Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf the National Party to speak on the Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill. And let me just take a moment, Mr Speaker, just to congratulate you, because I didn’t previously this week, for your elevation to the role of Assistant Speaker. I look forward to your wise adjudication from the Chair. It has been an interesting week for your elevation, with the creation of the hybrid Parliament. So we have, this evening, been listening to other members of Parliament beaming in through a kind of Matrix-type moment with big screens in Parliament, and it’s been quite interesting to see. So it’s been a mix of the new and the old, and that has been quite something. I also should note very briefly just that it has been quite a unique day in the country’s history. We’ve seen scenes that we haven’t seen before, and it has been a sad day for the country.

But I’ll turn to this bill. The purpose of the bill is to amend the Biosecurity Act 1993 to require that all craft coming to New Zealand are required to provide biosecurity information to the persons on board by means of an audiovisual recording and writing. The main provisions of the bill are to insert a new section into the Biosecurity Act that applies to craft that are en route to New Zealand and requires the person in charge of the craft to provide approved audiovisual and written information about New Zealand’s biosecurity requirements. I would congratulate the member for Whanganui, Stephanie Lewis, in whose name this bill has come before the House.

Biosecurity is an issue of critical importance to New Zealand due to our unique ecosystems and our economic reliance on primary sectors, and that has never been truer than through this last couple of years in which other sectors like our tourism sector have been deeply impacted and we have been hugely reliant on the primary sector to carry our country’s economy through and ensure that we have the money, basically, to keep the engine going.

This bill creates a simple but effective mechanism to enhance our biosecurity system. New Zealand’s unique island ecology is a massive selling point for our international tourism industry. It’s also incredibly important for our primary sector, as I said, and I certainly hope that we do see more aircraft coming to New Zealand with tourists in the not too distant future once the Omicron peak has passed.

Our distance to other land masses has resulted in an ecosystem where many organisms are found here and nowhere else. From wetlands to forests, lakes and alpine meadows, there are over 60 different native ecosystems in my electorate of Southland alone. Each ecosystem is a small part of a complex jigsaw and is an integral part of the Southland environment. In Southland, we have areas with particularly high biodiversity values like those in Fiordland, Te Ānau lake, Waituna Lagoon, and Stewart Island. There are smaller remnant patches of bush and wetlands, rivers and lakes throughout Southland, they provide havens for native species, and native biodiversity can also be found in surprising areas like gardens, around our woolsheds, or in the schoolyard. This bill makes a practical contribution to protecting those natural environments, which contributes to the wellbeing of our communities and also attracts many, many thousands, or millions previously, of international visitors to partake in and enjoy our natural environment.

At its core, this bill helps to ensure that we take care of our environments biosecurity while supporting our ability to host others to enjoy those as well. And I’d note that, in the 2020 financial year, New Zealand earned $48 billion from our primary sector; $20 billion of that was from dairy, which is equivalent to our total expenditure on health; $11 billion was from meat; $5.5 billion dollars from forestry; $6.5 billion was from horticulture; and $2 billion from seafood. So it just gives an indication of the value of our primary sector and it’s something that we need to do our best to protect, and this bill will enhance that protection.

In terms of the other aspect of our economy that this bill will have an aspect in helping protect is that of international tourism. I’d like to note that, in a few days’ time, I’m very pleased that we’re taking a very good step forward in enabling vaccinated Kiwis from abroad to be able to freely come back to New Zealand without having to spend time in managed isolation and quarantine. This is a very welcome development, which the National Party has been calling for, and I’m glad to see the Government has made steps very much in the right direction in this respect.

In terms of the Primary Production Committee, there have been a number of largely practical changes that have been made to this bill through select committee as a result of feedback from stakeholders, which we are supportive of. These changes include delaying the date from commencement of this bill by 12 months, rather than the day after Royal assent. This will enable stakeholders and officials time to prepare and ensure that the implementation of changes is well-thought-through. Detail is being removed from the bill in regard to how biosecurity information is delivered; it is instead recommended that this be included in secondary legislation. Myself and Mr Penk are on the committee, which will, no doubt, have time to consider that in the future—and a great committee it is, if I may say so.

💬 Chris Bishop: Oh, it’s a great committee.

It is. As Mr Bishop, who has experience and has seen how well it works, that he knows it’s a very, very good committee.

💬 Chris Bishop: It’s very well chaired, too.

