Brown Peter: Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
Brown Peter: Biosecurity (Status of Specified Ports) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:856] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will support this bill in all its stages. We received a copy of it only an hour or so ago and as the Minister who opened the debate said in his speech it comes about because of—to use nautical language—a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry stuff-up. The ministry got it wrong. There was an oversight and this bill is now urgently needed because of the possibility of the Crown being exposed to civil action. 
I agree with Shane Ardern who spoke a little while ago that the biggest single risk to this country’s security is biosecurity. I would like to explain to Shane Ardern—my colleague and I think my friend—a little about ships’ ballast because he seemed to be making a little bit of noise about that. Shipowners are very conscious of the problems that a ship’s ballast brings with it. Currently an overseas ship that is coming to New Zealand is meant to exchange ballast in mid-ocean. 
Shane Ardern 
: They’re meant to. 
PETER BROWN 
: Ships are meant to and they make certain entries in their log books to that effect. Various shipping lines in various parts of the world are experimenting with heating ships’ ballast from the engines— 
Shane Ardern 
: There’s chemical treatment as well. 
PETER BROWN 
: I do not think that chemical treatment has met with as much success as heating but shipowners are reluctant to put in major sophisticated methods to address the issue until they know that it will actually address it. I think I am correct in saying that at the moment the most accepted measure is exchanging the ballast mid-ocean. 
Shane Ardern 
: But do they do it in rough seas? 
PETER BROWN 
: It cannot be done in rough seas if we are talking about large quantities and it cannot be done all at once; it has to be done progressively because it affects ships’ stability stresses and all those sorts of things. So whether ships exchange their ballast as fully as we would like them to is a debatable point. But I found that most of the people I dealt with in the area of shipping were pretty darn honest. 
One area that concerns me when I look at schedule 9 is that only five airports are mentioned. I would have thought that that provision could have been upgraded by now. Hamilton has international airlines coming into its airport as does Queenstown I think. As far as I am aware Greymouth is a port. Maybe in the Committee stage the Minister will tell us why Hamilton Queenstown and perhaps some other airports have been excluded because it is distinctly possible— 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: There are two schedules. 
Shane Ardern 
: On the back page. 
PETER BROWN 
: Ah there they are: Hamilton Dunedin Invercargill Palmerston North Queenstown and Tauranga. But where is Greymouth? I thank the member for alerting me to that. I had not read the bill as far as that. Greymouth is not recorded as a port. 
Shane Ardern 
: Tauranga is named with other ports. That’s not even in the amendment. 
PETER BROWN 
: Oh Tauranga is not in the main port area. This bill is urgently required. The Minister made that quite clear. I think it is incumbent upon this House to pass it with minimum delay. New Zealand First is quite keen to get on with the job and we will support the bill through all its stages.