Faafoi Kris: Arms (Military Style Semi-automatic Firearms and Import Controls) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Arms (Military Style Semi-automatic Firearms and Import Controls) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2277. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you very much for the opportunity to be the first speaker for Labour in the second reading of the Arms (Military Style Semi-automatic Firearms and Import Controls) Amendment Bill. It will be of some joy to the members opposite that Labour is going to continue its support for this bill. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the previous Law and Order Committee. I understand that it was chaired by Jacqui Dean the current chair of the Law and Order Committee and I thank it for—and the Minister has alluded to this—the work that it did to look closely at this bill. I believe that through a lot of cooperation the bill has emerged as a better bill.  
We are talking about further restrictions or further clarification of issues around firearms. It is a polarising matter. It is a matter of trying to weigh up the rights of those who are firearms enthusiasts who enjoy their sport and who because of the restrictions that are placed on them because of the nature of their sport know those restrictions very well protect them and will fight to make sure that they are protected. That was seen by the nearly 250 submissions that were made to the Law and Order Committee in the last session of Parliament. On the other side of the equation making sure that the duty of this Parliament to protect our community and also to protect our law and order officers in our communities has to be weighed up as well. I think that the Law and Order Committee of the previous Parliament pretty much got the balance right in making sure that the objectives of this bill could be met while making sure that the rights of firearms enthusiasts were protected. 
The objective of this bill is to amend the Arms Act to bring clarity to the definition of “military style semi-automatic firearm” so that the police can correctly identify those firearms that should be categorised as such and that would essentially be subject to greater control. It also as the Minister pointed out will put greater restrictions on lookalike airguns that look like military-style semi-automatics that look like pistols and that look like other restricted weapons. I think that in terms of our duty as parliamentarians to make sure that our communities are safe and that our law and order officers are safe out in the community imposing that restriction on those lookalike firearms is a very good thing to do. 
Labour of course will support any measures that prevent and mitigate the harm of military-style semi-automatic firearms to our communities and that lower the costs of law enforcement as a result of the importation of these weapons that are lookalike. As we are seeing from the police evidence these airguns that look like a thing that should be on the front line or pistols or other restricted weapons are increasingly being used out in our streets.  
This law has come about because of a High Court decision that I understand came from Palmerston North and created some uncertainties around the definition of what a military-style semi-automatic firearm was. It is also a mechanism with which the Government hopes to reduce the number of incidents due to these lookalike weapons. I think all of us in this Parliament would give that protection to our law enforcement officers especially our police. If there is an incident our police officers are the ones who when most of us would be heading in the opposite direction head into harm’s way. They have a very unique role in the fact that sometimes they are putting themselves in physical danger sometimes they are finding themselves staring down the barrel of a gun—or what seems to be a gun. We have had too many instances recently where—and I am thinking about the Napier incident and one in the Manawatu about 6 or 7 years ago—police officers have been killed in the line of duty. We need to make sure that we can put restrictions on these lookalike firearms in order to reduce the incidence of these call-outs where our police are actually going to places and dealing with things where we have got idiots—I must use that word—who are using pretend firearms and the police are thinking they are the real thing. We need to make sure we are cracking down on that so our police are not finding themselves in that situation. We are finding that our police are in situations like this and are having to arm themselves and it can escalate to a situation where the elite officers get involved where we have to call out our armed offenders squad to deal with idiots—again we are using that word—who think it is a bit of fun to use some of these weapons. 
I am not a gun enthusiast; I am not a firearm enthusiast. That comes about because I have not had any exposure to it but I do think there is a place for responsible firearm ownership in that those law-abiding citizens who adhere to the rules should be able to continue their legal activity to make sure that they can enjoy their sport. I know two examples in my own electorate: firstly the former principal of Papakowhai Primary School Kevin Win who made a submission to the Law and Order Committee on the day that I subbed in on the select committee because he is a member of the local gun club; and secondly John Wilson from the Titahi Bay Volunteer Fire Brigade who I believe is out now trying to hunt himself down some venison. Those are two people who responsibly use firearms in the community and who were very concerned about what rights may have been taken away by this bill. But I think as I have said before the Law and Order Committee has got the balance right in trying to manage the rights of gun owners and enthusiasts with public safety and the safety of our law enforcement officers. 
As the Minister suggested there were some concerns from a number of gun enthusiasts around clause 11 I believe in respect of the regulation-making powers that are contained in this bill. I will just run through some of these. There were concerns that the regulation-making powers were too broad that the regulations would be unconstitutional that there would be a lack of parliamentary and public scrutiny that in some instances regulations might be abused and that the use of regulations gave too much power to police and could cause more confusion in what was already a confused situation. But I believe as the Minister said that this bill will address that in the fact that any regulations of this nature that are made have to be statuted. So those firearms enthusiasts will have the opportunity to have more scrutiny of any changes that are made via regulations if they think they are of concern enough to make another submission to the select committee. 
There was one other area that the Minister alluded to which the Labour members on the previous Law and Order Committee also alluded to and that is around what the Minister of Police referred to as an arms advisory forum. It was the contention of the Labour members of the select committee that an independent reference group be formed to provide “contestable”—I think that is the word—advice to the Minister because it would be the police who would be offering other advice to the Minister. So it was our contention that there should be an independent reference group to make sure that there was contestable evidence especially around concerns that some firearms owners may have. Unfortunately that did not get support from the select committee and as the Minister said an arms advisory forum will be set up to help advise the police if they are looking at any issues especially around regulation. As we have said in the select committee minority report from Labour we will be watching that issue very very closely. 
But Labour will support this bill to the House. We believe that it does strike the right balance in terms of this Parliament’s duty to protect our public and also protect the rights of gun enthusiasts around the country who made their voice heard because of the sheer number of submissions that were made to the Law and Order Committee. We are happy to support this bill. We are happy with the outcome of the select committee process and we look forward to supporting this further.