Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): It's a privilege to rise tonight in the House as the National Party's associate spokesperson for defence and the member of Parliament for Southland to speak in support of the Hon Gerry Brownlee's Autonomous Sanctions Bill. I congratulate the member for bringing this bill before the House.There is no escaping the reality that we live in a complex geopolitical environment. It is imperative for us in this country to manage our economic and security interests in that increasingly complex environment. This bill aims to further enhance New Zealand's diplomatic capabilities and our independent foreign policy which the Government has very recently spoken about by establishing a framework for the implementation of autonomous sanctions in New Zealand.In recent days we've heard a lot about New Zealand's independent foreign policy including from the Prime Minister particularly in relation to our effective exclusion from the AUKUS trilateral security partnership. However it is difficult to say that New Zealand has an independent foreign policy when we have extremely limited options in respect of placing sanctions on individuals who might be operating contrary to the best interests of this country. Currently New Zealand must rely on the United Nations' sanctions process which imposes sanctions on countries through the Security Council. However the UN despite its strengths as a multilateral system has some weaknesses in that it is reliant on the five permanent councils of the UN Security Council who can and often do exercise their veto power and in fact often matters are not brought before the council because of those veto powers.So our long history of independent foreign policy is in effect hampered by those veto powers. Of course we would be very cautious in using these matters taking care to consider the geopolitical scenario and would only use them in extremely limited circumstances. But it's important that we do have that tool available to us. Our Government should have the ability to make choices to sanction individuals in circumstances which are contrary to the best interests of our country and against our values and our system of Government while minimising the consequential effect on the wider population. It is recognised that in many cases the practical impact of sanctions imposed by New Zealand would be limited by our comparatively small size and our geographic isolation and the recognition of the fact that we are a small trading nation who is reliant on trade with many countries around the world.Nevertheless it is important that New Zealand can demonstrate its commitment to matters that are of concern to our people and our values. It's important that New Zealand can emphasize the importance of our democracy of commitment to human rights the rule of law and our fundamental freedoms. Aside from our traditional Five Eyes friends and partners who have adopted an autonomous sanctions regime Japanese parliamentarians are also currently considering an autonomous sanctions regime of their own. In 2017 in a regulatory impact statement on this bill the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade advised that New Zealand's other Five Eyes partners all possessed the ability to impose sanctions outside of the United Nations regime with a growing risk that New Zealand would be perceived as an easy target because of gaps in the range of sanction measures able to be imposed. The limited sanction type powers that are currently at the Government's disposal are not seen either here or by like-minded partners as being sufficient to address situations of real concern a perception which may have only increased in recent years. I note that our traditional allies—the United Kingdom the United States the European Union and Canada—all have their own regimes of this kind and have the ability to impose targeted sanctions where appropriate.The Hon Nanaia Mahuta raised the point of the rules-based international order and well established international rules and norms. Those are matters of great importance. She also noted that an autonomous sanctions regime would be a matter of last resort. I largely don't disagree or in fact I don't disagree with most of what she said. However unfortunately the Labour Government by voting down this removes the ability to have that last resort. In effect the Hon Gerry Brownlee has passed the ball to Labour and Labour rather than carrying the ball forward and improving gaps they have identified as they see it in the legislation have rather kicked the ball to touch and that is deeply disappointing.It is a great pleasure to rise and to speak in support of this bill and unfortunately it will obviously be voted down by the Government. Let's hope they see sense.