Sio Aupito William; Dean JacquiMARITIME POWERS BILLFirst ReadingHon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Minister for Courts) on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs: I present a legislative statement on the Maritime Powers Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: I move That the Maritime Powers Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 11 November 2021.The bill creates a comprehensive regime for the exercise of law enforcement powers in the oceans and seas beyond New Zealand territory including our exclusive economic zone. It responds to an increasingly dynamic and complex maritime security environment and ensures that we can keep our maritime environment secure against threats including drug trafficking wildlife trafficking and human trafficking. It includes a number of important safeguard measures to ensure that the law enforcement powers it confers are exercised in a fair reasonable and proportionate way that is consistent with our human rights obligations.Keeping our maritime environment secure is a critical component of our national security and prosperity. Aotearoa is an island nation with an extensive maritime domain and historical connections to our ocean. We have more than 15000 kilometres of coastline and one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world. Our search and rescue region extends from Antarctica to the equator and halfway to South America. We are a trading nation with a significant growing marine economy and a domestic market increasingly reliant on the connectivity the sea provides the global supply and value chains through shipping routes.Sea transport is the most common mode of transport used to import and export goods to and from New Zealand. We also have deep and sustained national interests in the Pacific and Southern Oceans. We may once have regarded our geographic isolation as providing protection from maritime security threats but we must remember that once upon a time our tīpuna and ancestors navigated across the oceans searching for our new lands and found the islands we now call home. Increased activities by transnational organised crime networks which smuggle people and goods including illicit drugs and arms by sea has the potential to threaten our community's health and wellbeing. Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest illicit economies in the world. Aotearoa has experienced considerable trafficking of our taonga native reptiles. While New Zealand does not have the same experience of human trafficking by sea as some countries it is a serious and persistent risk that we need to respond to especially given the significant global rise in human trafficking and the increasingly connected world we live in.There is a critical need for Aotearoa to be able to respond to all of these threats which impact New Zealand's safety security economy and environment. The Maritime Powers Bill is designed to meet that need and ensure that we are able to protect New Zealand through enforcement of our criminal law in international waters the oceans and seas beyond New Zealand territory. Currently New Zealand does not have adequate statutory powers to enforce our criminal law in international waters. Although we have the right to exercise maritime powers under international law there are gaps in our domestic arrangements which create uncertainty for New Zealand in exercising those rights. The bill closes these gaps and establishes a transparent and comprehensive regime of law enforcement powers in international waters for serious criminal offences where New Zealand already has jurisdiction.The bill does not create any substantive new criminal offences. By way of example if a murder or serious assault occurred on a New Zealand ship beyond our territorial sea the bill would enable New Zealand enforcement officers to stop the ship board it search it arrest and detain subjects assist the other passengers secure evidence return suspects on board to New Zealand for prosecution and return the vessel to New Zealand so that it can be searched for evidence—everything we would expect to happen if such a crime was committed on land but under our current law it is not clear that Aotearoa would be able to respond to such a situation potentially allowing for further offending to occur evidence to be destroyed and the offender to flee.Other situations where the powers in the bill would be able to be used include offences where New Zealand has extraterritorial jurisdiction like drugs trafficking wildlife trafficking and human trafficking in order to enable an effective response to wildlife offences on board New Zealand or foreign ships. The bill specifically includes Department of Conservation rangers and endangered species officers as enforcement officers in addition to police constables customs officers and members of the armed forces.Finally the powers would also be available for serious offences that are committed in New Zealand where the suspected offender or evidence of criminal offending is located on a New Zealand or foreign ship in international waters. So for example where a person committed a serious offence in New Zealand and fled the country by ship the maritime powers enacted by the bill are those that New Zealand already has under international law in particular the powers derived from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea the United Nations drugs trafficking convention and the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols. The bill is consistent with New Zealand's rights and obligations under those conventions and under international law more generally including New Zealand's international human rights obligations. The key purpose of the bill is to clearly implement these international law powers in our domestic law.The bill contains a number of important safeguard measures to ensure that the powers it confers are fair proportionate and reasonable. For example the bill provides a clear evidential threshold with the powers in the bill only available where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence has been is being or will be committed on board the vessel or where there are reasonable grounds to believe there is evidence on board a ship of serious criminal offending. This is consistent with the evidential threshold under existing New Zealand law in particular the Search and Surveillance Act. The maritime powers in the bill are only able to be used for serious criminal offending at sea which are those punishable by imprisonment for life or by two or more years' imprisonment.All of the powers in the bill are consistent with existing powers under New Zealand law particularly the Search and Surveillance Act and Customs and Excise Act. The bill is consistent with the rights and freedoms affirmed in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and has been reviewed by the Attorney-General. The bill requires enforcement officers to report on the use of any maritime powers to the Commissioner of Police or chief executive to the relevant agency and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade. With a few exceptions the powers in the bill cannot be used in respect of foreign ships or in foreign waters without the consent of the flag State consistent with New Zealand's international law obligations.In summary the legislation will enable Aotearoa to effectively respond to the increasingly complex maritime security environment that we face in a way that is fair proportionate reasonable and consistent with our human rights obligations. It will support New Zealand in securing our extensive maritime domain which will advance our security and shared prosperity. On that basis I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break and the House will resume at 7 o'clock.Sitting suspended from 6.01 p.m. to 7 p.m.