It is very well chaired, and we’re fortunate to have a fantastic chair for that committee. Now, as biosecurity threats can change rapidly, this will enable future changes to be made flexibly, efficiently, and responsibly. The select committee has recommended a practical change for the bill to require biosecurity information to be provided only to passengers, rather than all people on board, eliminating the need for crew members to hear the same message, which they will, no doubt, be all too cognisant of. Amendments have changed the duty to provide biosecurity information, which will apply only to commercial passenger crafts with 20 or more passengers, excluding private planes, fishing vessels, and cargo ships. These crafts are already highly compliant, and there would be limited value in additional regulations and compliance costs. That is a very sensible amendment, which I am pleased to see. Another practical change in the bill is removing the requirement to provide biosecurity information to passengers within our exclusive economic zone. This level of operational detail is, again, best left to be dealt with through regulations, rather than through primary legislation. That is, again, sensible.

So, in conclusion, this bill is a common-sense way to make sure people entering New Zealand are aware of the biosecurity rules and enhance and increase compliance with them through that awareness. The amendments that are proposed in this bill will support sustainable tourism activity in the future—which tourism operators in my region will be very, very pleased to see—as well as mitigating the devastating impact that biosecurity incursion could cause for our biodiversity and for our agricultural sector, especially as other speakers have alluded to. Biosecurity outbreaks can result in New Zealand losing access to important markets and, with our economic resilience reduced by COVID-19, now is the time we can least afford a biosecurity outbreak in our agricultural sector. In addition, this bill will pull us into line with Australia, which has a similar piece of law already. Finally, the National Party believes this is a low-cost, common-sense measure to enhance our biosecurity system and, as I said, reduce the risk of biosecurity incursion. For these reasons, I commend this bill to the House.

I’m delighted to be here. This is my second time speaking this year in the House; so may I just say I am very grateful that we are all able to join digitally, even though it is clearly not desirable that we be doing so as a result of a pandemic—another pesky biosecurity risk that hopped aboard the plane of humanity, although not one, unfortunately, that could have been stopped by this excellent bill.

I am deeply and familially involved in some aspects of this bill. I’ve not had the pleasure and privilege of being part of the Primary Production Committee, but, many years ago, it was my grandpa Ian Watt, who wrote some of the original biosecurity rules for New Zealand. He was a Government vet. As a result, we were brought up in fear and trembling at the thought of bringing anything into New Zealand that might risk our precious flora and fauna, because we are so vulnerable, we are so unique. I was reminded today when I was doing some research that the original source of biosecurity contamination in our beautiful country could be called Captain Cook’s Endeavour. Had they only had the benefit of Steph Lewis’ bill, we might now be enjoying the beautiful birds that were heard off Queen Charlotte Sound and were said to be deafening of a morning. We all know what we have lost; we are determined to preserve what we have.

The bill is of particular interest to me at this moment because Whangārei—the beautiful, beautiful city, which I’m quite sure Taranaki must be cheating in some way to claim the sunshine crown—finally, has opened the most beautiful museum Hundertwasser on our waterfront. This has been the product of 30 years of hard effort and passion from my local community, and one of our great hopes is that this will be a source of tourism and tourists when our borders reopen. Now, I would just like to add that every single member of this House and your friends and family would be most welcome to come and experience this extraordinary jewel on our waterfront, but we are hoping that maybe cruise ships might enter our upper harbour and be brought down to the Hundertwasser building. There is no way I want to see those tourists bringing biosecurity contaminates or risks into our country. So I have a certain personal interest in seeing Ms Lewis’ wonderful bill passed tonight.

I was really interested in looking at this bill and the background to just explore a few of the biosecurity risks that we’re actually facing at the moment. I suggest that it is worth a wee trip to the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Government website to have a look at some of the biosecurity threats we have, whether it’s kauri dieback disease or myrtle rust. Now, I’m not saying we could have stopped the spores of myrtle rust coming over our border, but, again, it does underline just the fragility of our biosecurity as opposed to the rest of the world. And I would echo my friend and colleague Glen Bennett’s comment that overseas people, who do not enjoy the protection that we on this island nation enjoy, often do struggle to understand why they can’t bring an apple or a mandarin or a baby bottle full of formula into the country, and there have been a number of times when I’ve had to say to visiting friends, “No, no, please, it may seem a bit overkill, but this is absolutely vital to us. This is our livelihoods, and this is where we live. This is our life. These are our taonga. Keep your apples out, thank you very much.”

There are other issues we have. We have everything from something terrifying called Johnson grass though to velvetleaf. Now, I’m not sure how they hopped aboard, but I do have a few suggestions because I’ve also had a look at the Customs site as to the sort of things that we really need to be warning people not to bring in. Now, I’ve already mentioned the fruit and veges problem. You can have your fruit and veges, tourists, but we really need them to be our fruit and veges, not the imported version. Meat, fish, and poultry—we’ve all seen the border control programme and watched the way in which people just thoughtlessly, or sometimes out of a misguided sense that these are gifts they needed to bring their whānau in New Zealand, have tried to bring in egg products, obviously, hunting trophies, sports gear, bamboo, cane, coconut, and straw. I remember when Thomas and I brought our two-year-old back home from the UK to live, finally, when we’d done our big OE—I remember getting home, unpacking our containers, and discovering that the movers had packed the entire rubbish bin. So I have sometimes wondered and had a reflexive moment of deep and abiding guilt, and I can only think that my grandfather must have been watching over us and made sure that he zapped any nasties in that particular rubbish bin that was brought over.

