Ardern Shane: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3695. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 I am sure you will come to understand that that was a very good call over the next few minutes. The Biosecurity Law Reform Bill is a very very important piece of legislation for this Parliament. In fact one of the things I do agree with the previous speaker on is that biosecurity is one of the most if not the most important issue facing New Zealand in terms of securing a sound economic base and a solid economy to go forward on. In fact increasing trade and travel volumes represent enormous challenges to this Government agency. Around 170000 items a day come across our borders an enormous amount of traffic both in and out of New Zealand and all with the opportunity and potential to have a threat to our border.  
Can I congratulate and thank the officials for the fine work they did during the select committee committee process. It was one of those times when there was a very good cross-party approach to it and quite a good collegial understanding of the importance of it. The Primary Production Committee made some substantial recommendations which I am pleased to say—and I thank the Minister—were accepted by the Government. The bill will now introduce a number of different things that were not in the original proposal. One of those is to recognise the I guess status of land ownership whether it be Government private or local government and the lack of effect that has on a potential biosecurity breach. There was a large amount of concern about the different policies for different types of land ownership structure prior to this bill. I am hoping that that will overcome some of those concerns. 
The biggest debate in the sector for the last 5 years has been the notion of a Government-sector partnership. Certainly right at the beginning of the debate there was quite a bit of reluctance on the part of various industry players to be part of discussions in that. But if there is a lesson to be learnt from the recent kiwifruit  
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 (Psa) incursion and the report that subsequently came from that it is that most of the institutional knowledge or intellectual property if you like in regards to what can be done when and how is in a lot of cases contained within the industry itself. The Government actually had a very good track record of working closely with the industry at that stage. There is quite an irony I think at this point looking at that report to note that it was actually the horticultural industry that put up some of the strongest opposition to the idea of a Government-industry partnership in the first stages. I am not sure whether it still holds that view and certainly most of the evidence would suggest that it probably does not now. So allowing that to happen and making sure there is a legislative framework for a credible process to move forward and negotiate with the various sectors as to which part the industry will cover or hold the intellectual property rights in and the pre-incursion discussions that must take place and agreements that must be reached certainly in my view are going to enhance that. 
It is not a new idea. It is unique in some aspects but it is not a new idea. In fact in Australia they have been doing it in certain states for quite a while. I think that New Zealand can only benefit from introducing these Government-industry partnerships. I look forward to the discussions there.  
I heard the member who spoke before me mention foot-and-mouth. Clearly most industries would believe that if there was a major incursion that is well known with the type of economic effect that such an incursion as foot-and-mouth would have on New Zealand then there would be an expectation a very high expectation that the State would be there to respond quickly. But in terms of some of the lesser known and somewhat obscure incursions that are unlikely to have such a substantial effect on the New Zealand economy but can have a devastating effect on an individual industry most of the knowledge around what that might be or how to respond to it quickly and what the response should be which in some cases is very much debated at the time of the incursion is held within industry. It is impossible for the former Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry which is now the Ministry for Primary Industries to have all the intellectual property that is necessary on every single aspect of every single incursion that may affect a sector of our primary sector. In my view it is absolutely essential that that information is made available to the State through these industry agreements and that that takes place before the incursions take place as well so that a predetermined agreement can be put in place. 
There are many other parts of this bill that I could speak on and many other recommendations that were made by the select committee but I know that my whip or the Minister will not thank me for taking up any more of the Committee’s time. To that end I think it is a very good day that we are reaching cross-party agreement on this. I look forward to the passage of the bill through Parliament.