Guy Nathan: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3894. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries):I move that the Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Act be now read a second time.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): It is a levy bill not an Act.Hon NATHAN GUY: I move That the Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill be now read a second time. As I outlined to the House earlier this levy will fund the costs of border processing incurred by the Ministry for Primary Industries and the New Zealand Customs Service and ensure that border services are sustainable.The Ministry for Primary Industries and the Customs Service together spend around $100 million a year on border clearance for passengers and crew. In the past these costs have been met by taxpayers. It is worth noting that around 55 percent of arriving and departing passengers come from overseas and therefore do not contribute directly to the costs of our border services. The Government considers it is fairer for these costs to fall on passengers travelling internationally.Our borders are dealing with increasing volumes. Arriving air-passenger volumes have grown by more than 18 percent from 4.4 million in 2009 to 5.2 million in 2014 and are expected to continue to increase by around 3.5 percent per year. The levy will help ensure our border processes stay fit for purpose into the future.It is likely that the total costs for all passengers arriving in and departing from New Zealand will be around $22 inclusive of GST but further modelling—[Interruption]—in consultation with stakeholders if members opposite would listen and with the New Zealand public needs to be completed before the total amount is confirmed.Officials are preparing a discussion document outlining the proposed options which will be released for public feedback in June. The levy is proposed to take effect on 1 January 2016 and will be applied to tickets purchased on or after that date. Around 95 percent of travellers cleared at the border arrive on commercial airlines about 4 percent come on cruise ships and the remaining 1 percent come on private aircraft yachts cargo ships etc.This announcement is part of a range of measures in Budget 2015 to improve security and services at the border involving immigration customs and biosecurity. The Ministry for Primary Industries and the Customs Service have already been working closely together to make improvements at the border sharing their facilities cross-warranting of staff enhanced profiling targeting of incoming passengers and the use of automated systems such as SmartGate.The introduction of the Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill will put border services on a sustainable footing by allowing funding to increase as passenger numbers rise which is fairer and it will be more responsive to managing the risks at the border as well as providing quality services. I commend this bill to the House.