Hipango HareteHARETE HIPANGO (National—Whanganui): Kei te hiahia au te karanga o tēnei Whare mō tēnei pire.[I would like this House to take a call on this bill.]Māori Language Week was last week for many but for those of us who wish to endorse and continue Te Reo I just simply invited the House to take a call on this bill. I stand to address the House in the second reading of the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. It's a time now to marry to extend and to amend the powers under the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and also the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. To make it clear National supports this bill so there's no naval-gazing" around this piece of legislation and also it has cross-party support.To dispense with the puns I move on now to acknowledge our—Kieran McAnulty: Oh sorry. I didn't realise.HARETE HIPANGO: —officers who enforce this legislation. The member across the House indicated that he didn't realise there were puns. Perhaps it's indicative of the level of intelligence that comes from that portion. But in so saying I think it significant to move on to acknowledge in all seriousness now the agents who enforce our security in this country so I do heed and acknowledge our security defence forces: our customs officers the Ministry of Fisheries the New Zealand Defence Force and our police.This is significant legislation. It's incorporating into domestic New Zealand law two provisions from international treaties: article 108 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which obliges signatory States to cooperate in suppressing maritime transit of illicit substances and providing a framework for cooperation when one State party has reasonable grounds to believe a ship flying the flag of another State party is engaged in the trafficking of illicit substances.The other international treaty is article 17 of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. This provides a framework for States to board search and prosecute—in other words interdict—drug traffickers on the high seas.Kieran McAnulty: Is that a pun?HARETE HIPANGO: So the member again across the House is indicating a level of intelligence that I think is probably quite becoming from the position in the seat that he sits in and I'm going to refocus back to you Madam Deputy Speaker.In summary the bill makes the following changes to the existing law. That existing law includes—Hon Member: It just sails right over him.HARETE HIPANGO: It does sail beyond—expanding the powers of The New Zealand Customs Service—that's customs—to stop board and search ships suspected of drug smuggling in international waters and also establishing offences that apply when an individual is on a ship outside New Zealand waters but intends to smuggle or is involved in the smuggling of controlled drugs or prohibited equipment or material in or out of New Zealand.Interestingly enough today—and each day does reveal interesting events—I had the pleasure of a visit from the ambassador of the United States of America. In part of that discussion he brought up the issue around the importance of security and intelligence to our nation. He spoke about Five Eyes. So I'm going to come back to this bill because this is about "custom eyes" in relation to the Maritime Powers Extension Bill.As we know drugs are a plague and a scourge on our society and I mentioned that in my first reading speech to the House. New Zealand has an expansive coastline of some 15000 kilometres. That is 9300 miles—and I indicated that that's the ninth longest in the world.Time is limited so I wanted to turn—and this was something "custom eyes" as such. There's been much discussion in the House from previous speakers about the detail of the bill. But I do wish to reference that in New Zealand customs is the oldest Government department. It was established on 28 January 1840 in Kororāreka—that's up in the Bay of Islands. However prior to that we must also remember that Māori as first-nation mana whenua were also a trading nations' people. This is about pulling in the importance of maritime powers extension in relation to ensuring that there are those protections and security. Time is coming to an end regrettably. I commend this bill to the House so that it sails through to its third reading. Kia ora."