SpeechDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Fa'afetai lava Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to rise as the MP for the beautiful Takanini to speak on this first reading of the Increased Penalties for Breach of Biosecurity Bill. Again like my colleagues I'd like to commend the member in charge the Hon Jacqui Dean for presenting the member's bill to the House. Again like you've said—what the member has presented—it is another step in the right direction adding another layer to protecting our biodiversity.What the bill proposes to do like colleagues have mentioned is the $1000 to $2000 increase for the conviction fine and also the infringement fee from $400 to $1000. But I think the third point is really important because I think that is more of a deterrent I believe and that is for the immigration officer to have the power to refuse entry to a temporary entry class visa holder. The reason why I see this as really important is I watch Border Patrol on TV as well—we all do—and it's quite interesting what we see on TV with the different entry points into Aotearoa. I just want to mention and acknowledge the hard work that our customs officers do because I see many of our passengers arrive here and sometimes they may have missed on the declaration card presenting items which may be small might be fruit and can be chucked away. But then I see others who deliberately do not declare it and they have bags and bags of goods that are prohibited. How much of a risk that is to our biodiversity is huge.So I acknowledge that having an immigration officer have those powers and for people to get educated on the three new points of this bill would make a huge difference in deterring that sort of behaviour. Like our select committee chair has mentioned it is all our responsibility to protect Aotearoa from pests and disease and it is really important that as the border has opened Kiwis and foreigners that come to Aotearoa make sure that we are declaring because Aotearoa has that reputation of being clean and green and we want to keep it that way. The environment—seeing the impact of unwanted pests and disease. I think about the environment I see in my electorate of Takanini. We have beautiful parks and habitats and natural ecosystems from Barry Curtis Park at the northern end the Botanical Gardens Totara Park all the way down to Bruce Pulman Park. We have a beautiful stream that goes right through the electorate and borders with Arena Williams and other MPs through here and that's the Puhinui Stream. That's a stream where we've had mana whenua and Auckland Council come into agreement that we need to make sure that we uphold that stream that provides life to that natural ecosystem. Having these diseases and pest that come through the border will impact that. We don't want that to happen especially with our residential area with our kids playing near the stream and we want to make sure that they don't get sick as well.I turn to the economy and the primary industries and the impact that has on our farmers and growers here and the economy as the previous speaker has mentioned and the huge billion-dollar industry that that provides.Rachel Brooking: $53 billion.Dr ANAE NERU LEAVASA: That's right: $53 billion that provides to our economy in Aotearoa. So it's really important we protect our farmers and growers in that environment as well.I do have a friend who works at Auckland Airport and does the Customs control there. It is really hard when they have to face so many passengers that get off. Things do slip through and the risk is that of destroying our environment spoiling our waterways reducing animal plant and fishing stocks and as Kiwis we love to fish and do all those—Angie Warren-Clark: We love our fish.Dr ANAE NERU LEAVASA: Yes that's right—and the illnesses that causes into our livestock as well.I sub on to this select committee. I'm not a full member on the select committee but I always love hearing and learning. I do know about hand foot and mouth which affects our kids but foot-and-mouth definitely for animals. So I commend this bill to the House.