Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It's a real pleasure to stand and support the Brokering (Weapons and Related Items) Controls Bill in its third reading. It's pleasing that it's passed through the House quickly and that we're able to have the third reading today. It is actually a very important bill and I'll talk to some of the issues that the previous speaker Aupito William Sio raised.First of all I just want to acknowledge again Minister Ron Mark who stood and took the call today for the Rt Hon Winston Peters who is actually the sponsor of the bill and is taking the bill through the House. He stood up and showed such commitment and passion for the bill which seems to have been somewhat of a reversal as was highlighted by Todd McClay. With comments like The peaceniks in the other parties loved the opportunity to dance around the maypole sing Kumbaya and bag our boutique defence industry but not us. [We will not do that.]" It's actually good—I'm acknowledging it. I'm being very gracious in my acknowledgment in saying that it's good to see that he has taken a different position and he's in the House and he's supporting what fundamentally is actually a very important bill. So that is very good. I actually wondered what a peacenik was. I wasn't even too sure exactly what the definition of "peacenik" was. There's a whole lot of definitions but one of them is "an opponent of war". Actually I'd be surprised if there's not one member of the New Zealand House of Representatives that would not stand up and say that we are an opponent of war. I'm sure that we're all opponents of war. The last thing that we want to see is wars or conflicts and so if that's what a peacenik is then I guess I'd maybe have to join the Greens and Golriz and say that actually I'm a peacenik because I certainly don't want to see proliferation of conflict or wars. So it's probably the only time you'll ever hear that but I'll make the admission here and now anyway.The legislation is important because prior to us actually bringing this legislation—and of course what drove it was the fact that we did sign up to the Arms Trade Treaty—we were relying on an honesty system. So someone that was going to engage a Kiwi company or a Kiwi that was going to engage in brokering arms was going to have to sign up to a system under the UN but it was voluntary.The thing I think is really important about this legislation is that actually a Kiwi that was going to start to enter into illegal or dishonest activity around the brokering of arms is probably highly unlikely to have signed up voluntarily to a programme. So what we've got now is we've got a mechanism in legislation whereby we can go after that person or that company if they do decide to engage in the illegal brokering of arms particularly into conflict zones.In the call that I took in the House I think it was last week one of the questions I put to the Minister was around an example I used of Iraq post the second war when they were trying to re-establish their security services and they were coming up against some pretty major threats and resistance and most of their opponents were better armed because they were dealing with porous borders where the shipment of arms was actually very easy. It just highlighted the real issue that had to be dealt with and grappled with. Like I said last week the good thing is that the international community as a whole have become a lot more organised and a lot more motivated and focused on making sure that the proliferation of weapons and arms is actually controlled properly and stopped where it's illegal. But the problem was that we had no mechanism to actually go after them and charge prosecute and convict. Now we have a very good mechanism to do that by which we will cooperate and work through international organisations like Interpol to be able to gather the intelligence to be able to gather the information and the evidence that we need to actually bring to trial a Kiwi or a Kiwi firm that has decided to engage in the elicit brokering of illegal arms. So that in itself is a milestone and a very important step for us as a nation. We're sending out a very positive message and that's why I'm very proud to stand in support in the third reading of the Brokering (Weapons and Related Items) Controls Bill and recommend it to the House. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."