Further things: we have saddles and bridles, gardening equipment, outdoor furniture—all things, unfortunately, that I in my current state am unable to share in. But, there you go. They’re biosecurity risks and if I can’t enjoy them—because currently I am sitting here with a broken leg—then no one else should either! I have to say it has been slightly difficult to have to engage with the biosecurity bill in my current slightly busted state. When one is unable to scooter across the house without great difficulty, when one cannot drive, one is suddenly somewhat jealous of those who might decide to talk about taking a lovely ocean voyage or possibly coming in from overseas on the plane. It does, I have to say, cause me a certain amount of sadness, but I will overcome that. I will overcome my personal sense of jealousy at my current limitations, which are, thankfully, going to be of short duration, I hope, and I will look toward the future of our people who are going to be crossing the border happily. And I will try to count my blessings and see the wonderfulness that is other people enjoying the travel that they will shortly be able to enjoy because we are, of course, opening our borders because we have done so incredibly well in stamping out that virus that we could not keep out using Ms Lewis’ wonderful bill.

So, as I continue, my goodness, you’re having an interesting evening there, Mr Speaker, clearly. It’s an interesting experience, it has to be said. It’s an interesting experience doing this digitally, hearing the feedback, seeing the faces. I have a few tips for those who are Zooming now. I’ve realised the trick is don’t put it on the view where you can see the speaker because it’s very distracting to have to look at yourself all the time. It’s much more fun to be able to look at the wonderful faces of your colleagues and, of course, to be able to ignore the slight background noises much more than one was usually able to do.

To conclude my speech tonight, I just think that this is a small and perfectly formed bill and one that we deeply needed. I am grateful to the committee who worked so hard; I am grateful to the submitters who helped make it better; I am grateful to Ms Lewis who brought this in to us so that we can just have that added layer of protection. As I sit here in the beautiful Whangārei, inviting you all to come to Hundertwasser, and any overseas people who might be riveted to New Zealand and Parliament TV, please consider booking yourself upon a wonderful cruise ship so that you too can venture into Whangārei and meet Hundertwasser. But you will do so—you will do so, my future international visitors—knowing full well what you can and what you can’t bring in. From the bottom of my heart, Ms Lewis, on behalf of my family and my grandfather, thank you for updating our laws to take better care of all of us. On that happy note, I very much commend this wonderful bill to this wonderful House.

Order! Order! Before I call the next speaker, I’ll just remind those people on my left that members’ day has traditionally been the day of great initiative and imagination, and it should remain so.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’m coming to you from the mighty Manawatū, and it’s really great to see the neighbours—yourself, Mr Speaker—ascend to that great seat there in Parliament.

So I’m here on behalf of the Greens to support this bill, the Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill. This bill would amend the Biosecurity Act to require that passengers on craft arriving in Aotearoa are provided with biosecurity information via writing and audiovisual recording. This would, essentially, mean airline and ship operators would need to show a video and hand out a form advising passengers of their obligations before arriving. This is similar to Australia’s regime, where there are mandatory inflight biosecurity announcements. I actually thought we already had this happen in planes, because it’s been so long since we’ve been on an aeroplane—all I’ve gone, really, in the last year and a bit is from the mighty Manawatū and right down there to Parliament, and back to the “Palmy-tropolis”. And so it was surprising for me when this bill first came out that we actually didn’t have this stuff embedded in our regulations and our law.

So I would like to thank the member Steph Lewis from Whanganui for bringing this bill to the House. I feel that there’s a lot of support for it around the House; I haven’t heard anyone say that they don’t like this bill. So congratulations to the member for shepherding it this far. I’m sure it’s the sort of bill that you’re going to take straight to the pool room—it’s the vibe, it’s the constitution, it’s not quite Mabo, but straight to the pool room for this one, for you, the member. And congratulations in shepherding it through the Primary Production Committee as well.

One of the issues that we had when we were thinking about it was around the way that the information would be shared. And we thought, you know, translation of the different languages for our electronic provision for use for screen, spreading awareness around—it would be a really good way to do that, and I saw that that was discussed in the reports, so good on you. My understanding is that will happen in the regulations, and I hope that that detail really carries over, because it’s really important if people are going to get on those planes, or get on those ships or whatever, to come over here, that they understand the real importance of biosecurity.

