Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour—Rangitata) (remote): Thank you Mr Speaker. This is my first time speaking in the hybrid House so it's quite a different feeling actually. But actually it's a pleasure to take a call on the Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill and there's far more to it than what the previous speaker Simon O'Connor has alluded to.Can I congratulate my colleague again Steph Lewis for having this bill drawn out of the ballot and I want to acknowledge the work of the committee and the submitters which has resulted in some changes that the select committee proposes to this bill that I will come to a little bit later on. I'd also really like to acknowledge my colleague Kiritapu Allan. I was in her office having a meeting with Horticulture New Zealand when this issue arose. We heard that it was currently only optional to provide passengers with information about our biosecurity arrangements and I think we were all actually really really surprised by that. So from that the idea for this bill was born and I know that Horticulture New Zealand was absolutely thrilled when it was pulled out of the ballot.This bill seeks to amend the Biosecurity Act 1993 and while it's not a large bill the importance of it is huge. It will strengthen our biosecurity system and protect our primary industries our environment and our way of life. Doing everything to protect our environment—it's paramount. Our beautiful natural environment it's world renowned. It's what attracts tourists to our shores. They want to experience and enjoy all that New Zealand has to offer. It's quite upsetting to know that more than 3000 of our native species are in serious trouble or at risk of extinction and these are native to New Zealand they're our taonga and in order to ensure that future generations can also experience and enjoy our native environment incoming passengers do need to be aware of what their role is to protect our environment. As we open up our borders and welcome friends from overseas back here it will be particularly important to remind them.Our primary sector has been at the forefront of our economic recovery from COVID-19 and so it's got to be protected—tight biosecurity is crucial. Mid-Canterbury farmers in my electorate are now producing nearly half of the world's carrot beet and hybrid radish seed. Close to 90 percent of the $240 million of seed and grain exported by New Zealand growers comes from there and the impact of an unwanted pest would just be catastrophic to our local economy regionally and nationwide. We've seen the devastating impacts of Mycoplasma bovis amongst our cattle and dairy herds in my electorate and in areas such as Ashburton. It's been a severe impact from that.It's not just the toll that it takes on our animals but it's the toll that it takes on farmers and other people that are involved and the impact on mental health. Equally our horticultural sector could be impacted if pests were able to make their way here and that would also have catastrophic effects on our export and our economy. So again I say that we must do everything possible to protect our primary industries. It only takes one small pest or disease to enter New Zealand and the result is devastating. So again a small bill as Mr Simon O'Connor alluded to but hugely important.As I mentioned before after hearing submissions and receiving advice the committee has made some proposed changes to the bill just to ensure that the integrity and the purpose of the bill is maintained. The committee proposes a change to the commencement date which amends clause 2. As introduced the bill will come into force after the day that it receives Royal assent but the committee was aware that having a set date for the commencement could be too prescriptive. The ministry and industry representatives probably need to have some flexibility to respond to issues that could arise and interfere with their ability to have everything in place on time—disruptions like COVID for example. The committee recommended instead that it come into force on a date specified by Order in Council or 12 months after the bill receives Royal assent whichever comes first.As the bill was introduced it was quite prescriptive that the person in charge of the craft had to provide biosecurity information to people on board in written and audiovisual form. The committee heard that that could create some logistical issues for aircraft where weight and space restrictions are extremely important. Submitters also highlighted that moving away from paper-based information will help aircraft reduce their carbon footprint. So the committee therefore recommended amending clause 4 in proposed new section 17AA subsections (2)(a) and (2)(b) that describes how the biosecurity information is presented and instead create secondary legislation regulations that stipulate that the person in charge of the aircraft must provide biosecurity information to passengers before arriving in New Zealand. It doesn't specify exactly how and what format so it does allow some flexibility for this to happen and also to be able to be changed fairly quickly which is quite important for the needs around biosecurity when we have threats and incursions that create those changes or the information needs to be changed fairly quickly. It also gives the Ministry for Primary Industries the time and the ability to consult with airlines and others that will be impacted by this bill.We had lots of discussion around the different types of craft that enter New Zealand. So as introduced in clause 4 the bill required all craft coming to New Zealand to provide biosecurity information. That ended up being more than what we might typically think of when we think about craft entering New Zealand. We tend to think about aeroplanes and cruise ships and the like but actually when you get down into the weeds of it aircraft such as air ambulance and donor organ retrieval flights would be captured within the bill. So practically that didn't make sense because types of craft and fishing vessels and cargo ships etc. already have a high level of compliance with biosecurity measures. So I think that what the bill was trying to target was those passenger vessels as mentioned before and passenger planes and say the cruise ships with lots of people and generally associated with bringing tourists into the country.So we worked through that and made changes to narrow the scope to include commercial passenger craft with 20 or more passengers on board. So we replaced the term craft" with "large commercial craft". Now the committee also heard that the biosecurity risks are lower on craft that carry 20 or fewer passengers because they have more interaction with ministry inspectors on arrival. As introduced the bill required a person on board to receive biosecurity information so that also meant that crew would also be captured meaning that biosecurity information would have to be provided to the crew every time. So we decided that that was pretty unnecessary and decided to agree to change the persons on board to "passengers". So again I want to thank those that made submissions. It was evident from those that this bill is very important to them for one reason or another. It is of paramount importance to protect our environment our primary sector and our economy. So I am pleased that this bill and the proposed amendments to it were agreed to unanimously by the select committee. Again I just want to thank and acknowledge Steph Lewis for bringing this bill to the House and I commend this bill to the House.Motion agreed to.Bill read a second time."