Mahuta NanaiaMARITIME POWERS BILLThird ReadingHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Foreign Affairs): I present a legislative statement on the Maritime Powers Bill. I move that the Maritime Powers Bill be now read a third time.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: I move That the Maritime Powers Bill be now read a third time.The bill is designed to close gaps in New Zealand's domestic law which create uncertainty when enforcing our criminal law in international waters being the oceans and seas beyond 12 nautical miles from our coast including our exclusive economic zone. Addressing these gaps and keeping our maritime enforcement secure is critical to Aotearoa New Zealand's national security and prosperity. We are an island nation with an extensive maritime domain. Once upon a time our geographic isolation may have provided protection from maritime security threats; today transnational organised crime including smuggling people illicit drugs arms and wildlife by sea is increasing. This threatens our health and wellbeing and threatens our security and livelihoods. The Maritime Powers Bill is designed to ensure that New Zealand can respond to these threats providing a clear statutory basis for New Zealand to enforce New Zealand's criminal law in international waters.Because the bill covers a range of offending include drug trafficking and wildlife smuggling it provides powers to Police Customs officers the New Zealand Defence Force Department of Conservation rangers warranted officers and endangered species officers. This recognises the importance of including agencies with particular technical expertise in operations pursuant to this law. The bill is consistent with existing New Zealand law in this respect. All of these agencies already have comparable powers in New Zealand's territorial sea.The bill does not require warrants for the exercise of enforcement powers. This is also consistent with the approach of existing domestic legislation which confers comparable powers in international waters that are able to be exercised without warrant including the Fisheries Act the Maritime Crimes Act and the Customs and Excise Act. It also recognises that exercising enforcement powers in the maritime environment often at considerable distance from New Zealand is complex and entails specific risks and challenges in relation to safety of life at sea the preservation of evidence and the identification of vessels. It also requires warrants for foreign ships would not be compatible with international law. Now while the bill does not require warrants it includes a number of important safeguard measures to ensure that its powers are exercised in a fair reasonable and proportionate way that is consistent with our human rights obligations. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act applies to the exercise of any powers in this bill. Consistent with the Search and Surveillance Act the bill provides a clear evidential threshold before any powers in the bill can be exercised of reasonable grounds to suspect offending and reasonable grounds to believe there is evidence of offending. The powers in the bill may only be used for serious criminal offences which are those punishable by imprisonment for life or two or more years. The bill requires enforcement officers to report on the use of any maritime powers to the Commissioner of Police or chief executive of the relevant agency and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade.In line with existing New Zealand law the bill requires the consent of the Attorney-General to bring proceedings in relation to the extra territorial offences created by clause 34 of the bill. But it allows enforcement powers to be exercised before such consent is received. This is an important balance. In the operation pursuant to the bill it may be necessary to urgently arrest a person and remand them in custody before the Attorney-General's consent is received—for example if a person is a flight risk or a danger to the public.The bill also deals with the limited range of situations where pursuant to international law the consent of the flag State is not required to exercise enforcement powers in respect of a foreign ship. One of those is where a ship reasonably is suspected of committing an offence within New Zealand's maritime zones is pursued without interruption. Consistent with international law the bill recognises that New Zealand can use the ship and/or an aircraft to pursue an offending vessel in such a scenario.Finally the bill includes specific provisions allowing a medical practitioner to conduct an internal search of a person in specific and very limited circumstances where a person is prepared to permit such a search. In doing so the bill does not impact or constrain the ability of a medical practitioner to respond to any medical emergency in accordance with their professional and ethical obligations. This ultimately means that the care and wellbeing of an individual is paramount in the consideration of a medical practitioner undertaking their task under the Act.I would like to thank the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee also for your detailed consideration of this bill and for the technical amendments that the committee has recommended which have improved the bill significantly. I'd also like to thank the organisations and individuals who submitted on the bill as well as the officials that were involved in developing those changes including Anais Kedgley Laidlaw and Sophie Ironside from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also Jacqueline Derby from the Parliamentary Counsel Office. Thank you all very much for your professional and thoughtful advice to the committee.The bill is a positive development which will better secure our extensive maritime domain from increasing threats in a fair reasonable and proportionate way that is consistent with international law and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. This will support the wellbeing of our communities and advance our security and shared prosperity. On that basis I commend the bill to the House. Nō reira tēnā koutou katoa i roto i ngā mahi nunui o te komiti motuhake otirā ngā mahi o te Whare.[Therefore I acknowledge you all with respect to the significant work of the special committee and the work carried out in the House.]