Williams Andrew: Geneva Conventions (Third Protocol—Red Crystal Emblem) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Geneva Conventions (Third Protocol—Red Crystal Emblem) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading[Sitting date: 04 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7102. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Geneva Conventions (Third Protocol—Red Crystal Emblem) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First alongside all other parties will support this bill. We are somewhat concerned that it is taking so long to get through the process of this House and that this was originally signed up to in 2005—Dr Paul Hutchison: Who was the Minister at the time?ANDREW WILLIAMS: I am not sure. I was not here in the House in 2005.Dr Paul Hutchison: The Hon Winston Peters.ANDREW WILLIAMS: I do not know; I cannot confirm that. What I can say is that as I mentioned in the House last night the Government has 64 Government bills on the Order Paper many of which have been sitting around for years and years and years gathering dust sitting on shelves in various places and going nowhere quickly. This is another case of a bill that should not have taken all these years to get to this point. This has the full support of every member of this House and is a no-brainer. Of course we would be supporting the Red Cross the Red Crescent and the Red Crystal movement internationally in its endeavours to bring humanitarian aid support and care to people in the most difficult situations in some of the worst trouble spots of the world. In that respect can we just say let us not in this House see this sort of thing occur again where something can be signed in 2005 but the legislation takes until 2012 to finally be passed.In terms of the Red Cross the Red Crescent and the Red Crystal movement it operates in 188 countries around the world and has over 97 million volunteers members and staff worldwide. It is a tremendous movement a tremendous organisation including such large numbers of volunteers as well as those staff working for them. Every night on the news virtually without exception where there are major areas of conflict around the world we are regularly reminded of the good work that the Red Cross does in many of these conflict situations. It is there to protect human life and health to ensure respect for all human beings and to prevent and alleviate human suffering without any discrimination based on nationality race sex religious beliefs class or political opinion. We are very happy to support this. We are somewhat concerned about the delays but we are very happy to support this.The Red Cross also has an illustrious history in terms of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. It was awarded it back in 1917 during the First World War for its incredible humane efforts in the First World War. Again during the Second World War in 1944 it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and again in 1963 it received the Nobel Peace Prize. I would go so far as to say that having received it three times the Red Cross in this current millennium in this current century certainly would be worthy of receiving it again for all the work it does.We commend this. We believe this is just a practical solution to those areas where obviously a Christian cross or a Muslim crescent are not appropriate where this provides a middle ground to ensure that those people who work under the symbol have a level of protection and people who are out there know that they can turn to this symbol turn to the Red Cross turn to the Red Crescent and know that they will receive assistance. New Zealand First supports this.