Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. The one thing as a former Minister of Police that I think is abhorrent is first of all Mitch you're better than making politics out of Matt Hunt's death. That was an absolute tragedy and every single police officer that goes out there every single day—Hon Mark Mitchell: A point of order Madam Speaker. I am going to take—sorry.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Sorry I hadn't finished speaking. The Hon Mark Mitchell. Hon Mark Mitchell: I am going to take personal offence to that and I am going to ask the member to stand withdraw and apologise to say that I'm politicising the death of Matthew Hunt.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): OK thank you. The member has taken offence. The member will withdraw and apologise. Hon STUART NASH: I withdraw and apologise. Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Look if there is one thing that this Government is not is that it is soft on crime. Let me outline a little bit of history about what happened in the three years before we came into power. Police numbers dropped in the last three years of the National Government—they dropped—and during that period in time gangs flourished. Meth got out of control and in fact if any member was to have a look at the Police annual report when that member over there was the Minister of Police it actually says the police are going to have to do more with the same numbers to 2020. In fact if it wasn't for the pressure that the Labour Opposition at the time put on the Government of the time the numbers wouldn't have increased all. So what did we do to deal with this? We did what every New Zealander wanted us to do—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The member is one minute 45 into his contribution. I invite him to come to the bill. Hon STUART NASH: Point of order Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): I have just—Hon STUART NASH: Yes and I demand a point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): No no no no. I have just ruled. I've invited the member to come to the bill and I invite him to do just that. If the member does have a point of order it must not be related to the matter I've just ruled on. Hon STUART NASH: Point of order Madam Speaker. I've listened to about 15 minutes of speeches on this from the ACT member of Parliament and the National member of Parliament and all they talked about by and large was how Labour is soft—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! [Interruption] Order! The member will resume his seat. That is not a point of order but I will speak to it. This is a member's bill. Members have every right to respond to comments made by another member but those responses and those comments must be in passing. This is a first reading speech on a member's bill. I invite the Hon Stuart Nash to resume his speech. Hon STUART NASH: A substantial part of this bill is talking about firearms and firearm crime and gangs and guns. We recognised at one point in time that guns were a real problem—certain types of guns were a real issue in our community—where we had a terrorist come in with military-style semi-automatic weapons and mow down 51 Kiwis. As the Minister of Police at the time I talked to a number of people involved in the firearms community—a wide range of people in the firearms community—and do you know what they all said? You don't need these guns." Hunters said you don't need a military-style semi-automatic to hunt. Duck shooters said you don't need a barrel with eight bullets to hunt. So what we did—the first jurisdiction in the world—is we actually banned weapons that were produced to kill people—to kill people. We said any legitimate weapon for hunting for duck hunting for farms we'll leave those there. And the vast majority of gun owners the vast majority of Kiwis understood why we were doing what we were doing and they bought into it because the thing is when it comes to guns and when it comes to gangs we all know—and Nicole McKee I believe you know because you were a very staunch advocate in this—that where the gangs—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The member will not bring the Speaker—Hon STUART NASH: Oh for goodness' sake.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The member will not bring the Speaker into the debate. The member will not reflect on the Speaker's rulings. I'm warning the member that if he doesn't come back to the bill—he has just under two minutes left of his speech. If the Minister does not come back to the bill I will terminate his speech. He's had several warnings.Hon STUART NASH: That member of Parliament who has brought this bill to the House I believe is out of touch with the vast majority of good law-abiding citizens. All the research shows that where the gangs get their guns from is they steal them from good law-abiding citizens. In order to deal with the gun problems and gangs we brought a bill to this House which made it a lot more difficult for gangs to get guns and lo and behold the ACT Party and the National Party voted against that bill. This bill will do nothing to address the really serious problem we have in this country and that is gangs and that is guns. The things that will deal with this are more police on the streets which we are implementing in a way that no other Government—the way to deal with this issue is to go after the gangs with gang focus units which we have put in place. The way to go after and achieve the objectives that member would like to see in this bill is to ensure that those who are caught with illegal weapons go down for a long time which is what we put in place and that member's party voted against. There is a great body of work that is going on right across the police service at the moment to deal with these issues. If that member understood what the police were doing what the Minister was doing what the focus of this Government is to address these issues then I think she would realise that she is wasting her time with this bill. When that member talked about a waste of time—Nicole McKee I am sorry you are out of touch with what the police are doing to solve this important issue."