For those of us out here in the rurals, out in the provinces, we know that this is where the food and fibre sector is, and that it’s really, really important to support that sector. I was flicking through the reports from the select committee and I saw that a number of submissions were made talking about that exact same thing. They could see the common-sense approach of it, the importance of protecting our food and fibre sector, given the contribution that it makes to the lifeblood and livelihoods of people out here in the rurals, the provinces as well, and making sure that we have those protections in place is really, really important. And also acknowledging the biodiversity that makes this place, Aotearoa, what it is—the unique biodiversity—making sure that we do everything that we can to protect that biodiversity. So I think it’s the reason why people all want to come here: the nature, the mountains, the rivers, the places that we call home. And to make sure that we do this practical step to make sure that those things are protected is really important.

I noted that in the report there were a couple of amendments made, common-sense ones, making sure that it will be specified for the passengers on the planes as well. That makes sense, the last thing you want is a pilot having to read this stuff 10 times if they’ve been here 10 times or 20 times before. The same with the aircrew as well. So congratulations to the select committee for getting into the detail and sort of seeing that kind of issue, and, also, for making sure that there was some space to make sure that when the transition to the new regime comes into place, that there is some space to do it. So delaying the commencement date, I think, also makes sense as well. I was reflecting on I think it was the Air New Zealand submission which talked about that, about the need to be able to do that—if you’re going to bring laws into place, well, you’ve got to make sure that folks can actually pull the bits and pieces in place so that they can comply. That detail, I expect, will fall out of the regulation.

Also, I wanted to acknowledge the Wellington Community Justice Project as well. They did bring up that issue that was really important for us, around making sure that that information was as accessible as possible, because we know that when people have that information—and I could tell through the discussions that you had at select committee so that people know before they get on the plane, what they’re getting into is a really, really important thing.

So this is a really short call, but, once again, I’d just like to congratulate the member on shepherding this through the House, and it looks like it’s got all the support around the House. I hope my comrades there in Kaipara will also support it as well. I think they were a bit iffy the last time we talked in the first reading, but, hopefully, folks will see the common sense on this—particularly on this day, with all the issues happening right out there on the Parliament lawn as well. It’s good to see us coming together to discuss something as simple but also important as well and to show to the country, “Hey, look, when these issues make sense, when they’re common sense, we actually can come together as a Parliament and agree on things.” So congratulations to the member. Yeah, so for me, it’s straight to the pool room. It’s the vibe, it’s the constitution. It’s not quite Mabo, but congratulations to the member. I recommend this bill to the House.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and thank you for the excellent contribution from the Green Party, very much appreciated that. This bill amends the Biosecurity Act 1993 and further protects New Zealand’s natural environment, biosecurity, and primary industry. I commend the member Steph Lewis for such a great bill. I think she’s a great member who advocates strongly for her community, and this bill is a testament to the fact that she’s thinking about those impacts on the primary industry and how we can further strengthen a key backbone of our economy at a time when we need it more than ever.

This bill means that we can require large commercial craft that are en route to New Zealand to provide information to the craft’s passengers about the biosecurity law relevant before they arrive in New Zealand. It’s a barrier to protect us from those things coming in. A really good example is—we’ll remember well the Queensland fruit fly, for example, which came in through Northcote and Devonport: that cost the New Zealand economy $12 million to eradicate. But if travellers are told on the plane not to bring the apple that they’ve put in their bag—to leave it on the plane or to put it into the Ministry for Primary Industries bin that they get at the airport—that reduces the risk of undetected fruit fly or larva hitching a ride into New Zealand. It also prevents the taxpayer from having to shell out to eradicate a pest that can cause significant damage to the New Zealand economy and primary industry. So I’d like to congratulate the member for having the foresight to see that this is a key area that we need to do more about.

There’s two main reasons why the Labour Party supports this bill, why the Government will be supporting this bill. And that, first of all, is the environment. We know that making New Zealand’s biosecurity system more resilient will help protect our taonga. That’s our ngahere, Tāne-mahuta: the forests, the rivers, and the beautiful natural environment that we’ve been gifted. We love to take our children for bush walks. We love to enjoy what we’ve been given in New Zealand, and protecting that and making sure that we nurture it and look after it, as the caretakers we should be, is incredibly important, as New Zealanders, to our identity, to our future, and for the generations to come. We owe it to the kids yet born to make sure we look after the natural environment that we’ve been given. More than 3,000 of our native species are in serious trouble or at risk of extinction, and, in fact, 142 species were at risk in 2008, and three-quarters of our native fish and one-third of plants were threatened with extinction. We have a fight on our hands to keep in place the beautiful natural environment we have now, and it’s a worth a fight, I can tell you.

