Eckhoff Gerrard: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:7059] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT NZ) 
: I am delighted to take a call on Part 1 of this bill. I draw it to the Committee’s attention again that among the opportunities this Committee would normally expect would be the opportunity to debate the bill. Although I certainly appreciate hearing the contributions of my colleagues I would deem it to be a small favour if a Government member would condescend to stand and give us his or her offering on this very important subject. I do not even mind if Government members get Brian Edwards down to Parliament to coach them on this subject and to tell them what to say. I see one or two members on the Government side of the Chamber have had a new haircut—it is all starting to show already. I think the public demands that Government members should stand and contribute to this debate rather than just using that old sentence “Mr Speaker I move that the question be now put.” which we constantly hear. A debate is not a debate unless there are two opposing sides contributing to a subject—and this particular subject is very very important. Regrettably the Government is steadfastly refusing to contribute. Well I will just carry on. 
I would like to draw to the Committee’s attention that clause 6 inserts a new section 44 “General duty to inform” which states: “Every person is under a duty to inform the Ministry as soon as practicable in the circumstances of the presence of what appears to be an organism not normally seen or otherwise detected in New Zealand.” Does this Committee really expect Joe Bloggs an ordinary member of the public to know the difference between nassella tussock and Australian sedge? I would suspect that most farmers do not know the difference between them. But there is a way that we can help people to do so and that is through education. 
I have already mentioned in this Committee a very very good programme called  
Border Patrol 
 which I believe screens on a Monday evening. The public really warmed to that form of important information—it is not just entertainment. It is put forward in a very constructive and an informative manner and in such a way that the public understands and absorbs the lessons that that particular programme puts across. In other words we should be having more of those sorts of informative programmes like  
Border Patrol 
 for the public. 
I hesitate to say this but it would seem quite logical to follow the Australian example of screening programmes during the intermission at major sporting events that inform the public of Australia about the importance of issues such as biosecurity. The programmes ask whether people have seen any examples of a particular product or organism and then advise the public to call the local equivalent of our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officers if they have seen anything. Those programmes go nationwide at a time when a very very large portion of the public is watching the television screen. 
Why can we not learn from that and do something very similar to it perhaps during a half-hour programme shown once or twice a year at the prime time of 7.30? Why can we not have more of those sorts of initiatives? Why can we not have some more really informative programmes that show the people of this country just how important it is that if they do come across something they are not very sure of they then inform the appropriate authorities? 
I listened with some interest to my colleague from the Green Party who was talking about genetic modification and about how important it is that the public are informed about that. I thought that was rather strange. I can just imagine people going to a restaurant and saying to the waiter that there is a genetically modified organism in their soup. That would be a very difficult thing to prove unless they happened to have an electron microscope with them at their table.