Pillay Lynne: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Pillay Lynne: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:669;Page:16240] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour) 
: 
 I want to acknowledge the bravery and courage of the previous speaker Simon Bridges. I think he spoke about 50 times as long as any other National member. That is utterly commendable. The whip has been on the phone and I want to tell members something. Oops! Gerry Brownlee is here; Simon Bridges is in big trouble! But we will stick up for that member because he had the courage to talk in this Chamber and that is really good. Simon Bridges said that the most important thing was information sharing and I think he will nod when I say that it is about the importance of information sharing. If National had shared a bit of information over the last day or two then the Parliament would not be in the shambles that it is in today. It is an utter shambles; it shows a lack of planning and information sharing. It is a big joke. I think we have a pretty good relationship on the Justice and Electoral Committee and certainly compared with the committee run by Sandra Goudie. Simon Bridges has shown courage tonight. He felt passionate enough about the bill to baulk at or disobey the orders to make short speeches. He put hand on heart was passionate about the bill and was going to speak on it. It is not often I pay tribute to National members but I put on record tonight my acknowledgment of the utter courage of Simon Bridges who spoke for probably 5 minutes— 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: 5 minutes. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: He spoke for at least 5 minutes or maybe even 6 minutes. Clearly there was an instruction for Government members to speak for 30 seconds. His speech has called to the attention of a few of the big guns from National if I can call them that—I think members know who I mean—that Simon Bridges has shown that courage. I think everyone or certainly everyone on this side will acknowledge that.  
I return to the Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Others Matters) Amendment Bill. As others have said I say that Labour supports this bill. As a member of the very hard-working Justice and Electoral Committee I thank all the committee members. I specifically acknowledge Su’a William Sio who voluntarily came on to the committee.  
Grant Robertson 
: That’s the kind of guy he is.  
LYNNE PILLAY 
: That is the sort of guy we are dealing with. He saw that this bill was really important. Jacinda Ardern was kind enough to step aside and allow Su´a William Sio— 
Grant Robertson 
: She was dragged aside. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: There was a bit of a dust-up between Jacinda Ardern and me but in the end she stepped down and Su´a William Sio was able to have input. If we look at the changes that happened during the select committee process I think all members would acknowledge the role of Su´a William Sio along with everybody else. We all know that the purpose of the bill is about information sharing and that is something Simon Bridges spoke very much about. The bill improves the thresholds and processes for administrative and offence provisions of the Customs and Excise Act. Other minor amendments provide clarity to the existing provisions. Although it makes a number of minor changes which I could go through— 
Grant Robertson 
: Go on. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: I will go through them if time permits. But there is just so much to go through. The substantive change and the one the committee gave the most attention to was around regulation-making powers. That section is not particularly comprehensive but after receiving submissions giving them very careful consideration and committee members putting on their thinking caps we recognised that this was the most important part. I think that would be fair to say and I look to Simon Bridges to acknowledge that that change was one of the most important ones. Previously the section had just required that the Minister before making regulations would consult the Privacy Commissioner and some agencies that may be affected. But after consideration and some very good advice and points that were raised through the submission process the committee decided to have a much more comprehensive process for recommending the making of regulations under that section. That was to make sure that there was consistency for example whether the regulations were consistent with the purpose whether the border information to be made available to an accessing agency under the proposed regulations included personal information whom the information was to be made available to and the amount of information to be made available—whether it represented a significant proportion of border information its sensitivity and its level of accuracy etc.  
Part of that was because the primary purpose is about sharing information and the safety of the border—acknowledging that anything that comes into New Zealand is either by air or sea. So that is really important. Also it acknowledges the privacy rights of individuals. If that information is not essential for border control then that information should not be shared around willy-nilly. That was probably the most comprehensive part that the select committee gave its attention to. I see Mr Bridges nodding again but that part was not the only part.  
Grant Robertson 
: Sagely. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Sagely nodding— 
Grant Robertson 
: Wisely. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: And wisely nodding. There were other matters that were perhaps not quite as important but still were matters that improved the bill. There was the issue around biofuels— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member but the time has come for me to leave the Chair.  
Debate interrupted.