Faafoi KrisKRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Quite often we say in this House that it is a genuine pleasure to speak to the particular bill that we are speaking on and it is a genuine pleasure to speak on the Statutes Amendment Bill. First a disclaimer for those who are watching at home who might be interested in the Statutes Amendment Bill: I am making use of my colleague Stuart Nash's table today so if you see this Hawke's Bay rugby shirt behind me it has nothing to do with me. As much as we do love Hawke's Bay on this side of the House I will take pleasure in saying that Wellington beat Hawke's Bay 36-26 in the first round of the Mitre 10 Cup. But—Jami-Lee Ross: Where's your Nick Leggett for Mayor" shirt?KRIS FAAFOI: Oh right. Nothing useful as per usual from across that side of the House. I think it is useful to reflect on some of the comments from the last speaker Paul Foster-Bell—that this Government does not want to tie up unnecessarily any time in this House and that it wants to make sure that we are being efficient in the House—in the context of this Statutes Amendment Bill. First for those people who are actually interested in this bill I think they might want to know what a statutes amendment bill is. I know that a couple of speakers have mentioned it before but I guess in English—going from what we have already heard today—it is a bit of a spring clean for the Government. Anything that is untidy—a technical error in legislation something that has become outdated something that is non-controversial—can be changed in a statutes amendment bill. We have heard from numerous speakers that 28 pieces of legislation are included in this Statutes Amendment Bill which will have minor and small technical changes. I did want to just put that in the context not of what is in this bill at the moment but of what could be and that is baggage. If anyone has been paying attention to what has been happening in and around Parliament for the members of Parliament there was a bill in the members' ballot that was pulled out in the name of the member of Parliament Nuk Korako which is the Airport Authorities (Publicising Lost Property Sales) Amendment Bill—an absolutely mega bill from the Government. So important is this piece of legislation from Nuk that National prioritised it by putting it in the members' ballot and lo and behold Nuk Korako was lucky enough to have this piece of legislation pulled from the ballot. Hon Member: They're really passionate about it.KRIS FAAFOI: So passionate about this piece of legislation was the Government that after embarrassment by coverage in the media Gerry Brownlee tried to get it passed through all stages through the House in one fell swoop. That did not happen and now the Government has to put up with the embarrassment that one of its own list MPs thinks that one of the massive priorities in this country right now is people's lost luggage. But that is actually not accurate. The bill is not about lost luggage; it is about advertising the sale of lost luggage. So if I could just ask our friends in the media to be a little bit more precise in their reporting it is not about lost luggage but it is about when that luggage gets lost and the airport wants to sell it. At the moment legally the airport can advertise the sale only in the newspaper. Mr Korako has travelled the country. He has spoken to thousands of people. I think he may even have had a petition and he has fought so long and hard and is so passionate about this issue—about advertising lost luggage—that he thought it was a great idea to make this a member's bill. I say for the people at home this has been pulled from the ballot and it will go to a select committee—yes a group of MPs of this House will sit around a table discussing lost luggage advertising. The select committee will have officials look at the ramifications of this piece of legislation and it will have another reading in this House and potentially a third reading in this House and all because the Government thinks this is a massive priority for the country. But help is at hand. If the Government is really concerned about this and wants to make sure that this piece of legislation that Nuk Korako is so passionate about is passed we can make it happen for him a lot sooner. We can make it part of this Statutes Amendment Bill because it is non-controversial it is minor and it does not change any major policy—perfect for a statutes amendment bill. I think we have to look at the approach that the Government is taking with the members' bills ballot and the abuse of that process within this Parliament with the likes of Nuk Korako's bill and with the likes of Mr Doocey's bill which I think means that companies will be able to email people instead of sending them a letter when there are declarations of their annual accounts—that is another biggie. That members' bills ballot is there for members of the House—all around this House—to be able to put up issues that are important to them and their communities. Maybe I am wrong—maybe I am wrong—and maybe Nuk Korako's community does think this is a big thing. Maybe he has sent out his pamphlets as the National MPs do and asked "Which issues are important to you?"—you know "Which party do you vote for? Do you know who I am? Do you want my newsletter? What is the big issue for you?"—and maybe they came back with "Lost luggage." Maybe that is actually what happened but I do not think that is the case. Back when his bill was pulled from the ballot and the Government realised it was in a bit of trouble because the optics were not good of lost baggage being in the headlines I wrote to the Government saying: "Hey guys just chill. We can put this in a statutes amendment bill and it will all happen really fast. I will save you not only money but potentially embarrassment."Dr Megan Woods: Like this speech.KRIS FAAFOI: Thanks Megan Woods. Ha ha! This is the reply I got from Simon Bridges: "Kris thank you for your correspondence proposing the inclusion of Mr Korako's Airport Authorities (Publicising Lost Property Sales) Amendment Bill in the Statutes Amendment Bill. Your letter was forwarded to me as I am the Minister in charge of this bill. As a member in charge of the Airport Authorities"—it is a long name—"Bill it is up to Mr Korako to make decisions on how to progress his bill."—and he was polite—"Thank you for taking the time to write." If Mr Korako is serious about this bill and he is serious about saving the time and money of this Parliament he will just give up the game. He will give up the game of wasting Parliament's time with the members' ballot and just agree to my Supplementary Order Paper 191 because we are from the Opposition and we are here to help. If the Government thinks that lost baggage advertising is the most important thing it can put in the ballot well I think the Government has got some issues with priorities. When the average house price in Auckland is $1 million when homelessness is going through the roof we get this piece of legislation through the members' ballot. So Mr Korako yep it might help the odd airport around the place—and I kind of question how much consultation you did with the airports because I do not think they think it is a massive issue. But if you are really keen to make your change in New Zealand legislation with your member's bill then take up the offer of our Supplementary Order Paper because we can save you lots of time and money—two things the Government says it wants to make sure it does every day. But it gets worse because there are more members' bills that could potentially come through this process that are absolute stunners.Carmel Sepuloni: Like Mark Mitchell's bill.KRIS FAAFOI: Oh no we will not pick on him. But who have we got here? Maureen Pugh's Justices of the Peace (Medical Reasons for Retirement) Amendment Bill—Carmel Sepuloni: Woah!KRIS FAAFOI: Yeah yeah no wait wait wait. It allows former justices of the peace to use the title "JP (retired)". That is a biggie—that is a biggie. I will not pick on the member in the chair at the moment. Jacqui Dean's Local Government (Customer Focus) Amendment Bill requires local authorities to promote a customer focus in the delivery of public services and regulatory functions and makes chief executives responsible for ensuring that happens. I would assume that is already happening. Ian McKelvie's Sentencing (Livestock Rustling) Amendment Bill does sound exciting but it adds livestock rustling to the list of aggravating factors to be taken into account at sentencing. Wow that is a biggie. Usefully it also defines livestock as "animals kept as part of an agricultural operation whether for commercial purposes or for private use." All of these types of bills which are in the ballot could be in a statutes amendment bill. So my message to the Government is get your priorities right. Get the spring cleaning done with a statutes amendment bill. Stop filling up the members' ballot with what I would call—Meka Whaitiri: Wasteful.KRIS FAAFOI: —wasteful—Meka Whaitiri: Wasteful pieces of legislation.KRIS FAAFOI: —wasteful pieces of legislation that really are a bit of a joke. They really are a bit of a joke. So next time Simon Bridges is sitting down putting together a statutes amendment bill I would suggest he looks at all the bills that National Government backbenchers have got in the members' ballot and says: "Guys these are embarrassing. Let's put them in the Statutes Amendment Bill because at this stage we're looking like a joke.""