McKee Nicole; Hipkins ChrisNICOLE McKEE (ACT): I'd like to start off by welcoming the Minister back the Hon Chris Hipkins and by thanking Minister O'Connor for your gracious efforts and also your little intel there about the pistol range on your property.Minister my question is about the online checker which is the verification that will be used for those with expired licences. Minister O'Connor mentioned that he has a rifle range and a pistol range on his farm and we had submitters that came to us and told us that they are also on rural properties where there is no connectivity. So being able to go online to check when somebody turns up is actually going to be very difficult especially for a pistol range. When Police were questioned about this during select committee they did suggest that we could utilise local police to help which is fine apart from the fact that many licensed firearm owners can't get anywhere near their local arms officer. The phones aren't answered emails are not replied to. In fact I heard that at one police station when someone turned up to visit their arms officer they were not able to see him. They were told that they had to go away and make an appointment. Now when people want to turn up—and this is a changed regime for them—to participate potentially out of town at a club at an event and find that they're unable to have their licence checked right there and then—and they may have travelled some distance and police are not available—I'd like to know whether or not there is something that we can do to ensure that the club secretaries are not held accountable for allowing a person to continue to participate in a competition when in fact their licence is unable to be checked.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Police): I thank the member. I'm happy to have further conversations with Police about whether there are further practical things we can do to make that process easier. Of course that would be a challenge regardless of whether this bill was going through the House or not and I'm sure has been a long-standing challenge as well. But I'm happy to take that one away and talk further with the Police about whether there are some additional practical steps that can be put in place to help with that.NICOLE McKEE (ACT): Minister I'm hoping that you will just confirm for those that are listening at home the fact that once this bill goes through by Royal assent it will be a 24-hour period after that Royal assent when the online checker will be available for those licences that had expired to be able to be checked. One of the questions that I've been asked multiple times by those who have had to remove their firearms from themselves and take them to a friend is: how quickly can I get them back and what do I need to do to be able to get them back? So in other words do they go to their friend and get their friend to go on to the online checker to check that their licence is actually valid in order to get their firearms back? And will that occur within 24 hours of Royal assent?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Police): Can I get the member to unpack her thinking a little bit more on that for me?NICOLE McKEE (ACT): Sure. Thank you Minister. We have had licensed firearms owners who have had to give their firearms to friends. They want to know because they have applied for a licence it's expired so they've had to give them to a friend. Once this bill goes through Police have advised us that the online checker would be available within 24 hours. They want to know whether or not at that time 24 hours after Royal assent they can actually go get their firearms from their friends. And how do their friends check that they do have a valid licence? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Police): Thank you. I've been advised that the online checker will be available on the 29th. The calendar on the wall of course is still registering Tuesday but by the time the bill gets to Royal assent it will be not far off being available. So it will be available from the 29th and in the meantime the friend is able also to check via phone whether the person has a current licence.Part 1 agreed to.