Paul TamathaTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Mālō e lelei Madam Speaker. Happy Tongan Language Week.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Jenny Salesa): Mālō e lelei.TAMATHA PAUL: I rise on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa to oppose this bill. You've heard our concerns pretty clearly from my colleague Scott Willis here today but I really want to reiterate some aspects of the bill that raise pretty significant concerns for us. The big concern that we have is around the unjustifiably broad allowance for unwarranted searches if a police officer suspects that somebody is subject to a firearms prohibition order—key word there: suspects". So just to talk about guns in particular our general approach and philosophy to gun ownership is that people should need to prove that they need access to firearms for specific purposes for things like pest control or hunting not allowing tonnes of people to have guns except for a minority. It should be the other way around. A majority of people should not have access to guns except for a very small minority who need them. It is our view that our communities are much safer when guns are not in them period. There's no reason for it and I don't want to live in a country like America where school shootings are completely normalised and enabled by their Government. Nobody wants to live in a world like that and that's why we have the protections in place that we have. I want to express my deep concern about the potential relaxing of gun laws in Aotearoa and I want to reflect that this is a concern that many people in our communities have.So back to the bill. I want to talk about police powers now. The main concern that we have again is around those unwarranted searches of people who are suspected to be subject to a firearms prohibition order. Our big questions are how will the police determine whether someone is suspected of being subject to a firearms prohibition order? Given most gang members are Māori due to colonisation due to abuse in State care does that mean that those of us who are related to gang members could be subject to unwarranted searches as well? What about the safety of the whānau and friends of gangs?I've spoken to gang leaders in order to understand the implications of the legislation that has come through this House. Does that make me a suspected gang associate? What about situations where children are involved in a whānau or household or in the car and might also subsequently be traumatised by an unwarranted police search at any time of the day.The reason I ask those questions—the member might learn a little bit about what the reality is like for people who have been subject to unwarranted searches. Yesterday we got a report the Understanding Police Delivery report which came out and confirmed the presence of bias and structural racism within the police so it's not far-fetched that some of us are suspicious about the way that police utilise the powers that they have access to. Our concern remains that if police officers have too much discretion that the bias that was confirmed yesterday that even the Police Commissioner himself accepts even though the Minister of Police and the Minister of Justice deny that it's even happening in the first place then how are we to trust that police will be able to discharge their duties under this bill and discharge the powers under this bill without adding to the structural racism and the bias that our people experience at the hands of the police? Until there's an acceptance because I know Mr Arbuckle brought up the comments made around gang members and police in dark alleyways—people might not like the way that that was phrased but what it was trying to demonstrate is that there is genuine distrust from many of our communities towards the police. Until the Government decides to accept that that is the reality for our people then we're not going to get anywhere. I do actually want to acknowledge the important work that Andrew Coster has done as the Police Commissioner because at least when he saw that evidence and at least when he read that report he accepted some level of responsibility and he said that the police have got work to do. But I tell you this: this bill undermines the work that the police are trying to do to rebuild trust within Māori communities and that is why we do not support it."