Calder Cam: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Calder Cam: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Biosecurity Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
Dr CAM CALDER (National) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to rise and make a brief contribution to the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill and the Biosecurity Amendment Bill. This Government has over the last couple of years made no secret—no secret at all—of the fact that we are rebalancing our economy away from the debt-fuelled consumption of the previous 9 years when the other Government was in power to an export-led growth. 
We have had some very very good news. We have had some very good news. Exports are up by almost 10 percent—almost 10 percent. Exports to Australia our No. 1 market are now $11 billion a year and exports to China our No. 2 market are up by 22 percent—22 percent. Our total exports from New Zealand are $47.3 billion. It is an extremely important linchpin foundation stone for our health and prosperity. It is underpinned by our rural economy. This Government does not take biosecurity lightly. The rural economy has had an excellent year—an excellent year. Milk production is up by 7 percent and that is twice the average growth of the last 10 years. The meat and fibre sector has had a record financial year. Our national well-being is underpinned by our rural economy and it is vitally important that we have a high level of security at our borders. We earn our keep not just from goods—or as it is often called merchandise trade—but also from services. Total services in exports to June 2011 were $13.5 billion. This is dominated by tourism travel and education. 
The thrust of these bills as we have heard is to encourage and enhance effective collaboration at our borders—effective information-sharing. The Government has put its money where its mouth is. It has made a $75 million investment in new systems to make that information sharing more effective and more able to underpin the security of our borders. The new Joint Border Management System will bring the Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry biosecurity processes together under the same system so people do not fall through the cracks. So as the previous speaker alluded to we can trace somebody and alert the relevant authorities if a person has declared that they have been a visitor to a farm in an area of concern or indeed any farm at all which we can then take appropriate steps to address. 
In summary the Joint Border Management System will enable importers exporters and other supply-chain parts of it to electronically submit clearance documents declarations and supporting documents to the border agencies through one channel using standardised information. What is the advantage to the Government here? It will safeguard border services enhance the management of border risks and enable this information sharing. What is the advantage to industry I hear you ask. Industry will benefit under the Joint Border Management System particularly through the Trade Single Window. It will enable industry to enable access and electronically submit all the border clearance documents once and once only. It will provide more certainty about the clearance status of those documents and result in the faster more transparent and efficient movement of goods through the supply chain. I commend this legislation to the House.