the same time facilitates the movement of people and goods through the border in a way that is practical and helps to create economic efficiencies. 
Labour is supporting this bill. We think SmartGate is a sensible use of technology to improve effective passenger flows. Labour also supports the enhanced ability of customs officers to intercept and to search and to use new technologies to see whether containers have been interfered with. Certainly in policing and indeed in immigration as well containers can provide a vehicle a vector for the importation of drugs. Even on short haul journeys there is the ability for people-smuggling in containers. Having an effective system and an effective use of technologies to be able to check whether containers have been interfered with is very important. 
Another area I would like to focus on is biosecurity. In his first reading speech Maurice Williamson said he was trying to shift resources from the management of passenger flows where people do not pose a risk either to our security or to our immigration services to using resources to intercept in those very critical issues of keeping New Zealand safe particularly from biosecurity and health threats. I think that is very commendable but I ask Maurice Williamson—as I undoubtedly will in the Committee stage—how this seems to be in contradiction to the last Budget that was presented to the House by the new National-led Government where $3.75 million appeared to be cut from border security funding. This is at a time when new technology and the associated expenses are being used for things like SmartGate. My understanding is that about 50 border security staff have lost their jobs. 
This area that Mr Williamson touched on in his speech is so critical to the health and well-being of our country. We are a major food producer in the world. Primary production is critical to the economic well-being of all New Zealanders. Not just rural dwellers but all Kiwis depend on the prosperity and wealth of our country and on the effectiveness viability and safety of our agricultural industries. For 5 years I was privileged to be New Zealand’s Minister of Conservation. A lot of the work on leading the Department of Conservation to protect our natural environment was about the biosecurity of New Zealand. I think only one other country in the world Madagascar has suffered as much impact on its natural environment from introduced pests—animal insect plant bacteria and fungi—as New Zealand has. Only New Zealand and Madagascar have been most impacted on by alien species. There are 90 million possums chewing their way through our forests and millions of stoats devouring our native bird species. Plant species like gorse and broom have colonised our agricultural land and have cost millions for industries to combat. We even have an introduced species of seaweed  
Undaria 
 infesting many of our southern harbours creating costs and threats not only to our unique biodiversity but also for the practical use of those ports. It colonises boats moorings jetties and wharves. These are all costs for the country and they are all about having slack and ineffective security. I remember when I was first elected as an MP we had the painted apple moth incursion in west Auckland. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Last century! 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: It was last century Mr Hughes; that is true. My colleagues from west Auckland like David Cunliffe and Lynne Pillay remember well the concern of our local residents and the millions that our Labour-led Government had to spend in dealing with that incursion. Luckily we were successful because the painted apple moth posed an enormous threat not only to our timber industry but also to our native forests. In more recent times we have had the problem of the varroa bee mite which has devastated the honey bee industry in New Zealand. Earlier than that we had the introduction of about five exotic wasp species which has had a big impact on biodiversity. Those are the things that have happened. 
Today in question time we heard about a cane toad that was found in Queenstown. I think I heard the Minister of Agriculture rebutting the Labour Party spokesperson when he raised concerns about cuts to biosecurity services saying that there had been eight in the time that the Labour Government was in power. I do remember well as Minister of Conservation that a cane toad jumped out of someone’s suitcase in Levin of all places. It again shows that a suitcase had come through our border and inside it—inadvertently I am sure—was a cane toad. It is a rather large species but it still managed to get through a port or more likely an airport. Those are all species that could impact on New Zealand. Of course we also have threats not only to our native environment and our agricultural industries but also to our human health. 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: If it doesn’t have a swipe card it’s not getting through the SmartGate. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I hear the member for Waitakere Paula Bennett ridiculing this speech. Of course she has lived in west Auckland for only a short time so she will not remember the painted apple moth drama but I assure her that people in west Auckland felt very concerned about it. If she actually went to a few more things in the west she might know about that. 
As I said we face threats to human health as well. Rabies a disease that has been eliminated from New Zealand—its vector a canine species—could well be introduced into New Zealand as a result of inappropriate border control. The Asian tiger mosquito has larvae that have already been found in tyres imported from Japan. It is a vector for malaria and other very dangerous pathogens that could infect the human population. 
The saltmarsh mosquito has already been found in the area around Nelson and briefly in the Kaipara area although fortunately not recently. Again that is a vector for dengue fever. These are all threats to human health. Red fire ants have been found in New Zealand. I remember that when I was the Minister of Conservation we discovered at Auckland Airport and in Napier two colonies of red fire ants. They were eliminated but within secure borders that very nasty ant species which is now very widespread around Brisbane could well be introduced into New Zealand. 
I say to the new Minister of Customs in the National-led Government that yes this bill is a good bill. It seeks to do good things. But if the Government cuts back on border security—and we have seen that already in the latest Budget where 50 staff have lost their jobs—then these diseases these pests these risks to human health these risks to our agricultural industry and these risks to our natural environment do pose a real danger. That is what we need to focus on.