Peters WinstonMARITIME CRIMES AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingRt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Minister of Foreign Affairs): I move That the Maritime Crimes Amendment Bill be now read a third time.This bill demonstrates New Zealand's continuing commitment to the fight against terrorism by enhancing New Zealand's ability to respond to threats to maritime security. It will bring our domestic legislation into line with the current international legal framework related to maritime terrorism.Now this bill came to the House 18 months ago and it was stalled around here even though it's a critical matter to do with our international safety and after 42 devastating days of vision and activity it is going to pass through this House this evening. It's just like the last bill: it staggered around here for weeks and years as well but in came a Government with drive and unction and commitment and youth and energy and as a consequence like lightning it's going through the House.This bill was introduced into the House on 2 May 2016 a year and a half ago. Now the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee reported it to the House over a year ago—over a year ago.Kieran McAnulty: What have they been doing?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: What have they been doing? Well that's a question I'd love to answer—but heaven knows. Heaven knows what these people have been doing with their time because running the country economically and socially in a sound way is what they have most definitely not been doing.It'll implement two maritime counter terrorism treaties into our law: the Protocol of 2005 to the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and the Protocol of 2005 to the Rome Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf and the 2005 protocol to introduce new offences relating to misuse of ships and fixed platforms. This bill will add these new offences to the Maritime Crimes Act 1999 and relate to—I just want to outline these five things—the commission of serious offences against ships or using ships; the illicit trafficking by ships of weapons of mass destruction their delivery systems and related material; the transportation of fugitives by ship; fourth the commission of serious offences against fixed platforms or using fixed platforms; and fifth intentionally causing death or injury in connection with these offences.The bill introduces a maritime boarding regime consistent with the existing international law which clarifies enforcement officers' powers when taking action in relation to offences under the Maritime Crimes Act 1999. It gives New Zealand courts extraterritorial jurisdiction over an offence if there is a New Zealand link—for example if it takes place on board a New Zealand ship.I could deal with all the rest of the matters but it's pretty self-explanatory. As they say the 2005 protocols—and according to the bill—have a counter terrorism context. The enactment of this bill will enable New Zealand to ratify the 2005 protocols thereby becoming party to all 16 of the core international counter terrorism instruments. This is consistent with our commitment to the global fight against terrorism and to ensuring that we have the legal framework in place to deter and to react decisively to terrorism.Now I want to say to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee that they deserve our gratitude for their careful consideration of the bill which they got back to the House a long long time ago. And then like so much of what was going on under that previous administration it hit a roadblock—a detour. It just stalled and nothing happened. We've got a serious matter of international security maritime security and here we've got a Government over there in Opposition now—and it looks like it'll be there for a long long time because as I warned those gentlemen and ladies over there their front bench weren't up to it and they're not. If you could take a serious matter like this and be so dilatory about it then you're not serious about being in the Government.What it reminded me about the last bill that just went through the House is it's got a similar—in terms of urgency—ring to it. In fact they had no sense of urgency at all. The Rena had happened—an absolute disaster. They all knew about the maritime event of the Mikhail Lermontov of which they were warned by a then younger National Party backbencher of the circumstances that they were inviting. They decided to ignore that and 31 years later somebody gets up from the Kaikōura electorate and says he's read it. Well he read it but what did he do about it? It's the reason why we're over here—because in this coalition Government there's energy and drive and you can see it. We ooze it. We ooze the sense of crisis that besets this country. That's why I commend this bill to the House at its third reading. Thank you very much.