Unwanted pests and diseases can further endanger native species and upset delicate ecosystems. And we know this for a fact, and we’ve seen it happen with many instances: kauri dieback, Mycoplasma bovis. We’ve seen these instances. We know how damaging they can be, and it’s important that we have a strong service to make sure we protect them. It’s important to note that the Ministry for Primary Industries do an amazing job of making sure this works well. They work incredibly hard to protect our local businesses, to make sure they can keep earning a buck and exporting internationally. I think Mycoplasma bovis is a fantastic example of how New Zealand was one of the first places in the world to eradicate and work hard to make sure that we protect those areas hard.

It’s also important not just for our natural environment but also for our economy. New Zealand’s economy depends very heavily on our primary industries, and this means we need to run a tight biosecurity system. Farmers and growers have been at the forefront of New Zealand’s export-led economic recovery, and, over the past two years, we’ve seen this continue to do well, despite the global economic conditions that we find ourselves in under COVID. Aotearoa New Zealand is largely free of many of the pests and diseases that we see in many other countries—Australia, next door. This gives us a unique comparative and economic advantage to other countries that we are trading against. New pests and diseases can undermine the advantage that we hold right now on the global stage, and so it’s more important than ever that we maintain this and keep working at it. These can have consequences both across regional and national economies, and that’s local jobs, local businesses, and local farmers. Unwanted pests and diseases can weaken New Zealand’s earning potential and introduce new costs, including by reducing the health and the productivity of commercial animals and New Zealand’s access to export markets.

We work hard, as well, as a Government, to make sure we continue to have access to those export markets. An example recently is the new trade agreement with the UK, which we are setting in place. It will provide new opportunities for our primary industry. Incredibly proud, as part of this Government, to promote new trade agreements that provide great opportunities for local growers and producers to continue providing their products at top standard into those markets overseas.

It’s also important to note that unwanted pests and diseases can also require costly controls, and these fall back to the business owner. The impact of bacterial kiwifruit vine disease Psa on the kiwifruit industry, highlighted the extreme difficulty we face in our growing industry when you’re having to fight back on that basis. Horticulture New Zealand has spoken up and said that they are thrilled to see this bill drawn from the ballot. New Zealand’s top-performing horticulture and other primary industries could be easily destroyed, particularly if a virulent pest or disease entered the country, and this could potentially have catastrophic effects on our exports and New Zealand economy at a time when things are already fragile.

It’s important to note that there is a growing risk. While we have a huge advantage of being an island nation and being able to have tight borders, that we’ve used, it’s also important to note that the size of New Zealand’s biosecurity security challenge has been increasing. I’ve already noted the example of Queensland fruit fly. It’s important that we continue to make sure we have tight controls, that we make sure we look after our primary producers, and that we maintain the ability for primary production to continue to thrive, as we do.

Thank you to the Primary Production Committee. They’ve made a phenomenal amount of changes, when we go through what’s been happening at the select committee process. I’ve never seen so many changes come through. A really important one and a practical one that the select committee have agreed to is to change the commencement date. So, initially, the bill had that it would come into effect as soon as the bill was passed. But the committee has recommended that instead of it coming into force on the date specified, it would come into force by Order in Council or by 12 months after the bill receives its Royal assent, which gives time to prepare, time for the right preparations to be in place for this to come into effect in the best practical way possible.

The other changes, I’m not going to go through them in detail. I wasn’t a member on the committee, but I acknowledge that they’ve also provided for a general duty to provide biosecurity information. They’ve also moved detail duties from primary legislation into secondary legislation. In addition to that, the powers of the director-general have been changed and a new provision in that space for “the Director-General of the ministry to approve written and audiovisual biosecurity information shown to passengers, and [to] notify it in the Gazette. It is our view that this is an administrative matter, which does not need to be set out in primary legislation. We consider that … the Director-General’s powers should be set out in regulations.” In addition to this, changing the duty to provide information to passengers rather than all on board provides greater clarity as well, and also applying the duty to provide biosecurity information to commercial craft.

It’s really great to see that we have some really hard-working local members of Parliament who are out in those rural areas, who are well connected into people, working hard on a day-to-day basis, who understand the types of challenges that come to primary production and those business people who have to fight to be able to earn a crust each day. Making small changes like this, piece by piece, shows the commitment that this Government has to backing the backbone of our economy, which is primary production in many ways. We are committed to continuing to promote free-trade agreements with the UK, to provide new markets that no other Government has previously provided, like into the UK. We continue to strive to give working New Zealanders a fair go and an open market to be able to sell top-quality products that we are proud of. I commend Steph Lewis for an awesome bill, and I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The previous member, Ginny Andersen’s speech was actually very enlightening until the last minute, when I totally got lost when she was affirming how well the Government’s done on behalf of the rural sector. I’m quite happy to stand on behalf of the ACT Party to address the Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill in the name of Steph Lewis.

