McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): It does give me pleasure to speak on this bill because it is important but can I start by saying that that was a good bit of reading by a Minister who—it's not always been clear that he has been in favour of this piece of legislation. Of course the bill is in the name of the Rt Hon Winston Peters and it's good to see that the Minister who read that speech on behalf of Mr Peters is doing what Mr Peters says. In the first instance Mr Peters says Don't be deputy leader anymore." and he did that. Then he said "Go down to the House and read out a bill that shows categorically you're in favour of my legislation." The reason I say that is because before the election Mr Mark sitting on another side of the House in Opposition had a very very different view of this piece of legislation.If you will allow me Madam Deputy Speaker I want to read—because you're not meant to read in the House—some quotes because I wouldn't want to actually put words into Mr Mark's mouth. The first thing he said was that "It is like Foreign … Minister Gerry Brownlee stumbled across Lords of War and War Dogs on Netflix [and] then decided that this was his ticket to statesman-like respectability." Well I can say that as a Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Brownlee read speeches very well.Secondly he went on to say "this National-led government took us down a rabbit hole to regulate non-existent Kiwis trading non-existent arms in some sub-Saharan fantasy." I didn't hear that in Mr Mark's speech a moment ago. He went on to say and actually he should apologise to the other parties in this house because it can't have been National in Government he was speaking of—and I quote—"The peaceniks in … other parties loved the opportunity to dance around the maypole sing Kumbaya and bag our boutique defence industry but not us." That wasn't in the speech just then Mr Mark. It must be that the people that helped you with your press releases in Opposition are very different from the ones writing the speeches you read in the House in Government now.And then finally he said "The United States is the world's largest arms exporter and has only around 1300 registered brokers. The number of Kiwi 'arms brokers' may well be counted on less than the fingers of one hand"—I note he needs a hand to count—"[but] we can fix this by amendment rather than a whole new law." And that wasn't in Mr Mark's speech then either.This is an important piece of legislation. There may well not be many if any New Zealanders involved in arms brokering but we have an international commitment signed up to by the New Zealand Government and supported I assume by all parties in this House. The Arms Trade Treaty which we signed in 2014 bestows an obligation upon New Zealand and this legislation introduced by the last Government delivered to the House before the election and opposed by New Zealand First then is important because it sends a signal that New Zealand's laws line up with the rest of—[Hon Ron Mark leaves Chamber] I'm going to say a bit more about you but all right never mind. They line up with other countries who have also implemented these laws and it does mean that if a New Zealander is involved with the arms trade anywhere we need to know about it. We can keep records on them. They too have obligations and should they fall foul of them they can be brought to justice and they can be prosecuted.As I said in the committee stage of this bill in the select committee we went to some lengths to question officials to ensure that there wouldn't be unintended consequences. Of course things that have a military use can also have a civilian use and it is important in meeting our obligation that we don't burden law-abiding citizens who are going about their business who may well have equipment that they are not using nor have designed for military purpose but that could have a military consequence at some stage if used by somebody else.I think we got the balance about right. I mean first and foremost in this would be New Zealanders who legally trade in recreational firearms for purposes of competition be it in the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics or equally be it for sporting purposes of hunting in New Zealand. We didn't want the unintended consequence of them being burdened so that they would have to abide by some of the very strong and important rules in this legislation. Officials gave us an assurance that wasn't the case as opposed to the last speaker on the bill Mr Mark who I think deep down still opposes this legislation. He's not in favour of it. I think he probably stands up for the press release he put out some time ago but is doing what his leader is telling him in Government. The National Party does support this bill. We've always thought it's important. We will be voting for it. Thank you."