O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Can I start by agreeing—that I think the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee which considered this bill is exceptionally good. The chair—I don't know exactly how to articulate it but she's great she does an excellent job and has moved this piece of legislation through very positively in the House. So Madam Speaker if you get the opportunity please pass on my thanks to her—I'm sure she will appreciate it.Hon Members: Aw!SIMON O'CONNOR: Does that get me an extra five minutes? No I'm only kidding.Look National continues to be very pleased to support this Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill as we now move into its third and final reading. As I did at the committee stage I want to acknowledge the new Minister of Customs Jo Luxton who is in this role and has picked it up at a very very late stage. Fortunately for her I would say—and not a reflection on her but fortunately as a new Minister—it's a bill that is relatively without controversy.Look seeing we're in the third reading I'll traverse a few of the aspects to make sure it's well recorded and for those at home to understand what this is all about. Fundamentally we're moving away from those little DLE-size blue arrival cards that we are all familiar with on to a digital asset. So for New Zealanders and others visiting New Zealand—actually sorry I'd better back that up: a New Zealander can't strictly visit New Zealand. So for New Zealanders returning home and others within the Realm and for those visiting they are now from late June going to use an online system. For many Kiwis they'll be somewhat familiar with the system if like me you had to use the New Zealand traveller declaration. It's going to be a similar system. Can I stress the word similar"—it's not a health declaration. It's in effect the same questions that we are familiar with when we return to the country and those questions are actually a mixture of Customs and Ministry for Primary Industry questions that are put to us.It's going to a digital format. This is a prudent way forward which is one of the reasons this side of the House supports it. We are becoming a much more technologically driven country and for me personally I'm hopeful that because this information will be swiftly available—obviously Customs and our other agencies will be able to use and deploy it. But it'll also be of use—and we had the likes of the tourism industry come in and speak to us to say they would really appreciate being able to get quick access to that arrival data; it assists with their planning. I should again put for the record: the systems in place with Customs are already pretty good if not excellent actually. As the shadow Minister of Customs I have to say they're a remarkable agency. As many in this House know they do an exceptionally good job. And so these aspects are tinkering if you will or are subtle changes around the edges. They already share information very strongly and positively with the likes of the tourism industry—at a high level; better be clear to the House and others. They're not sharing particular and personal data. It's high-level data. But if this is now coming through a digital means that's a positive.As I say it's now going to a digital format. One of the elements that exercised quite a bit of time within the select committee was the question of whether there would be new questions. For those who have taken the time—as I am sure everyone in this House as I look around has studiously studied the bill; it's only four pages—Hon Michael Woodhouse: Twice.SIMON O'CONNOR: Twice says one of my colleagues here: the Hon Michael Woodhouse. Long and short the legislation does not—repeat: does not—prescribe the questions which should be on the arrival card. And the committee was a little concerned about that primarily because we did not want to see a host of new questions appear that some of us would feel were intrusive or frivolous or unnecessary. Why I'm sharing this is I think it's really important to put on the Hansard as we were given very good and clear advice that the existing Customs and Excise Act makes it very very clear the scope of what the chief executive or the Comptroller of Customs can put within the arrival card—and that applies to other agencies as well. It was therefore thought that it's better to empower as this piece of legislation does the chief executive or the Comptroller of Customs to prescribe those questions by regulation. There's always a chance—well there's not always a chance. There will be a chance in the future that we have to update those questions and it's better done by regulation rather than literally another amendment bill has to be created and we have to come back into this House and go through a first second third reading—obviously a committee stage and select committee as well. So it's prudent to leave that to the comptroller or to the chief executive of Customs.The other element which exercised us a little bit was around data security and particularly around the sharing of information. We were given very good and strong assurances that there are already positive if you will memorandums of understanding between the likes of Customs and the Ministry of Social Development our intelligence agencies Police and others to make sure that that data is appropriately used. And really importantly for those at home this bill does not change any of that. It doesn't change any of that whatsoever.It's not so much a question; it's an encouragement to the Government that again while we support this to make sure the support systems are in place—we'll all know possibly in our own families those who are not particularly tech savvy; they will find it a challenge to log on to any system and do this digitally—to make sure there are systems in place to assist those people at the border whether it is through an online system or whether they still have access to paper. It's my understanding from a comment from the Minister I think in the second reading but perhaps in the committee stage as well that a paper option will still be available. But as I say it's not just about the systems; it's making sure we have people in place.I just want to end with a couple of last thoughts if I might. One is around the maritime vector. It's something which the chair of the select committee in foreign affairs has heard me speak about before perhaps. We are really really good at policing for want of a better word—despite we're talking about Customs—policing the airport vector of people arriving. We are not in my opinion as good or as strong or as consistent as we could be within the maritime vector. I'm not talking about defence forces. I'm aware that there's a delay of a few months via this bill for them to implement the system. I'm talking about the cruise ships and so forth. Personally I think we just need to tighten up a little bit there to make sure that those arriving into New Zealand via the likes of cruise ships go through the same or very close to the same rigour which we have at our airports.And the second thing is—and I mentioned earlier about changing the questions. One—it's only a suggestion. I'm big into modern slavery—or sorry I'd better rescind. I'm not into modern slavery; I'm against being you know a modern slaver. Let's be really clear about this. This is the problem with our nomenclature in this Parliament. I would love to see a more robust approach in our questioning to ensure that we're capturing elements of modern slavery. And also—and it's a very particular issue but it might be surprising to some people both in this House but certainly at home—around forced organ transplantations which sadly happen around the world. And New Zealand is a bit of a laggard in this space. We are not asking the appropriate questions to flush these behaviours and actions out. And so it's just an example of how we may change through Order in Council or regulation our questions coming into the country. It's a much longer and wider debate but those of us from across the House who are interested in human rights see there are issues around organ transplantation. We see issues around modern slavery. And as with an event last night we see issues around our Magnitsky sanctions. All three of them are areas we do not—again do not—have adequately in this country.So an encouragement with this new bill which I am confident will pass tonight that not only we set these systems well into place but we apply them appropriately not only to protect the Realm but also to make sure that New Zealand continues to enhance its human rights framework. And with that I commend the bill to the House."