Dairy Industry Restructuring (Export Licences Allocation) Amendment Bill

Members, we now come to Part 2. This is the debate on clauses 10 to 16—“Miscellaneous amendments”. The question is that Part 2 stand part.

Thank you very much, Mr Chair. I am looking forward to, hopefully, the Minister answering my previous questions, but perhaps he’s getting some more advice or thinking about it a bit more.

I have a question that follows on—that is a little bit similar but also different to the one I asked with regards to false declarations and things like that. I noticed that in clause 14, “Section 31 amended (Offences),” that “In section 31(3), replace ‘and is liable for the following, who provides a false declaration in relation to milk solids collection data contrary to’ with ‘and is liable on conviction for the following, who provides a false declaration in relation to the information or documents required under’”; (2) In section 31(3)(b), delete ‘or a term of imprisonment not exceeding 3 months, or both’ ”. So I’m pleased to see that imprisonment as a penalty for providing false information is going to be removed, or is removed. However, what penalties will exist for providing false information?

Thank you, Mr Chair. I have a question for the Minister regarding clause 15, “Section 42 replaced (Disclosure of information)”, under Part 2, and I’m specifically looking at new section 42(2)(c). Understanding that we’re looking at providing some framework around the disclosure of information, particularly the sharing of information between the Minister and the New Zealand Customs Service, I am very interested in paragraph (c) when it talks about “to allow the Minister to decide whether to recommend the making of secondary legislation under this subpart.”

Normally, when we’re looking at secondary legislation - making powers, there are certain criteria in place to ensure that that secondary legislation isn’t going to be ultra vires. However, what I’m not seeing under this are the boundaries and the framework for such secondary legislation. So my question to the Minister is: can I make an assumption, or is this assumption correct, that the recommendation of making the secondary legislation under this Subpart is on the basis of the information that is provided under subsection (2)(a) and (b) of new section 42, because otherwise, I think there is going to be a broader issue of how broad this secondary legislation is going to be if it doesn’t have some sort of confines.

Just on these two points. In respect of the Hon Jo Luxton’s questions around offences for providing false or untruthful information, the member is right that it is no longer an imprisonable offence. This brings the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act into step with current legislative practices, which require a strong rationale for using imprisonment penalties where there’s a strict liability offence. In this case, it goes to a fine, and a fine of up to $200,000 is the case.

For the Green member Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan, who has just raised questions, indeed he is correct that it is largely around the sharing of information. The section does a number of things. It allows information to be shared between the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Customs Service to ensure that they have adequate information when it comes to deciding upon setting that special criteria—so to be able to check whether exports have taken place and volumes, and so on. The rest of that section is around only having access to information that they require as necessary, and data protection, so that they can’t get information that is not needed when it comes to deciding whether or not a special quota might be set.

Thank you very much, Mr Chair. I have a question with regard to a disclosure of information and new section 42(4) in clause 15. Obviously, we’ve talked about the Customs Service being able to collect information with regard to export volume, etc., etc. But subsection (4) says, “The Ministry and the New Zealand Customs Service must ensure that appropriate protections are or will be in place to maintain the confidentiality of information shared under this section.”

What is deemed appropriate and how can we be sure that this information would be kept confidential, and what is the risk of this information accidentally being shared—so how can we ensure, and what are the appropriate protections?

Madam Chair, thank you. I just follow on with that area of the interface between Customs and the Ministry for Primary Industries, of course, or New Zealand Food Safety. I knows there’s been a bit of pressure on some of the systems. For all Government agencies, I just need to have assurance from the Minister that in dealing with lots of white powders that generally make up milk, the Customs service will be able to distinguish between one lot of white powder and other white powders, because I’d hate to see a mix-up somewhere along the line.

You were saying you wanted to go up the value chain! I think we’re at risk of running out of questions unless I deal with that last one.

I mean, our New Zealand Customs Service is very, very professional. Indeed, they take their responsibility seriously: both product going out, I suppose, as well as stopping product coming in.

But in this case, when it comes to privacy, there are already a number of procedures in place across Government agencies, and Government ministries take it extremely seriously. There are laws in place around privacy and the protection of private data. New section 42(2) in clause 15 merely allows them to share information where there is a reason to do so, and it instructs them through legislation to make sure that there are adequate provisions to keep confidentiality. They will take this seriously, as all ministries have, and of course we have the Privacy Commissioner to ensure that they’re doing their job properly.

Part 2 agreed to.

Members, we come to the Schedule. The question is that the Schedule stand part.

Schedule agreed to.

Clauses 1 to 3