O'Connor Simon; Williams PotoExternal SectorSIMON O'CONNOR (Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee): Thank you very much Madam Chair—Hon Member: Oh this'll be great.SIMON O'CONNOR: Well no it probably won't be great actually because as the chair of the committee I have to be relatively neutral so I've got to actually behave myself for the next five minutes which is rather disappointing but anyway we'll give it a crack. Look in all seriousness can I start by thanking all the members of the select committee from across the House who have worked through these reports. I think it's fair to say that the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee works robustly but collegially. But can I also record at the start my thanks to all of those who work within the various sectors be it defence Antarctica New Zealand customs foreign affairs overseas development—they are the ones who make a difference day by day.I thought I'd just go through several of the reports noting various elements which I thought were important and I'll leave the politicking to others who will follow in my wake. Look importantly—and I'm sure others in this debate have noted—we've been dealing with the 2017-2018 Budget. So actually some elements of what we're discussing were coming through the then National Government and then moving into the Labour Government side of things.When we start with—if I was just going through the order in the book—defence we know that a substantial spend there of something like $20 million or so into defence—actually not a large spend when one considers other countries. I'm not trying to compare New Zealand to the likes of America but not a substantial spend. But what's really important is just what our defence forces are able to achieve with those moneys. Look obviously the committee took a lot of time talking with both NZDF the New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence. They are two actual separate groups that come together when presenting to us. Great interest in the various deployments that New Zealand has—and I suppose it's important at this time to quite rightly acknowledge our men and women serving overseas. A particular focus in the select committee around how the defence forces are working not only around climate change—working there on some really interesting insights I would suggest—but also some discussion around how defence is working around drug trafficking. We did talk a little bit around the location of bases. In fact there was a bit of discussion too around why Singapore has not continued an idea to bring down some of its fighter jets. It's perhaps timely to note that we had some discussion of banning foreigners and those from overseas purchasing land. It's my understanding that that's something which has contributed to Singapore's decision not to come here and to set up a base at Ōhākea.Customs—I'll get to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) at the end; they're the big one—quite a substantial spend of about $204 million but I thought quite interesting perhaps for the House to note that they intercepted over $345 million of illicit drugs and if I was to be somewhat tongue in cheek the current Government wanting to basically decriminalise the lot of it—are we going to lose $345 million of illicit drug interception moneys? We'll soon find out.There were a number of questions around the Joint Border Management System in the committee. We're just interested in how that has integrated in and by and large it sounds positive but some work still to be done. It was quite interesting as well to hear from customs of the work they're trying to do in anticipation of Brexit.The New Zealand Antarctic Institute obviously has Antarctica New Zealand. They do a remarkable job. I'm somewhat biased in saying that in that a few days after I'd actually returned from Antarctica itself we had the team come in front of us. Look they are looking to do a base upgrade—it'll be interesting to see what comes up in the Budget this year—and what they saw as relatively positive is a new science platform some funding now ring-fenced quite particularly to be able to give to scientists to do this science. Antarctica New Zealand provides the support to scientists at the moment; now they get to actually provide some funding.Look with MFAT a substantial spend—look we were really interested obviously in the relationship with China. We're noting obviously the words that were in the defence statement which have upset China. We were very conscious at the time—very few ministerial visits concerns around the free-trade agreement and concerns around the Middle East certainly came up in the committee; concerns that New Zealand was not playing a solid role speaking out against terrorist groups such as Hamas but readily quick to slam the likes of Israel and we think that's all a bit mixed up.But I want to conclude by acknowledging Brook Barrington—he was the chief executive of MFAT; he stood down—and to use this opportunity in the final seconds to acknowledge his service to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to welcome Chris Seed as the new chief executive and if I might an encouragement to members to read Brook Barrington's two-page contribution.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Just before I called the honourable member I just want to remind members that these are five-minute calls. If you go over the five minutes I could regard them as a second call and I don't think your whips will be entirely happy about that. So you must sit down as soon as the bell is rung.