Heatley Phil: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Heatley Phil: Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:7045] 
PHIL HEATLEY (NZ National—Whangarei) 
: It was interesting to hear the Minister of Transport. It would have been good if the Minister had got up to speed with the bill because I know that many members are interested in the actual contents both technical and factual. 
I was on the Primary Production Committee and members will be well aware of that. We took on board this bill way back on 16 August 2001 when it was referred to the committee. The House is reading it now for the second time. My maths tells me that that is 2 years on. There has been no sense of urgency from the Government and that is quite disheartening for us because we did sweat hard over this bill. We know the significance and the importance of biosecurity to this nation. It is unfortunate that it has taken 2 years. 
We can—and members know this—list a number of breaches of biosecurity since the Act was passed particularly in the last 4 years. The painted apple moth has come up time and time again but there has been a whole lot of other incursions. I would like to thank Marian Hobbs for the painted apple moth and various other pests! The 11 biosecurity incursions into this country include the Asian gypsy moth which is not a Green Party member but a bug that could hurt many of our crops. The fall web worm and crazy ants—[ 
Interruption 
] No I tell Minister Dalziel that is not a Green Party member. Other incursions are fire ants mosquito larvae Asian tiger mosquito larvae the Sydney huntsman spider and the Australian redback spider and eggs. It sounds like a tour of the world does it not? When this Labour Government is in power who needs to travel? We have had the North American southern ring-necked snake. Cane toads are coming as well. When we drive home tonight we will hear all sorts of popping as we speed along the road because cane toads from Australia are here. And we have had a solitary scorpion. 
So we have had visitors from Asia in the form of the Asian gypsy moth and Asian tiger mosquito larvae. From Sydney we have had the Sydney huntsman spider the Australian redback spider and the North American southern ring-necked snake. Who needs to travel the world? Who needs air points? Not one member in this Parliament does because the world is coming to see us. Thank you Marian Hobbs! The world of animals the world of the invertebrate are coming to visit us here in New Zealand. Eleven of them have come in the last 4 years. It is a hugely disappointing record from the Minister. 
On 16 August 2001 the closing date for submissions was 24 September 2001 so members can appreciate how quickly we called for submissions. We closed them off and spent a lot of time speaking with the submitters listening to them and putting our thoughts into the bill as reported back with its changes. I emphasise once again our frustration—knowing how important biosecurity is for New Zealand—that it has taken 2 years for the bill to come back to the House. 
I would like to go through various issues that we discussed during the select committee process. First of all clause 9—[ 
Interruption 
] I can tell David Benson-Pope that compared with those 11 visitors to this country from Australia from Asia from North America and from around the globe he is the most harmless incursion that Parliament has had in the last 4 years or however long he has been sleeping here. Does anyone know how long David Benson-Pope has been sleeping here? He is the most harmless incursion that this country and this Parliament have had. I ask him to wake up and take a call later. 
Clause 9 gives the principal Act a slightly more punitive air. It targets pest management levies at those who either actively or through their inactivity cause a problem. I assume we will be talking more about clause 9 later on tonight. It is headed “Restrictions on levies” and is a very punitive user-pays or polluter-pays type of measure. It states that the persons who will undergo the punitive measure of levies are those who are likely to benefit from the implementation of the strategy—that is growers and those who raise animals. Anyone who is likely to benefit directly from the strategy will incur the levies. That is something we should consider during the Committee stage. But the levies also affect those who either actively or inactively create or exacerbate the problem of an incursion. Marian Hobbs who has invited 11 different species from around the world into this country could be defined as someone who has exacerbated the problem here in this country. That is the Government’s immigration policy; it welcomes from around the world— 
Ron Mark 
: All sorts of vermin. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: —visiting invertebrates snakes and vermin. People like Marian Hobbs will incur a punitive measure under that user-pays or polluter-pays philosophy. 
So we addressed that issue. The next major issue that we addressed is in clause 18 which is about spraying programmes. Ian Ewen-Street I think talked a little about Auckland. He visited Auckland when the spraying programme was going on up there and I know he is quite concerned about it. Most of us here in the House tonight can see the results of his visit. While many who have visited Auckland are reporting scratches and itches in all sorts of private places Ian Ewen-Street has created a snow of his own with falling hair! That illustrates that there is a genuine concern in Auckland. 
Clause 18—and obviously we will deal with this clause in the Committee stage—is about the degree of notice that needs to be given to people living in a spray area. One can appreciate that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and those responsible for curbing the biosecurity risk—curbing the incursion invited into this country by Marian Hobbs—might want to act very very quickly. One can appreciate how much the population of an incursion might explode in 2 weeks. Not all invertebrates snakes or vermin that enter the country will breed quickly. Some are quite slothful. It is as though they are asleep. I talked about David Benson-Pope who is a harmless incursion; these incursions will move a lot faster than he does. For a start they will be awake. We may need to act quickly so we may have to reduce the time available to inform local residents that there is to be a spray programme. 
If there is that urgency we can assume—and the bill actually outlines this—that although people will get a warning period that is shorter than 2 weeks that warning will be as thorough as possible. We would not expect to see a small inch-by-inch advertisement at the back of the local weekly community paper; we would hope instead that the warning would be advertised in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 on television and so on. So in putting in that amendment—narrowing down the time from 2 weeks to 24 hours in some cases—we do say clearly that the notice must be advertised as thoroughly as possible and I am sure the officials involved at the time will apply that rule.