Ardern Shane: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:7746. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 The Biosecurity Amendment Bill came to the Primary Production Committee for consideration and we called for submissions on 22 September this year. We were all surprised that we did not receive any submissions at all. But that demonstrates I think that the general thrust of the bill was well accepted and well expected by the public given the amount of time that National members when in Opposition had spent talking about biosecurity. So there were no great surprises when we came into Government and introduced these changes. 
It was interesting to listen to the Hon Damien O’Connor who I think may have briefly been the Associate Minister for Biosecurity take a swipe at the Government on these changes because after 9 years of a Labour Government we saw no substantial increases in fines no substantial amendments to the Biosecurity Act and no steps forward. It has taken the National Government a very short time to introduce these changes which increase the instant fine from $200 to potentially $400 but that is not set in legislation as it was before. The fine is now able to be adjusted by regulation. 
The Primary Production Committee also considered the view of the Regulations Review Committee when it raised some issues about shifting what is now enshrined in legislation to a regulatory regime. Those issues were valid but these matters are more difficult to lock into legislation when we do not really know what level a fine should be at until we try it and of course we would have to come back to Parliament for further legislative changes if we had not allowed that to happen. 
The second thing that the select committee did was allow for those who go on to a prosecution—those who choose not to pay the instant fine or who are found to have breached biosecurity in a deliberate or intentional way—to face a fine that has been increased from $800 as it was before to $1000 as the previous speaker said. So all in all this is a great move that was necessary given the increase in traffic coming in and out of New Zealand in terms of both tourism and trade but obviously this affects people as opposed to goods. 
There are some unresolved issues in relation to digital imagery that has been sent from Australia in a photographic form. Those issues will have to be resolved before the bill receives its Royal assent so to that end the bill was given an extended period. Normally the Governor-General will have a timely look at when the Royal assent should be given but in this case the period was extended so that the unresolved issues around the property rights involved in the imagery of baggage that will be X-rayed in Australia which will help to speed up the process of passengers coming in and out of New Zealand can be resolved. 
I give members this example. A businessman going to Sydney in the morning with his briefcase and coming back in the afternoon could unintentionally be carrying an apple in his bag with painted apple moth or something like that. That businessman’s briefcase will be X-rayed in Australia and the images will be digitally transferred to New Zealand but the ownership of the digital image is still unresolved. Those things need to be resolved. 
Apart from that this is an excellent bill. The select committee considered it thoroughly and made recommendations to the House that have been accepted. I look forward to the passage of the bill.