Luxton Jo; Tuiono TeanauHon JO LUXTON (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise and take a call on this piece of legislation. Can I acknowledge the Minister the Hon Todd McClay for bringing this piece of legislation to the House and actually sending it to the select committee where it will have its full process which is something that we haven't really seen a lot of from this current Government. I'd also like to acknowledge the Hon Damien O'Connor for the introduction of this bill which was a Labour bill and that is why we are supporting this piece of legislation.This piece of legislation is pretty much what I would refer to as a housekeeping bill. It's tidying up. As the Minister mentioned it makes minor amendments to existing Acts that are administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). It is difficult to find time within the parliamentary calendar to bring pieces of legislation like this to the House in order for them to be processed and moved through because we have things such as annual reviews which we are just going through now and then we've got Estimates etc. etc. So this is a really good opportunity to have this as an omnibus bill which deals with a lot of those housekeeping issues as I referred to.Some of the reason that we have this bill coming to the House for this housekeeping tidy-up is because currently agencies are having to work with legislation that is perhaps out of date or not quite fit for purpose. As the Minister mentioned there are several amendments to this piece of legislation and each one in isolation perhaps doesn't mean a lot but the collective changes of this piece of legislation will provide significant benefits across the primary sector which will reduce the administrative burden and make it easier for businesses to operate in the regulatory system. It does improve the regulatory framework for the primary sector by increasing efficiency and it removes the complexity which means our farmers can actually get on with the job of what it is that they want to do which is farming.Grant McCallum: My you've learnt! Geez.Hon JO LUXTON: There's a couple of things that I wish to—yes that is correct and that is what I believe.Grant McCallum: Good—can you educate your colleagues?Hon JO LUXTON: So there's just a couple of wee points—there's a couple of points which I wish to highlight Mr McCallum thank you very much with regard to the biosecurity changes. So for example clause 88 amended section 35: the amendment will enable inspectors in biosecurity control areas to request documentation relating to imported goods which under section 35 officers can only require and make copies of a passport or other evidence of identity but no other documentation. Inspectors can ask for goods to be made available for inspection but cannot request or copy documentation that relates to those goods and the absence of this power makes it more difficult to make a risk assessment. Another point in another clause and another change in the biosecurity space clause 101: it enables the seizure of risk goods at the border to include seizure of evidence of offending. So currently MPI can seize risk goods but cannot seize evidence of offending which creates both evidential and potential biosecurity risks when evidence of offending cannot be obtained at the border. These are really crucial to protecting our border. We are susceptible to incursions biosecurity incursions in particular at our border and so I think this piece of legislation will strengthen that. I only hope that the cuts that we are seeing to MPI do not further risk this.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): The question is that the motion be agreed to.