O'Connor Damien: Airports (Cost Recovery for Processing of International Travellers) Bill — Second Reading 
O'Connor Damien: Airports (Cost Recovery for Processing of International Travellers) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17731] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to speak on the Airports (Cost Recovery for Processing of International Travellers) Bill which is in an area of absolute importance for this economy. Biosecurity and border protection is probably the most important area. The amount we spend on military security is huge; the amount we spend on biosecurity is minimal. The last Labour Government doubled the amount of money spent on biosecurity. 
Shane Ardern 
: And it’s gone up since then. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: The member who has just resumed his seat the previous Opposition spokesperson on biosecurity has to acknowledge that fact alone. He should also acknowledge that the first Budget under the National Government chopped $2 million off the biosecurity budget and chopped 54 front-line jobs. That is an indication of the flippant approach that National has paid to biosecurity. 
Labour supports this bill but there are a number of issues. We supported this proposal to share the costs of biosecurity and border protection at new and emerging airports so that anyone who wanted to develop a new airport could not say that they had their airport and a runway and that they wanted the taxpayer to fund the border security. There was clearly an obligation under this legislation that any new airports and those that might have been shut and are reopening will engage in a cost-sharing arrangement with the Crown and we believe that is fine. The question is why we are doing that. We proposed that when in Government as a fair way of sharing the increasing costs—the doubling of the biosecurity budget that we had put in place—with the industry. The problem here is that the National Government has chopped $2 million off the biosecurity budget and the reason it has done that and has brought in cost-sharing arrangements under this bill is so that it can pay $14 billion in tax cuts to its wealthy mates and to the people at the highest end of the salary bracket. Yes that member over there is one of them and yes so am I but not quite to the extent of the Prime Minister who gets $1000 a week back. The way that the National Government has been able to calculate that it can afford those tax cuts is by chopping the biosecurity budget and by sharing the additional costs of arrangements at new airports. 
Craig Foss 
: Where did the $1000 come from? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: The chairman of the Finance and Expenditure Committee should listen a little bit because he is responsible for overseeing this absolutely immoral policy of giving back to the most wealthy and taking from those people at the bottom. It is immoral and the problem is that this bill is just one more little step in that unethical direction that National is taking us. 
This is important. The previous speaker said that 8 tonnes of raw meat was brought into the country while Labour was in Government. That is a horrific figure; I have to admit that. But I wonder how much is coming now. That member opposite cannot tell us because this Government has chopped the number of people inspecting visitors to this country so we do not actually know how much raw meat is coming into this country. The 8 tonnes of raw meat was identified and held at the border because we had a supported well-resourced front-line border system with good people. Those people have been battered around with the uncertainty of whether they or their mates will lose their jobs. I repeat that 54 front-line jobs is quite a number when we consider the people whom we have working at the airports and the ports. But as I said the National Government is intent on delivering tax cuts at the expense of core services right through this economy. 
I will acknowledge the Primary Production Committee for the most part chaired by Shane Ardern who should really be the Minister of Agriculture. He knows agriculture far better than the Minister does. Mr Ardern attempts to do a fair job but he is under riding instructions. He is told what to do by Mr David Carter. He resists that but he is told what to do. He has to bite the bullet and toe the line. He knows that the cuts that his National Government colleagues have made to biosecurity put our country at risk every single day. Last year under the National Government 400 unwanted organisms came into this country. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: How many? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: It was 400 and those were just the ones that were identified. Mr Ardern knows that. He knows the risks that come with those incursions. We have the Asian bee which is now established in Australia. We have the Prime Minister on his SmartGate so that in theory each individual visitor can save 8 minutes when coming through the airports. It is 8 minutes saved by an individual visitor. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Do the bees use SmartGate? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I think the bees might avoid SmartGate. I think the bees will be able to whistle in unhindered. Although we may joke about that we need to realise that bees are driving our biological economy. Mr Ardern knows that and he is acknowledging it now. If we get the Asian bees in New Zealand along with varroa which unfortunately is in the country we could undermine biological production in this country. People do not appreciate that. But Mr Ardern is nodding his head. He knows that his Prime Minister John Key in his determination to be popular has introduced SmartGate. He has taken front-line resources from biosecurity and customs people and has shifted them across into some photographic kind of automated system that gets people through the process 8 minutes faster. Never mind the reality that in Christchurch or Wellington people wait about 20 minutes for their bags but I do not know about Auckland. People can whistle through the biosecurity and customs clearance and then they have to wait longer for their bags because the privatised companies simply do not have enough staff on the ground. 
That is the way we are moving and unfortunately it puts our whole primary production economy at risk of things like the Asian bee and the fruit fly in Queensland. We effectively have open borders with Australia now. We will run videos. We will be nice to people and educate them. But in the end it is the people who understand neither the language well nor the implications of bringing in fruit or meat or an unwanted organism who put our economy at risk every single day. 
Labour supports this bill because we proposed it as a fair cost-saving arrangement. We do not support the ongoing direction of this Government in cutting back on core Government responsibilities and services in order to deliver additional benefits to their rich mates around the place. That is what the Government has done; that is effectively what it has done. I do not know how much my colleague Mr Barker received as a tax cut delivered by the National Government. It was probably reasonably generous was it? 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Too much. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Exactly. What did the people at the bottom get? A few cents? 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Not enough. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Absolutely. The bottom line is that we have squeezed Government services. People on accident compensation in the social welfare system in the health system and in the education system are seeing programmes chopped to pay for those tax cuts. 
This bill is one more step down the slippery slope of reducing Government responsibility and increasing the responsibility on the private sector to fund those things. User-pays is a great theory but in the end the public good—the greater good—cannot be covered by individuals individual companies or individual industries. In the end we take taxes to fund the things that are for the good of our economy and our future. We cannot allow this National Government to continue to squeeze biosecurity and front-line border services. At the moment the Government has put money into the joint border management system which involves collaboration and on the face of it it sounds good. It is about joining together and sharing information. But if it means that the jobs and resources of front-line border security people are cut that is a desperate and dangerous situation for this economy.