Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Illegal unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing is a security issue and that is one of the findings that came out of the report and also what we saw on the ground when we travelled up to the Pacific Islands. I would like to particularly point out the recommendation of a significant investigation to re-evaluate the scale of IUU fishing in the Pacific. It needs to be Pacific-led and we do need to invest.I think it's really important to acknowledge the security element of this both for the size of the Pacific Ocean the strategic importance the vulnerability of the islands the submissions that we heard and also—as others have talked about—the technology that's available. Because if we look at the Pacific Ocean 800 square kilometres with 15 or 17 or other Pacific Island nations depending on how you measure them—but thousands and tens of thousands of little bits of land in there. So there's a lot of activity that happens on that Pacific Ocean that we say joins us all.It's really important that there is regional coordination around that. You've got about 10000 people living in Nauru; up to about 9 million people living in Papua New Guinea; we've got the South China Sea with the Pacific Ocean coming up there the Taiwan Strait the supply chain issues that impact all of that region; and then down below the Antarctic Ocean which others have referred to. So it's a strategically really important piece of the puzzle that joins us all.Then we take into account vulnerabilities. New Zealand is actually the only country in the Pacific considered to be developed. I know that's a controversial name but if we look at least developed countries that's Vanuatu Samoa the Solomon Islands Tuvalu and Kiribati. They are dealing with climate change limited natural resources imports that are greater than exports the climate change issues coming from other nations—not of their own doing. They are vulnerable to external shocks and as we've heard they are losing about $606 million out of a $2.25 billion fishing industry.We also heard in the submissions that there's not certainty that the Pacific has control of the fishing. When I lived in Fiji I worked on a story for 20/20 Australia that highlighted young men up in the northern villages who were using antiquated diving gear—hookah gear—to go down and collect sea cucumbers for nefarious traders and ending up with the bends and ending up quadriplegic and then they would gift the gear to their siblings. Because there was pressure from the village and the family to continue the high-paid money they got to build houses the siblings would be put in the same situation. That was highly visible.So there isn't a lot of control over this and that is also because there is inadequate reporting and collection of data. It is not consistent across the Pacific and it hasn't been well coordinated. So that was confirmed when we went up on our trip to Fiji. I do want to shout out to our defence forces: I think they are the best cultural relations asset we have in this country in terms of developing people-to-people relationships—and there was a lot of talk about that when we were there. There was a lot of talk about the need for regional coordination in this area to strengthen the people-to-people links and also so that we can transport and transfer the trust that is built through this type of activity into our security environment. That's why I think this is so important.We also heard from submitters about technology such as unmanned or unstaffed drones that the Australians are using. That's really expensive but New Zealand can have those conversations. Perhaps we can contribute in other ways—through interoperable systems computer systems IT and so on—but at the behest of the Pacific. This does need to be Pacific-led and I do hope from the contributions of other members that this is not about New Zealand coming in with a solution. We need to support the ambitions of our Pacific neighbours.I'd finally just refer to the comments that have been talked about—human trafficking drug trafficking the vulnerability to corruption that is in the Pacific—and the need for us to see this as a broader question which is captured in the final recommendation: that we need regional cooperation around joint exercises connected international development cooperation formal recognition of IUU fishing as a threat to economic and social stability and development and regional planning and provision of technological tools.This has to be a coordinated approach. We need to invest and we need to respond to the request from our Pacific neighbours.