I actually know intimately well the importance of biosecurity. I had M. bovis on farm, and I think most of you are acutely aware of it. It was pretty much the most heartbreaking part of my farming career—I’ve been farming for 30 years, which I often share with this House—and it was the hardest 18 months of my farming life. It absolutely devastated me, the local community, and I think we would share in the concern of what M. bovis has meant to the country. It’s a billion dollars; it’s an absolute rort on my small community, and all of the 50-odd farms that were involved in it.

But, I think, more importantly, biosecurity and what it means to New Zealand—we’ve seen many, many incursions, and I know the members on both sides of the House would be aware of it. We’ve seen the velvetleaf in Nelson as far back as 2008, and what that meant for the good people down in that part of the country. Foot-and-mouth: I’m not even going to postulate what that would cost to this country. I think anyone worth their salt would be acutely aware that if that was to get into New Zealand, we’re looking at billions of dollars to the loss of our GDP. We’ve already seen myrtle rust and kauri dieback and the degradation of biodiversity.

But, specifically, if I can actually speak to a couple of the key points of this legislation, in the member—this name, Steph Lewis. And I do support the bill, and the ACT Party does, and we’ve changed our position because the Primary Production Committee resolved to reconcile its differences and find a way to proceed forward with it. In its original format, the bill as proposed would come into effect on the day of Royal assent, and that was a concern because it didn’t give industry and the necessary stakeholders the time to make the necessary adjustments to the new legislation should it be enabled. It was agreed that suggestions upon adopting alternative will allow the bill to come into effect either by Order in Council or 12 months after the bill receives Royal assent, and I think this was a fundamental concern for us in the select committee.

Stakeholders gave very good feedback. And I noticed the member—my dear friend and colleague in the National Party Barbara Kuriger—that mentioned that Air New Zealand was cognisant of the fact that it would actually help them mitigate their greenhouse emissions and help with climate change insomuch as they didn’t have this onerous task of carrying around huge amounts of paper. And the technologies could be embraced, that would be enabled, say, through the Air New Zealand app. This is wonderful.

Proposed subsections (2)(a) and (2)(b) would also create duty, which was noted in the changes of legislation, on the person in charge of the craft to provide biosecurity information. As worded, it was found to be quite onerous and overly detailed. Provisions were made to amend that clause, and a proposed new section—17AA, (2)(a), and (2)(b). In addition, it would stipulate that before craft arrived in New Zealand, a person in charge of that craft must provide biosecurity information to passengers as set out in the regulations. The wording was changed to “passengers”, rather than “all people on board”, and I think that was a distinction that the select committee ironed out, having listened to stakeholders and industry leaders.

Amendments were suggested that were made to address several concerns. The term “crafts”—and I think this was well-canvased in the select committee and has been again this evening. It ironed out the kinks, I think is the best way to put it, when it spoke of large commercial craft. And there was some concern early on that the bill in its first iteration encapsulated anything from small aircraft, boats that perhaps would have come out of the islands, and small private planes.

So I think, and the ACT Party certainly thinks, this bill has gone through its first reading, it has gone through quite a rigorous select committee process, and ironed out what I think, and we think at the ACT Party, were the concerning pieces of it. And I stand here quite content on behalf of the ACT Party to see this bill proceed further, and we can certainly debate it and see what other things need to be addressed. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. And may I begin by congratulating you on your appointment today. As we’ve enjoyed very collegial relations on the Governance and Administration Committee, I look forward to your careful and thoughtful and wise presiding over the House. So congratulations to you, Mr Speaker.

This is my first opportunity to take a call in the virtual House, from my home town of Nelson. It is certainly an interesting experience, giving a speech into Parliament from our second bedroom. But from sunny Nelson—and we’re looking forward to taking that crown back from other members who’ve bragged about that today, including my dear friend Glen Bennett. We’re looking forward, here in Nelson, to taking back our crown next year.

So, look, it’s a real pleasure to take a call on this bill from my colleague and friend and bench mate Steph Lewis, the Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill. I’d like to congratulate Steph on her bill, and on getting it through to this stage. I’d just begin my speech by acknowledging the ACT Party and the previous speaker, Mark Cameron, and acknowledge for you how difficult it would have been having M. bovis on farm.

