Faafoi Kris: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:677;Page:472] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chair for allowing me to have a second contribution to this bill. I would just like to start this contribution with reference to Tim Macindoe the member for Hamilton West—Hamilton West? 
Hon Member 
: East I think. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Hamilton West. Heaven forbid he gets mixed up with the member for Hamilton East! Tim Macindoe said that there are many measures in this Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Bill that are logical and we on this side of the Chamber agree with it. That is why we are supporting this bill. We think that the move to share information between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Customs Service is logical. We think it is logical that householders who produce their own biofuels get an exemption from any duty that they have to pay. We think it is good that we give more powers to customs officers at our borders to take action to remove people who are making a nuisance of themselves. We think that is logical.  
We obviously agree that there are a number of measures in this bill that are logical but what we do not agree is logical is that the Government at the moment is taking measures around the resourcing of a number of Government departments to make sure that very few of these measures will be able to be carried out efficiently and effectively. And if we are led to believe that the Government’s moves around the reduction of the Public Service go far beyond just using technology with the sharing of information where are we going to go now with our smartphones when we go through customs? We will just flash our smartphones through a scanner and then we will be going through. We can imagine the kind of trouble and what will happen to our reputation in terms of border security if we do head down that track. So we are very concerned about the illogical move of the Government and although we support these moves that are being debated today in this bill we do not support the Government’s move that will see many of the benefits of this bill not come to fruition.  
We do also welcome the increasing of the penalties that come in under this bill. We understand that it has been around 15 or 20 years since penalties under the two laws that this bill will amend have been looked at and the change of I think the minimum fine going from $50 to $200 is welcome. Also the maximum fine going from $10000 to $50000 is a welcome move too to make sure that those who have been trying to take more advantage of our laws over time are punished sufficiently under this new regime.  
Along with my colleague Trevor Mallard I did put a question to the Minister of Customs earlier on and I am hoping that he might be able to address it. It was around the cost of bringing in this information-sharing technology. It was around $75 million and that was the first price tag to introduce this technology. I think that in these times of austerity from the Government we would like to know an exact figure of what it might cost to bring in this technology at our borders especially when media reports at the time of the introduction of this bill were that the estimates went up to around $200 million. I can see that the officials and the Minister are shaking their heads so that would suggest that that is not necessarily the price tag for the introduction of the technology. But it would be nice to hear from the Minister in the chair exactly what it will cost to bring in this technology.  
Also Mr Mallard referred to the ability of the Minister to make regulations to expand some of the information sharing and what type of information that both the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Customs Service might be able to share. He made reference to the High Court decision today. We hope that in the future the judgment of the Minister might be a little bit sharper in terms of what he might be able to extend in this bill as to what he decided in the Crafar farm decision that he made along with an Associate Minister of Finance Jonathan Coleman.  
I do not want to be too negative about the bill though because we are supporting it. We do welcome the move from the Government to make sure that we can have more efficient and effective policing of our borders. It is a move that we can progress to because of the increased technology and the increased willingness of Kiwis and those who are coming to our nation to use their own technology to make sure that they can come in and out as freely as they can. So we do support this bill. There are some reservations around the cost which I hope the Minister in the chair may clarify because I think in this day and age when a lot of Kiwis are being told to—