Tirikatene Rino: Biosecurity Amendment Bill (No 2) Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Biosecurity Amendment Bill (No 2) Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3922. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga):I am pleased to speak in the final readings of this legislation which has now been divided into two. We are disappointed on this side of the House because these bills impose a tax and that is very clear. It has been established throughout the debate. It has been acknowledged by members on the other side—two members on the other side. This is the imposition of a tax—a new tax—and we are doing it under urgency. We are doing it in a rushed manner with no public consultation no scrutiny no engagement with affected parties and there is no reason for that because the Minister has just acknowledged that he is about to conduct public consultation on what the levy fee should be and all the conditions that he might impose around it.Ultimately it will be his decision as to what he recommends and what travellers will actually be charged but why go through this process in such a rushed manner now when he is already intending to go through a consultation process virtually immediately? I think it is just all around the wrong way. It is poor governance from this Government—sorry it has been a very long day Mr Deputy Speaker; ha ha! It is poor from this Government and yet again it is another broken promise as we have established. And it has been acknowledged on both sides of this House that this is a tax. The Government promised no new taxes and it has flip-flopped on that and here we are.Here it is imposing a tax that will hurt ordinary travellers. Every Kiwi who wants to travel—who wants to leave our fine shores and go on a holiday and go and visit loved ones—will be struck with this charge. Likewise our important tourism industry—all our international visitors who bring a huge contribution to our country—will face an additional charge. We do not really know the impacts but we know that in other jurisdictions there is a reduction in air traffic numbers and the like through the imposition of such levies. That is why our tourism industry has fought it so hard.On the flip side of course we want strong biosecurity systems. That is a given given the nature of our economy and our reliance on the primary sector. It is no surprise then that the primary sector industries are all applauding this tax. They are not having to foot the bill; travellers will foot the bill. But it need not be the case because the services that have been provided through biosecurity screening and the like have always been supplied by the Government through the taxpayers as a whole. That should continue to be the case. Unfortunately what we are seeing is this arrogant Government pushing ahead imposing a tax and breaking the promises that it has made to the nation.We are also concerned about the impact and the application of the legislation. It is hastily drafted. We do not really know whether it will do everything that it is intended to do. There could be unintended consequences—it has been rushed through that fast. We do not really want to be back here in a few weeks’ time trying to fix it up by putting through another piece of legislation. But that is what happens when you do things under urgency.Lastly I want to take Minister Wagner up on her offer to show me around the Joint Border Management System.Hon Nicky Wagner: Ah! Good. I’ll take you for a visit. We’ll go and have a look.RINO TIRIKATENE: Yes yes indeed. The Joint Border Management System—the $100 million lemon. We are still waiting to see the full functionality of that IT project. We are still waiting to see it. The due dates keep getting pushed out. The price tag keeps going up and up and up and we do not know the full extent of the functionality.We do not really know what benefits it is actually providing to the Ministry of Primary Industries. How does it help biosecurity screening for passengers? What happens? Yes it is great that there are 2 million entries into a Trade Single Window but what happens beyond that? Where is all the sophisticated risk and intelligence screening? That was the core purpose of the Joint Border Management System. That is what it was intended to do. Then to also retire the legacy systems—those old 20-year-plus computer systems which are still chugging away. Our whole primary industries are resting on these old 20-year-old IT systems which are still having to carry the load because we do not know what the Joint Border Management System has produced.And why do we not know? Because it is shrouded in secrecy. The Minister will not tell us what is going on. The Minister has been in dispute with IBM. They have had to renegotiate the contract they have had to reset the milestones they have had to reprice everything they have had to go cap in hand asking for more money and we still do not know what they have delivered. So Minister Wagner I would really like to take up that opportunity to visit because I want to know what the Joint Border Management System is what has actually been delivered what is behind the velvet curtain and is it actually doing what it was intended to do when we have paid an investment of over $100 million into it? By all accounts it is just another Novopay that you want to keep under a shroud of secrecy to hide behind lawyers and the like and dress it up with a whole bunch of gobbledegook technology language. We want to know exactly what we will get for that $100 million-plus investment whether it will actually be delivered on the due date or keep getting pushed out and whether the price tag will keep expanding.Those are my concluding remarks. We do oppose this bill. We oppose the imposition of this tax. We oppose the fact that this Government has yet again misled the country and gone against the undertakings that it has given to the public and now travellers from far and wide and anyone who wants to go on a trip will soon be facing another hefty increase to their travel costs. That is a very unfortunate circumstance. Thank you.