Copeland Gordon: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Copeland Gordon: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:633;Page:4557] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 As current events in Lebanon and Israel illustrate we live in a dangerous and uncertain world. The events of 9/11 in the USA and subsequent acts of terrorism in Madrid in Bali twice in London and elsewhere—all perpetrated by Islamic extremists who chose to advance their political agenda by having recourse to indiscriminate acts of violence—have been well documented over recent times. I think that all the civilised nations of the world are now determined jointly to do all they can to eliminate the potential for such evil to continue in our world. 
It is in that context that we come to this Customs and Excise Amendment Bill (No 2) because this bill seeks to amend the Customs and Excise Act 1996 in order to strengthen border security measures and to provide for more effective integrated border management across all Government agencies with an interest at the border. The amendments aim to counter terrorism and transnational crime and to provide consolidation to amendments made to the Act in 2004 as well as to enable the Customs Service to contribute better to the Government’s collective interest at the border. Of particular importance in this bill is an amendment in relation to the Custom Service’s ability to deal with false and forged travel and identity documents. 
During the last Parliament through an amendment to the Act in 2004 the Government brought in a new range of measures to do with the importation of goods into New Zealand the exportation of goods from New Zealand and the passing of goods through New Zealand in transit say from Fiji to Los Angeles. There was a tremendous expense involved on behalf of the Crown to implement those new border security measures but they were necessary if we were to continue for example to be able to export goods from this country to the United States or if other nations wanted to trans-ship goods through our country to the United States. And that is just one indication I guess of a huge investment collectively—into the billions of dollars—that has happened around the world to try to counter the actions of terrorist organisations coming to us particularly from Islamic nations. 
At the time United Future argued very strongly that the Government alone should bear the costs involved. We regard it classically as defence-of-the-realm expenditure. The Government has a high priority—one of the highest priorities of any Government—to defend the citizens of this country against acts of terrorism. That of course applies particularly to the importation of goods into our country where for example bombs and other devices could be stored in cargo holds or in containers coming into New Zealand. I re-emphasise that United Future continues to believe that the costs relating to border control—to the extent that those costs in turn are related to terrorism and to transnational crime or indeed when we come to forged passports and other travel documents and even to the interchange of spy networks within the world—need to continue to be borne by the Crown. They are no different if you like from the mainstream expenditure we have through Vote Defence in its attempt basically to protect this nation from the activities I have mentioned. 
I want to make the point today that we as a party want to continue down that track. Therefore although we will be supporting the first reading of this bill we do so on the understanding that those costs will continue to be borne by the Crown and that no further attempt will be made by the Government to push them off on to exporters or importers. In fact as far as exporters are concerned I believe that we need to give them every encouragement at this stage in our economic cycle—given the balance of payment situation we have—and we should not be imposing costs on them that will make exporting from this country more difficult. That is counterproductive for them and it is counterproductive for the national interest. With those few remarks I have pleasure in signalling United Future’s support for the bill.