Bridges Simon: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Bridges Simon: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:678;Page:1355] 
SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 I want to congratulate the member Denis O’Rourke on having the honesty that I have never heard in this House before to make clear that he has done what I suspect others have done and that is to get their speech notes from Wikipedia. So well done to the member.  
But I also want in relation to his speech to have a mea culpa of sorts because it was about this time last week after Denis O’Rourke had spoken—I think on the Search and Surveillance Bill—that I was critical that New Zealand First might be taking the same line that the Greens often do of being holier-than-thou and opposing bills simply for the sake of it. But the member for New Zealand First and actually the member for the Greens come to think of it have both proved me wrong by supporting the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill and the Biosecurity Amendment Bill albeit with their reservations.  
I think Tim Macindoe said it well when he said that there has been a lot of bunkum spoken in the speeches made in the first the second and the third readings of this legislation—a lot of twaddle to put it frankly—and probably I have been guilty of some of that in the first and second readings as well. 
Hon Nathan Guy 
: No! 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: Well probably not but you never know. But the reason for that I think is this: this is bland legislation. It is not going to be one of the more exciting pieces of legislation that this House ever debates and it is actually not very controversial or in any way controversial. But that does not mean that it is not important.  
Actually to the extent that David Parker in his earlier intervention was saying that this is a bit of a poor cousin of a piece of legislation and that we are really fiddling while Rome burns—we should be dealing with economic questions and so on and so forth—I disagree with him because our border security is really fundamental to nearly everything we do economically in this country. Earlier today I had a very graphic illustration of that. I think Labour members and New Zealand First members also met with members of the kiwifruit industry and if ever there was an example of an industry that relies on the Government to take biosecurity at our borders exceptionally seriously that is one. It will get through the  
Pseudomonas syringae  
pv 
. Actinidiae 
 bacteria that has blighted particularly the golden kiwifruit crops but it will not be easy. I come back to the fundamental importance of security at our borders for our No. 1 No. 2 and No. 3 industries in this country and also as Tim Macindoe said in relation to other very significant issues like drug control ensuring that those precursor substances pseudoephedrine and the like do not get through our borders.  
To repeat my point this may be bland legislation it may be legislation that is not going to have people rushing back to the readings to see what was said about it but nevertheless it is important on a very significant subject. Really the key phrase here is “information sharing”. What we have done through this legislation is allow the various agencies to link up with each other so that there is not a silo mentality. Again as Tim Macindoe said that is really a cross-Government theme at the moment. That does not mean though that it is not important. It is fundamentally important when we talk about border control.  
In this the final reading I say that I wholeheartedly support this legislation on a very important subject and I commend it to the House.