Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well I want to assure Mr Ball and the parties opposite that the National Party wants fair safe effective and enforceable firearms legislation. Mr Ball's speech is utterly disingenuous because he took the view that the Government can introduce a bill that is deeply flawed as this one is and yet the National Party should be forced to support it no matter how bad it is because otherwise we couldn't possibly work on it in select committee to improve it. Well the fact of the matter is that the Government knows they have the numbers to get this to the select committee so it will go there and the National Party will engage in the consideration of the bill in good faith and bring all the wisdom and the fairness that we can to those deliberations. I've long been very grateful to live in such a beautiful and relatively safe country as New Zealand and I'm sure most members of this House who were born here would feel the same as I do. There are so many countries where innocent law-abiding citizens are at daily risk of being threatened or worse by somebody brandishing a firearm perhaps at their own front door or when they're driving a car and they pull up at the traffic lights or when they're attending a public event in perhaps a theatre or a park or a place of study. How terrifying that must be. We don't ever want that to happen in New Zealand so we must ensure we get the legislation right. How tragic so often are the consequences of that type of thing in those countries—how many lives are cruelly taken how many families are devastated. How many communities are left heartbroken and bewildered as ours was of course in the immediate aftermath of 15 March with that horrific despicable atrocity that we witnessed in Christchurch. That is why this Parliament responded as one in the immediate aftermath of that atrocity and supported the measures that were introduced at that time. And it's why I've also been grateful that we do broadly speaking enjoy sensible gun control laws in this country unlike many other democratic nations especially the United States that have failed to adopt effective measures and which have paid a tragic price week after week month after month because of that failure to have sensible and effective gun control. So I would like to be able to continue to support firearms reform legislation particularly in the aftermath of 15 March. If I felt that the Government was proposing further measures that would enhance our public safety and strike the right balance between the competing and legitimate interests that it concerns I would support it. And I do welcome commitments from previous speakers in the debate to achieve that outcome—Greg O'Connor: Unbelievable. You don't believe that.Hon TIM MACINDOE: —but we cannot support this bill at this time when it is so flawed in several significant ways. Mr O'Connor can abuse me from the other side of the House but he must be receiving the same sort of emails and communications and contact with our offices that I and my colleagues on this side of the House have been receiving from people who are genuinely aggrieved by what is happening. The Minister suggested in his speech when introducing this bill that the current gun buy-back scheme is working. Hon Stuart Nash: It is.Hon TIM MACINDOE: Well I'm sure we all wish that were so but Minister you know that is nonsense. Certainly many good law-abiding citizens have accepted the changes that were made in the first tranche of firearms legislation that was passed a few months ago and they have been surrendering their now banned firearms and good on them. They deserve our gratitude—Greg O'Connor: Unbelievable.Hon TIM MACINDOE: —and our admiration and for Mr O'Connor to say that is unbelievable is frankly unbelievable. But they were never the people who threatened us or who should be the objects of our concern. Mr Ball speaking a few moments ago said that he couldn't understand National's position so let's consider some of the basic questions that should be the test for a bill of this type: is it fair; is it well drafted; is it well focused; and most importantly will it increase public safety? Unfortunately the answer to most if not all of those questions at this point is no. Let me just conclude by pointing out that the National Party is willing to work on this bill in good faith to improve it if all of the conditions that we have set out are met but we have not received any indication yet from the Government that they will do it. I haven't got time to go through all of them but let me just—the introduction of firearms prohibition orders is something that we have debated in this House many times. It is well past time for those to be adopted. I call on the Government to commit to them. They must introduce clearer and more flexible rules for clubs. They must introduce clearer and more flexible rules for sporting ranges. They must ensure that the register that they're proposing to introduce is clearly defined in legislation and will be effective. They must keep the licence duration the same as it is today. They must include safeguards on healthcare practitioners reporting to police because we do understand that there are many in the medical profession who have a very important role to play here and we would wish to support them to the utmost. They must introduce new and consistent exemptions for sports shooting and for pest control exemptions. They must amend the fit and proper person test to require some clear rules for assessing patterns of behaviour. And they must require common-sense rules for visitors purchasing firearms over prohibition as outlined here. So I do hope that ultimately the Government will come to their senses and realise that those are all fair and sensible measures. I do hope that we'll be able to reach a point that the country can live with and that the Parliament would be proud to enact. But we are far from that at this point.