Davis Kelvin: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — Second Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:675;Page:20649] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 Other members in particular Labour members have traversed the value of our exports to other countries and the importance of the security of those exports. I will read just a few figures here. “New Zealand relies upon primary production more than any other developed country exporting around 80 percent of our primary production produced here each year.” In figures for the year ended March 2009 agriculture and food exports accounted for just under $20 billion horticulture exports $3.2 billion and forestry products exports $3.4 billion which accounted for 64 percent of New Zealand’s total merchandise exports. The combined contribution of agriculture food and beverage forestry and logging to New Zealand’s gross domestic product was 12.5 percent in the year ended March 2008. 
It is vital that we have a biosecurity system that protects those exports and our primary productions. That is why I am astounded to hear yet again that the Government has allowed what Sue Kedgley described as pig AIDS to come into the country. Why on earth would we intentionally introduce a disease that has the potential to affect an industry of ours? I am absolutely bewildered by it. It is an absolute nonsense that that sort of thing can happen. Instead of protecting biosecurity that is in fact jeopardising biosecurity. 
I want to go back just a bit and tell a story about ship ballast. I see that the bill “amends the Maritime Transport Act 1994 to implement the international convention on ballast water.” Where I come from up in the Bay of Islands our river the Taumarere River is inundated with Pacific oysters. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: I will recap the korero before the break. It is no secret how important biosecurity is to protecting our primary production industries. Therefore we need to invest in it.  
Hon Nathan Guy 
: You were talking about ballast before—the ballast story. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: Yes; I say to the member for Otaki that I was just getting on to the ballast story. I was talking about our ancestral river the Taumarere River up there in the Bay of Islands.  
Some 60 or 70 years ago my uncles told me they could walk 4 or 5 miles along the mudflats from the village right up to where the fishing grounds were. They could do that in bare feet as kids in those days were wont to do. However that would now be impossible to achieve because the mudflats are inundated with Pacific oysters. The Pacific oyster industry in the Bay of Islands has benefitted from ballast. However unfortunately the dumping of ballast rocks in water has had an effect on the environment. These days people’s feet would be absolutely cut to ribbons if they tried to walk those 4 or 5 miles that my uncles walked some 60 or so years ago. I do not think even gumboots would last the journey.  
The Taumarere River was quite a busy port many years ago. In fact it was one of the main trading routes from Sydney to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. When ships started come up the river the depth of the water got a bit shallow and they had to dump their ballast and ballast rocks. One can see the ballast rocks on the side of the river. They had oyster spat which has since grown and spread and overtaken the mudflats. So it is good to see that this bill will amend the Maritime Transport Act 1994 to implement the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments so that we do not have that situation happening again. I know that ballast water has been dumped in various ports around the country which has led to various sea creatures settling. I know also—although I cannot remember the report where I read it—that some ports have been taken over by anemones and those types of marine creatures and that MAF Biosecurity New Zealand has basically given up on trying to eradicate them from the ports because they have just gone out of control. 
This bill also amends the scope of the Wild Animal Control Act 1977 so that possums and wallabies may be managed solely under the Biosecurity Act 1993. Just as fate would have it yesterday I had a constituent in my office in Kaikohe who is a possum trapper. He is at his wits’ end trying to deal with a lot of red tape and bureaucracy around the culling of possums. He is a possum trapper; he poisons possums. All he wants to do is get out in the bush and kill possums. That is all he wants. He has to deal with the Department of Conservation the Ministry of Health and other organisations just to go and kill possums.  
One may ask what the link is between the Ministry of Health and possum trapping. The fact of the matter is that this guy who just wants to get in the bush and kill possums actually has to go in and identify where river courses and waterways are. In fact it is only river courses that lead to drinking reservoirs for towns. He has to identify where schools are. This guy goes way up in the bush—miles away from anywhere—and he has to fill out a plan that shows all these things that happen to be miles and miles away when he is using cyanide which breaks down in the water in next to no time and has absolutely no effect whatsoever on any wildlife 3 kilometres downstream.  
Hopefully this bill will speed things up and make things easier for this poor possum trapper. He is just trying to earn a living but is inundated with bureaucracy. He is not a person who likes to get behind a computer or use a pen and do all that sort of stuff; he just wants to get out in the bush and kill possums.  
Manuka honey was another issue that Sue Kedgley from the Greens brought up. Up north the manuka honey industry is a fledgling industry with a lot of potential for export. In fact I was at the opening of the beekeeping school in Kaitaia not 12 months ago. They showed us these products that manuka honey can be used to make. Most people think honey goes just on your toast. In fact there are bandages that are infused with manuka honey because of its antibacterial properties. The only machine in the world that can produce these antibacterial manuka-infused bandages I am told is in London in England. The demand for this manuka honey is 2000 tonnes per annum just to make these bandages yet we can fulfil only 300 tonnes per annum. So there is massive potential there for the economy.  
We have to make sure that we do not get more little critters like these varroa mites that have got into New Zealand and are now infecting hives all around the country. We have to make sure that we do not have these biosecurity threats getting in at our borders which is the reason we have to ask why 54 front-line jobs have been culled from MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. It is absolutely ridiculous that we are removing staff from a front-line industry that will protect our primary produce being exported overseas. I would like to think that part of this bill would be to return those front-line staff so that we have those protections at our border.  
I want to touch quickly on the Wai 262 claim because the Crown has an obligation to protect our indigenous flora and fauna. If we allow these pest invasions and incursions to come into New Zealand and damage our native flora and fauna then I do not believe that the Crown is fulfilling its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. I do not believe that the Crown is fulfilling the intent of the Wai 262 report that has come out recently. I know that the Crown will have a look at that and see what it can do in terms of Wai 262. I believe that it is incumbent on the Government to produce legislation that will protect our borders and the whole biosecurity industry. Kia ora.