Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (Minister for Land Information): It is my great pleasure to take a call on this the second reading of the New Zealand Intelligence and Security Bill. Can I just start by first of all acknowledging our officials and advisers who are in the public gallery today. Without their support throughout the select committee process we could not have returned this legislation back to the House. So I just want to take an opportunity to first of all acknowledge you guys and the great work that you have done in supporting the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. Could I please acknowledge the Hon Chris Finlayson. I think that the Hon David Parker paid a very fitting tribute to him in terms of the support the committee has received in the work that it has done. Can I also acknowledge the committee and as the outgoing chair can I acknowledge the incoming chair Todd Muller who has been a member of the committee throughout the entire process of this bill. He has heard the submissions and understands the legislation very well and he is now continuing to guide the legislation through the House. Can I congratulate him and wish him all the best on chairing what I feel is a very good committee. Can I also acknowledge the deputy chair Dr Shane Reti for the support that he has given through the process as well—Shane I appreciate that. Can I acknowledge—Dr David Clark: I was there in moral support.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yes you were there in moral support; that is right David. David Shearer actually took the lead on the Opposition side throughout the process which started with the countering foreign fighters bill—can I acknowledge him; Phil Goff; David Parker who has now come on to the committee; Dr Kennedy Graham who has also been an integral part of the process; Lindsay Tisch; Jami-Lee Ross; the Hon David Bennett; and also Fletcher Tabuteau from New Zealand First. It is important for me to make those acknowledgments because this is my chance to put them on the record.Can I speak to one part of the bill that is very important. I am going to cut short my contribution so that Todd Muller has got more time to speak to the bill but I want to speak about business record authorisation. Through the committee process there was a recommendation for a new scheme for mandatory disclosure of business record information held by telecommunications network operators and financial service providers. This information includes for example phone records customer subscription details and bank statements. It does not include the contents of any communication.Access to this type of information is crucial for the agencies to operate especially in the early stages of an intelligence investigation and at the moment this information is disclosed on a voluntary basis because of an exemption from the Privacy Act's information privacy principles. The purpose of the new framework is to maintain the agencies' current access to business record information not to give them access to anything new. This is very important because before this there has not really been any real clarity around how that information exchange is going to take place. Now inside the bill we have captured it and it is very clear in terms of how that process is going to work.I want to just very quickly refer to a comment that the last speaker Grant Robertson mentioned around how when we look around the world globally now unfortunately there is a fair bit of instability. We have seen the coalition forces in Iraq being very effective in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or Daesh and the coalition is putting pressure on it. But one thing that that will create is that you will start to see more activity springing up around the world as the pressure comes on in Syria and Iraq. It is very important—and I am not being an alarmist at all. We are very lucky in this country in that we have got an outstanding SIS and GCSB service. It is their job to make sure that they do the best job they can to keep our country safe and to keep us all safe. This piece of legislation goes a long way to making sure that they are able to do that. Thank you very much.