SpeechANGELA ROBERTS (Labour): Well done Mr Speaker. It is a great pleasure to take a call on this bill and like everyone else congratulate the Hon Jacqui Dean on bringing it to the House. Despite what some people think this side of the House is always really pleased when we can do something that further strengthens and protects our rural communities. This protects a lot of things in New Zealand but rural communities are one of them. And it does make us very pleased on this side of the House because many of us do live in rural communities and we're very aware of the impact of the breaches that have been described tonight.I just want to share a little story about the snake. I once was on a flight back from South-east Asia a few years ago and sat next to a lovely young English backpacker who was really excited about coming to New Zealand and spending time in our beautiful outdoors. But it's a long flight from Bangkok and we had a lot of time for her to tell me about her adventures and about the time when she had to stand up for herself and kill a snake with a rock. And she was so proud of herself that she kept that snake and she actually had it in her backpack and was going to take that trophy with her back to England which of course was via New Zealand. So she was a lovely young woman who really valued our beautiful open spaces and she had no malice but she was about to expose our economy and our ecology to a potentially fairly significant risk. She truly had no understanding of what she was about to do but money talks. And we all know that the size of a fine says a lot. It says that we take our biosecurity seriously. Even if she didn't understand why she understood a little bit more about the fact that she needed to take it seriously. And the idea that she might be refused entry into the country or that she may be hit with a fine of potentially $1000 or $2000 might help her to sharpen her mind. We all know why—we've heard about it in the House tonight: the threats to our biodiversity our native flora and fauna the economic cost. We know that there are people in this House who have not just experienced M. bovis and the impact financially but on your heart right? And we don't want to expose our farmers to those sorts of risks when we can protect them. It is our way of life. The travel restrictions that could come about—we've heard about foot-and-mouth disease and what that would do not just to our exports but to our way of life as we had to shut the country down to eradicate it.The importance of stopping these things at the border is immeasurable really. And it isn't just about sorting out those jandals as we come back from Bali. We have to think about—and we know from M. bovis—what happens when things do slip through the gaps. And it isn't just about the immediate response. We heard from the Commissioner for the Environment this year about the impact of plants coming into the country and eventually becoming weeds and the fact that for every four native plants we have three exotic plants that have naturalised. That's taken generations to happen and will take generations to eradicate. We know why. And the really important thing about upping the sanctions is that it makes it a little bit more likely that those coming across the border will have a wee think and focus the mind.And it isn't just the smugglers that the Hon Jacqui Dean talked about—those who need to be deterred—but actually I think the more dangerous behaviour which is complacency; possibly much more dangerous. Those careless and hopeful young backpackers maybe they'll read that advice—and there is a lot of it—about what they need to declare that they won't necessarily lose everything that they declare but that they need to do it for the sake of our nation. So that is why we support this bill going to select committee: so we can have a good dig into how it fits into the broader commitment that this country has made—not just tens of millions of dollars into biodiversity but how we strengthen our laws across the board. So we will be pleased to discuss it and make sure it fits into our arsenal to protect our economy our way of life and most importantly our flora and fauna. I commend this bill to the House.