Browning Steffan: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Browning Steffan: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:678;Page:1351] 
STEFFAN BROWNING (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is supporting these two bills these joint bills the Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill and the Biosecurity Amendment Bill. 
Simon Bridges 
: That’s the first time this term. 
STEFFAN BROWNING 
: It happens. But there are a number of things that we are very very concerned about and we will be looking to make sure that the bills are implemented in a sensitive and sensible way. The bills a little bit like the security and surveillance legislation that went through last week actually impact on personal freedoms in a potentially significant way depending on how the regulation is managed by the Minister of Customs and the customs and biosecurity services. It may be a fast and efficient system that moves people through airports and moves trade more quickly—and we all appreciate it when it affects us individually. We hope the improved profiling system can make that happen. However moving people through very quickly does not necessarily remove risk. 
I can recall coming back from my only trip to Tonga and while on the plane finding ants in a book we were reading. My partner and I thought we had better do the right thing and declare that to the customs people. That turned out to be everything except fast and efficient. Not only that; because we had actually declared what we saw as a potential risk to New Zealand horticulture—and I am a horticulturist—the Customs Service decided that it needed to charge us for the time and effort spent in dealing with it. Because of the nature of these bills with regulation after regulation after regulation they take everything away from people actually joining in and making a decent decision. I am just wondering where these bills will actually take situations like that. I think there is still a significant risk of people thinking that OK they can be fast-tracked as long as they do not declare anything as long as they just zip on through. This risk profiling is going to let in as another member of the House just mentioned fruit fly or some other one. 
While we are impinging on these freedoms we have got the accessing agency being any class of agency. The customs bill allows huge freedom for various organisations being the ones privy to the information. The information is without limitation—information about goods and persons. So a wide range of information can go to whomever. I note that in previous speeches there was mention of Auckland Airport’s getting commercial information for customer profiling and that sort of thing. If that sort of thing carries on as this bill allows for although the Greens support it at the moment we will be looking at that again when it comes back before the House. We hope it is not just some sort of revenue-making exercise on the part of the Government. 
In terms of biosecurity—and I have mentioned the ants and I have mentioned fruit fly—we even have issues now where the Government has decided this week it is not going to worry about the Schmallenberg virus. There are no plans to test imported animal semen and embryos for it. It can create fever reduce milk production and produce birth abnormalities and abortions in our primary production but the Government says no it is not a problem because a certain sort of midge is needed to be the vector for it. 
As for speeding things up although we might get some better information in terms of risk profiling and the like if we are not really going to apply biosecurity services in an absolutely thorough way these bills are going to be just a veneer for a sped-up tourism industry and obviously for importers. I am very concerned as is the Green Party that although we can see the benefits of better risk profiling we might actually end up letting some new biosecurity risks into this country. So support the legislation we will but with a lot of trepidation about how it will be managed by the Minister and the services. Thank you.