These issues of biosecurity are ones that actually affect all New Zealanders, and all New Zealanders care about them. For me, I’ve been advised by the whips I’m not allowed to use a prop in the virtual House, unfortunately, but I thought I’d share my own experiences of engaging with biosecurity. I’m known to be quite over the top about biosecurity when I come back into New Zealand. My very first trip overseas, when I was 16 years old, I went to the United States with my mother and some others on a choir trip. When we were at Disneyland, of all places, we went into a little shop, and I ended up purchasing a rain stick, which for those of you who know, is a musical instrument that comes from some parts of the world, including—it’s often used in South America. So I do have a rain stick here and in the virtual House but I’m not allowed to demonstrate it, unfortunately. But when we went back into Auckland International Airport, by this point, being 16, I’d run out of money and had to declare the rain stick going through biosecurity because it has seeds through it and cactus pieces inside it as well to help the seeds make the rain sound that it does. So I had to declare this, and it was sent away for heat treatment. I think it ended up costing about three or four times as much as the actual rain stick cost in the first place. Of course, because I’d run out of money, my mother had to pay for it. At around two weeks later, it was couriered back to me in my then hometown of Palmerston North. That was my first experience of New Zealand’s biosecurity system.

But, I must say, having had the privilege of being able to travel since then, a lot, every time I’ve come back into New Zealand, I’ve seen the signs at the airport, and I’ve taken them very, very seriously. In fact, I’ve often declared things I didn’t need to declare, and even been told off by the biosecurity officers for declaring something I didn’t need to declare. But for me, it’s partly my personality, but partly, I think, as a New Zealander. I think all of us feel this way. We are incredibly passionate about both our environment, in terms of protecting it, but we’re also incredibly passionate about the economic contribution of the industries that rely on not having biosecurity incursions.

So, many of us tonight have spoken about the impacts on our own livelihoods, on our own regions. For me, in Nelson, obviously, we have a huge reliance on our horticulture industry. Just to name a few of them—it’s a pity I’m not sitting in the House with my friend Anna Lorck, because we could probably have an argument about who had the best pipfruit—we have a range of horticultural industries that are very prominent in Nelson, one of which is hops. We’ve been growing hops since 1842, and we’re proud to have some well-established companies, such as Sprig and Fern, McCashin’s, Founders Brewery, and other craft breweries in the Nelson-Tasman region, rely on our hops. We have, in my view, the best berries in New Zealand—amazing boysenberries. I’m sure my colleague Damien O’Connor would support me in that view. And we grow amazing apples, and, actually, amazing cider is produced from Nelson. Berry cider is something that we’re incredibly proud of. All of these industries rely on the goodwill of people coming across the border and not bringing bugs or diseases that can impact on those industries.

We know there is a range of things that we need to do to protect these industries, but this is one more tool in the tool box. Thanks to my colleague Steph Lewis for bringing this bill to the House, because it is another tool in the tool box. For those of us who’ve been at the border, coming through the likes of an international airport and seeing people being pulled aside for not declaring something or for trying to bring something in that they shouldn’t—I’m sure people who’ve witnessed that, like I have, actually feel quite angry when they see it. We have a duty to ensure that people coming into New Zealand are given good information to understand why it’s so important for us. We are not a landlocked country—we’re surrounded by water—and so we have an opportunity to put these strict measures in place to ensure that we can protect these industries and the industries that rely on not having pests and diseases come across the border. So anything that we can do to add a tool to the tool box will be incredibly important to protect this industry going forward.

My point I just want to note, as well, is that this isn’t just for craft coming into airports. For those of us who come from port cities, the practices coming into our ports are also just as important. I note that the Primary Production Committee made a couple of changes, one which was a really practical and pragmatic change, which was to take away the reference to all people on a ship and to refer only to passengers—over 20 people—on a ship. I would note that in my electorate of Nelson, we regularly have cruise ships come into the port of Nelson. It’s an important part of our tourism industry that at some point in the future we’re looking forward to bringing back into our region. But it’s important that people on cruise ships coming into New Zealand are given this information, as well, just like passengers on an airplane. I just note that for those of us who might not have international airports, but do have international ports. It’s just as important that we have strong biosecurity measures at our ports, just as it is at airports.

The other practical change that was a sensible change that has already been referenced tonight that came through select committee was to put the form of information that is used in the provision of information into secondary legislation, as opposed to being in primary legislation. As things change, as we move to more uses of digital technology, this is a practical change from the select committee that I agree with so that we don’t burden the primary legislation and make it need to be changed unnecessarily when we can put something into secondary legislation. It’s a very good thing to do.

Just to sum up, this bill adds another tool into our tool box of protections for our border. It amends the Biosecurity Act so that all crafts with passengers of over 20 people are required to provide information to passengers on what they can and can’t bring into New Zealand. That does two things: it protects our environment, protects our natural forests and our fauna and our animals, and it also goes to protect our industries, like agriculture and like horticulture. So I want to commend my colleague Steph Lewis for what is a practical bill that is supported from all sides of the House, because, as New Zealanders, regardless of our political persuasion, we all know the benefit of the environment and how important our agriculture and horticulture sectors are to our economy. It’s exciting to see this bill—

Your time’s done, Rachel. I call Nicola Grigg for five minutes.

