Choudhary Ashraf: Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Legislation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Choudhary Ashraf: Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Legislation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15193] 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY (Labour) 
: 
 There is no doubt that as New Zealanders travel widely around the world as our trade increases and as climate change happens there are increasing risks to our biosecurity. There is no doubt about that. Clearly the Government has to take the lead in protecting our plants environment and climate from these likely changes. 
I will take up some of the challenges put forward by the Green Party and Maori Party which are opposed to the Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Legislation Amendment Bill. I was surprised that we did not see any member from those parties actually taking part in the consideration of this bill at the Primary Production Committee. I wish they had actually taken part and had heard the submitters. A number of submitters particularly those from the bee-keeping industry and pork industry had very strong views about it; there is no doubt about that. The select committee heard all these views and took those concerns back to the officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry the  
Environmental Risk Management Authority and the  
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We also took advice from Crown Law and the Legislation Advisory Committee. We were told clearly that because of the court case there was no way we could go ahead without making relevant changes to this bill. We have to make amendments so that we can make sure that some of these organisms coming in as passengers—or what I call stowaways—into the country can be better dealt with by the Biosecurity Act rather than by the  
Environmental Risk Management Authority and  
Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. In this case the  
Environmental Risk Management Authority cannot do the kind of evaluation that the  
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry people can do. These organisms do not come under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act which states that any intentionally imported new organism has to be dealt with by the  
Environmental Risk Management Authority. 
The committee had about 50 submitters and 15 of them wanted to be heard which we did. In fact we had additional meetings to deal with this issue because there was a shorter time frame for us. The committee did an excellent job particularly in proposing to set up a scientific panel. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is supposed to do that as soon as the enactment of this bill happens. The panel can have people from overseas. I would suggest that there are not many scientists in New Zealand—perhaps one or two—who know a lot about honey. The panel might have to comprise some people from overseas. It is up to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to look around for these scientific people to look into this issue. 
Overall this bill is a very good amendment to clarify what the Environmental Risk Management Authority can do and what the Biosecurity Act can do through the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry people. I commend this bill to the Committee. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: Before the member begins can we make sure we are talking about new clause 2A. I do not want us to take off into Part 1.