Collins Judith: Imports and Exports (Restrictions) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Imports and Exports (Restrictions) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6958] 
JUDITH COLLINS (NZ National—Clevedon) 
: I speak in relation to Part 1. Clearly clause 2 “Commencement” simply states that the Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the royal assent. Clause 3 then goes on to talk about the purpose of the bill. The purpose as stated is to enable New Zealand to give better effect to its international obligations to restrict the exportation of certain goods. Unfortunately those “certain goods” are not stated anywhere and therefore it has given us tremendous cause for concern. I wonder at the end of the day whether we should be supporting all of this bill. Obviously some of us will be making further suggestions for amendments to the bill. 
I note Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith has moved that clause 3 be amended by inserting after the words “international obligations” the words “as specified in section 2(1) of the principal Act.” I think that is very important because it is during urgency that all sorts of bills come before the House and invariably get passed in one form or the other and not a lot of thought goes into all of the clauses. Quite often there are catch-all clauses and catch-all phrases that are supposed to save the time and effort of coming back to the House to amend bills. 
 It is very important that whatever we put through in these times we have to take particular care with it. A lot of these bills have been languishing and this bill has been languishing since last year. I note that the bill itself is well over a year overdue since the date of the Stockholm agreement yet nowhere in the bill does it actually state what the exportation of those certain goods are. Later on the bill tells us that maybe certain goods means the things referred to in Part 2 which seem to be “certain chemicals products organisms wastes or other substances that pose a risk to human health or to the environment”. 
But almost anything can pose a risk to the environment—even the Minister for the Environment. We would say that plastic bags are certainly a risk to the environment if they are uncontrolled and not dealt with in a sensible way. Yet will this bill in fact be used to stop the export of goods that are packed in plastic bags or polystyrene or all those sorts of things? None of the polystyrene or plastic goods do any good at all for the environment—certainly not in their current form. So this sort of bill could be used to stop that. Is that a sensible use of the Stockholm or Rotterdam conventions? I say that it is not. The purpose clause of this bill should be extended to include exactly what we are talking about with these “certain goods”. 
In addition the Hon Ken Shirley posed the question about beech chip that supposedly will be stopped from being exported. In my opinion that matter could come under new paragraph (e) in section 2(1) of the principal Act inserted by clause 6(1) as one of the “certain goods” referred to in clause 3 “Purpose”. I am sure that somebody in the Government would say that that was a risk to the environment to human health or to both. Consequently it is very important that we put in place bills that are finite because at the end of the day this Parliament should not be trying to restrict trade. It should be about encouraging trade and doing business but at the same time promoting a healthy and decent environment in which we our children—for those of us fortunate enough to have children—and hopefully one day our grandchildren can grow up in. So that those of us who feel— 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Some of us do already. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I hear that several members are grandparents. Well done! It is important that we do this and it is absolutely important— 
Ron Mark 
: And I am a father. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Mr Ron Mark wants it noted in  
Hansard 
 that he is a father. Well done! I come back to the purpose of the bill. I say that it should be very strictly defined.