I do feel like I’ve got the graveyard call on the graveyard shift, and everybody’s stolen all my good lines, so I will definitely try and keep this brief for the House’s sake, and all the good people that are in it.

In a world where we have become so much more aware of the impact that the spread of disease has on our communities and on our society, and most specifically on our economy, I think the protection of New Zealand’s biosecurity is probably more important than it has ever been. I think we’d all agree that that is why every possible effort should be made to bolster any protection we can against possible incursions. In the bill notes, it says that this bill creates a simple but effective mechanism to enhance our biosecurity system. We on this side of the House like simple but effective mechanisms, rather than highfalutin waffle. It is very timely, though, to have a bill like this in front of the House. It amends, as has been canvassed, the Biosecurity Act to require all craft coming into New Zealand to provide biosecurity information to those on board. And as we look forward with great anticipation to our borders re-opening and, hopefully, the influx of international aircraft and international cruise ships and shipping lines, there will, of course, be a heightened risk that comes with that. So it is an insurance policy of sorts.

We do know that this economy is fuelled by our world-class primary export sector and our reputation out there in those global markets for being largely pest- and disease-free. It doesn’t come cheap. A lot of hard work has been put in to our economy and our society over decades to try and keep us as clean, green, and pest- and incursion-free as possible. We do already have those strong biosecurity measures in law and in practice, thanks to the Ministry for Primary Industries and Customs and all of those front-line staff who must be acknowledged for the very hard work they do—they’ve probably had their feet up a little bit more recently, with slightly less to do, but I’m sure they too will be anticipating that large influx of foreign travellers.

We are lucky, for the most part, for our remoteness. What we’ve often referred to as the tyranny of distance has actually served us well to a degree in the past in our defence against biosecurity breaches. But as, I think, a previous speaker mentioned, it does just take one passenger with an apple in their backpack—or a nectarine, I think Chris Bishop mentioned—for the risk of severe damage being done to our international reputation.

For those of us who hail from the primary production sector, it’s a very, very real threat that we face all the time. We don’t have to cast our minds back very far to the devastating impact that that Psa incursion had on growers around the country—I think about $800 million in damage and lost revenue. Then, as Mark Cameron of the ACT Party referred to, the Mycoplasma bovis incursion has been devastating for rural communities around New Zealand, and I would also acknowledge those farmers around Canterbury that have had to suffer from this terrible disease. But then, of course, we’ve also had myrtle rust, and we do always live in fear, as, again, Mark Cameron—I told you everyone else had stolen my good lines—mentioned that we do all live in fear of the threat of diseases like foot-and-mouth disease and, probably, mad cow disease as well.

But coming back to this bill, it has been seen by most of the industry—specifically Horticulture New Zealand and Federated Farmers—as a sensible and beneficial extension of extending the biosecurity measures at our borders. There were a couple of minor updates suggested, including the requirement to translate biosecurity information into multiple languages and the ability for airlines to be able to produce their own video. Don’t we all love a good inflight video? I would have to say I have noticed a decline in the standards with the departure of the previous CEO of Air New Zealand, but we’re very happy to have him here in this House.

But other than those changes, the bill seeks to make some very sensible changes to existing law, which can only be a good thing. I am also happy to commend this bill to the House.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Can I first also start by congratulating you, as your neighbour for the Ōtaki electorate and you being Rangitīkei, on your elevation during this week and what a great job you’ve been doing, Mr Speaker.

Just a thankyou for another opportunity to take what will be a really quick call in the House tonight. First, can I start by congratulating my friend and my colleague, the member of Parliament for Whangārei—sorry, Whanganui. She’s going to kill me for that one! Whanganui—sorry Em. Congratulations Stephanie Lewis on bringing this Biosecurity (Information for Incoming Passengers) Amendment Bill to the House and also acknowledging both the member, the select committee, and the officials on the changes that they made to this bill to ensure that it is the best piece of legislation or bill that we can make it.

Can I also just say that it’s great to have peace of mind for our environmental warriors in the Ōtaki electorate, as well as our food and fibre farmers, including Woodhaven Gardens and Lewis Farms in the Ōtaki electorate. I know this bill will give them peace of mind, knowing that they can be affected by those diseases and insects that slip through and can devastate our horticulture industries but also papatuanuku and our whenua, in terms of our climate space. We want to make sure that people still know us as a great place to visit, that we have our beautiful native plants, our beautiful biodiversity, we want to ensure that that continues to happen. We want to ensure our farmers have peace of mind that nothing will come in and wreck their crops. So for that, this is a great bill and I commend this bill to the House.

This debate is interrupted. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow.

The House adjourned at 10.01 p.m.