Sio William: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sio William: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3794. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 I am so excited to talk about this bill the Biosecurity Law Reform Bill. I am going to confine my comments to new Part 19A in clause 76. But before I do so I want to tell you why I am excited about Part 2 of this particular bill with reference to ballast water. The other day my colleague the Hon Damien O’Connor took us to a dairy farm and he had us stand in front of this big huge open septic tank. There were two or three of them and he said to us: “Now boys have a sniff of that.” So we took deep breaths and then before we knew it the Hon Damien O’Connor said to us: “That’s the smell of money.” I could not believe it at first because I just thought it was the smell of cow poop but I now recognise that the point he was making was the value of our agricultural industry. What I noticed was that they had the cow waste go from one septic tank to the next—there are three or four of them—and at the bottom they then recycle the clean water. What they would normally do is disperse that throughout the farm.  
In terms of this particular bill in regard to ballast water “Ballast water means water with its suspended matter taken on board a ship to control the ship’s trim list draught stability or stresses.” The big question is where that water comes from because if it is water that comes off the final open septic tank then there is going to be concern particularly if it is coming from another country and we may have to ask questions about who owns the water who has the rights to the water that goes on these particular ships. We may even have to have a secret meeting to decide who has the rights to the water that comes from that ship.  
I am particularly pleased because in new section 246B it states: “(1) ballast water may be discharged from a ship only in accordance with the applicable marine protection rules.” I believe that the farmers our aquaculture sector our forest sector and our wine industry are going to be quite excited about this particular bill—all 264 pages of it—because they are going to have to hire employees consultants and other people to try to make sense of what is in this bill. 
 Do not get me wrong. At the end of the day as the Hon Damien O’Connor says we support the bill. But in terms of having the measures that will enable us to hopefully protect and continue to safeguard our borders for the sake of our valuable industry we really cannot have the Government shirk its responsibilities. So I suppose with the farmers who would be listening in to this debate the responsibility still falls on them to hold this Government to account. At the end of the day when Mr Damien O’Connor says with reference to our agricultural sector that that is the smell of money it underlines the fact that we have got a very valuable industry that we have to be protective of. [ 
Interruption 
] At the end of the day I agree that the penalties that have been imposed of $200000—“a fine not exceeding $200000; and … if the offence is a continuing one a further fine not exceeding $10000 …”—send a clear signal. It imposes responsibility on the importers but it still should not allow this Government to shirk its responsibility because ultimately the Government is our representative and has the duty to protect and safeguard our borders. If that does not happen—and we have already seen examples of what has occurred. I will give you just some examples in terms of what has happened. The latest independent report on the  
Pseudomonas syringae 
 pv.  
Actinidiae 
 disease shows it will cost our border— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! I am having difficulty following the member’s logic but this is quite specific. So I ask the member to contain himself to clauses 76 to 78. 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO 
: The point that I am making in terms of the ballast water clauses is that there are serious concerns about ensuring that the ballast water is not released in our shores. I will give you another example. In 1990 a ship by the name of the  
Naomi 
 travelled between the islands of Samoa and American Samoa. Because they did not ensure that there were safeguards and protection on what was carried on that cargo ship—