Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) (remote): Tēnā koe and thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak in support of the Russia Sanctions Bill at its first reading and can I just offer my congratulations to Minister Mahuta for her work in leading this at quite some space into the House as we are under urgency and can I thank all the parties of the House who have provided input into this bill.In the last two weeks we have watched shocked as the Russian invasion advances across Ukrainian towns and cities. We have stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people defending their borders their homes and their right to self-determination. Now we stand in the House together with our allies across the world to condemn the invasion in the strongest possible turns and usher in this targeted sanctions bill.This bill is the first of its kind; never been brought before in this Parliament. In most cases as we've heard New Zealand would only pass sanctions after a resolution of the United Nations Security Council—but as we know Russia is exercising its veto in the Security Council so that forum is deadlocked. This means New Zealand must as we have act quickly to draft a set of sanctions absent of the Security Council and we are introducing this bill in lock step with our allies targeting individuals their assets companies and services.Under this bill New Zealand authorities will have the power to freeze assets held in New Zealand to prevent people and companies from moving their money and assets to New Zealand to escape sanctions and to stop superyachts ships and aircraft from entering our waters and our airspace among other measures. These are serious sanctions and they reflect New Zealand's strong stand against breaches of international law. That is what the Russian invasion of Ukraine represents: a breach of international law and a breach of the principles of sovereignty. So we implement these sanctions in lock step with our allies all of whom are similarly alarmed that an invasion is occurring. The people of Ukraine not only have a right to govern their own country as they see fit to live free from the aggression of a larger neighbour but the people of Ukraine also have the right to enjoy peace—and so too do the people of Russia; they have a right to enjoy peace and they are not personally responsible for the actions of their leaders. That is why these sanctions and the sanctions imposed by our allies are targeted against in the words of our Prime Minister those who are responsible for or are associated with the Ukraine invasion or who are of economic or strategic relevance to Russia include oligarchs. We must not allow New Zealand to become a safe haven so to speak for their assets or those persons. We must pass this bill that signals our outrage.As our colleagues in this House know New Zealand supports the multilateral system and we've heard that in these debates thus far; we support the rules-based international order. We do not support an international system where the militarily strong do simply as they wish; that's a world New Zealand doesn't want to see. The multilateral system a rules-based system is so important whether in diplomacy climate change migration or military matters. We make international progress by working together. But where one State acts alone acts aggressively invades; well that damages the international system. But one way to help preserve the international system is through sanctions. This isolates Russia and its leaders and it signals the world's outrage and the world's solidarity with the people of Ukraine.I heard in the contributions thus far some claim that we've acted too slow. Well just this week the Russian Government has issued a list of the most unfriendly countries and I'm proud that New Zealand has made that list because it's a direct recognition of the actions that we have taken and that we are taking with this bill.So lastly I want to just cover the other suite of arrangements of measures that we are taking because in addition to this bill and the initial actions that we took our Government is also providing humanitarian aid prioritised visa applications and releasing some emergency oil stocks to help stabilise shaky oil markets. We are doing our bit in a range of ways in a whole bunch of areas. In conclusion let this House stand against aggression and in favour of peace. Let this House stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.