King MattMATT KING (National—Northland): Mr Chair thanks very much. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I'm going to speak on the Crimes Amendment Bill—a riveting bill—and I'd like to speak on Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 185 the cattle rustling section.Kieran McAnulty: Livestock rustling—get it right.MATT KING: Livestock. I'd like to acknowledge Ian McKelvie our rangatira our kaumātua—or as Alfred Ngaro would say our koro which means old man" apparently—because this is his bill or essentially the makings of his bill. It was a private member's bill adopted by the Government. But I'd also like to acknowledge Andrew Little for displaying some common sense and including it in the bill. I appreciate that.Being a rural farmer myself this SOP really stuck with me because in Northland mostly during the night we suffer a lot of this sort of theft and loss—farmers do—all over the place. There was a situation where a farmer had a couple of cows slaughtered. They just cut the legs off the cow—the best parts—and left the body in the paddock. One of the cows was pregnant in calf and they viciously killed the calf and just left it for dead—so thousands of dollars of loss for a farmer and quite devastating. I mean I have breeding cows. I don't know them by name—there are 160 of them—but they're very valuable to me. So it's not only the monetary loss; it's the loss of the years of breeding and just the sheer horror when you come across animals that have been slaughtered in such a way.Another incident we had up in Northland was some sheep being killed. It happened during the day. A pig hunter saw a couple of guys dragging a pregnant sheep across the paddock. The farmers got in their vehicles and did a bit of a—what do you call it?—vigilante-type situation and blocked the car in. One guy took off running with a gun. He had a rifle so it was a pretty horrifying situation. Luckily the other one stayed with the vehicle and they got them. This sort of stuff is something we don't recommend. It puts lives at risk. Being an ex-policeman we'd rather have people take vehicle descriptions and that sort of thing descriptions of people and call the police.One farmer on average loses 200 sheep a year. That's $20000 worth. Cattle—Federated Farmers estimate $120 million per year in losses. So animal theft—Ian McKelvie: Not worth much in Northland!MATT KING: —thank you kaumātua—especially in Northland is an ongoing serious problem because it's a lower socio-economic area and so we have a lot of people who are just jumping the fence and stealing stock willy-nilly and slaughtering them in the paddocks.I know a Pouto farmer Ian Russell. Over 20 years he's lost 700 cattle and 2700 sheep. Those are huge losses. He installed cameras to try and catch the offenders. The culprits discovered the cameras and they burned down his $600000 woolshed. It's a real problem especially in the north. So Andrew Little and our kaumātua in the back there Ian McKelvie coming up with this law change—I for one really appreciate it. Entering agricultural land with intent to commit a crime: 10 years—the same as burglary.Now burglary—you know you have to break into a shed or enter an enclosed yard. That's burglary. But all my valuable stuff on my farm is just over a fence in the paddock. So if you caught someone on your property even at night and you knew what they were up to the only thing you could really get them for is trespass—two years. Even then you have to warn them and they have to come on again before you can actually do them for trespass. So it's a very very frustrating situation.So now the police will have the tools. If you catch someone on your property within circumstances of committing an offence this law is going to be perfect. And if they're carrying a weapon: aggravated burglary—14 years. And it also includes the rights to impound and seize vehicles or trailers. So this is common sense it's practical it's fair play and it's great for the rural community so I support it 100 percent."