SpeechSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I want to begin acknowledging the Ukrainian people. It's probably quite difficult certainly for myself and many here to conceptualise the horror of what they are going through: a sovereign nascent democratic country being invaded and shelled—and from what reports we have seen too the use of weapons such as cluster munitions that should not be used. So as I say to acknowledge the Ukrainian people and all that they're going through; to acknowledge as well the Ukrainian community here in New Zealand who are hurting terribly not only to see what is occurring to their country but to their loved ones. I'm sure most of us if not all of us in this House have been talking to those Ukrainian New Zealanders and hearing their experiences. I want to also though acknowledge the Russian people. One thing I've learnt in my little life is that the first victims of any despotic autocratic rule are the people. So this is ultimately the invasion of President Putin and his cronies and as I say I think it's important to acknowledge the Russian people thousands of whom are being arrested at the moment for simply standing up and saying rightly that they do not want war. And too I want to acknowledge the Russian New Zealanders here many who will be feeling the pressure and perhaps even getting a bit of opprobrium. For those who stand on the side of right the side of democracy and with Ukraine they should have nothing to fear.When I think of this bill and where it's needing to go—actually I should stop for a moment and acknowledge the Ukrainian President President Zelenskyy. I think it's striking that he's a comedian who became a President and yet in another country we have a President who's become a joke. I think it's probably then useful to add here the condemnation which I'm sure all the House has of President Putin and what he's doing.As Gerry Brownlee has noted National will be supporting this bill. It's the right and proper thing to do. It's a good bill and I want to acknowledge the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the many people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade I'm sure who have been working hard to pull this together. It's a good bill and I'll touch on that but partly in this first reading speech I want to say it in my opinion has come a little late and it should go further. Those of you who know my views will know I've been a great proponent of what's known as Magnitsky legislation. A chance arguably was had here tonight to put through Magnitsky legislation a piece of legislation which is much much broader enabling this country to actually independently stand up and impose sanctions on a much wider range of human rights abusers in the world. However in the interests of time this Parliament does need to move swiftly so in acknowledging what the Government's doing and us rightly voting for it in the interests of speed it's certainly my hope and intention through the following debate and over the coming days and weeks to continue championing Magnitsky legislation. What's sometimes called autonomous sanctions" are very very similar. They enable countries like New Zealand to impose independent sanctions on human rights abusers. These sanctions have effectively become the Achilles heel where sanctions through the UN and other bodies have failed. It's really really simple what Magnitsky laws do what autonomous sanctions laws do. They hit the despotic the autocratic the human rights abusers where it hurts the most: in their pockets. The irony of people—and you see it with Putin Lavrov and others—from Russia: they don't like to stay in Russia. Autocrats don't like that. They tend to try to move their families around the world. They like to be on their luxury yachts and their private jets and they like to come to the West. They like to come to countries like New Zealand. They like to travel around. They like to flaunt their money. And the great thing about full widespread autonomous sanctions or Magnitsky laws is that they stop that happening. Most countries in the world most of our allies have actually introduced these laws and that's my first contention around this piece of legislation good as it is: in my opinion we should have had one of these laws in place already. It's no secret to the House that I've been working for a while now with Bill Browder the father if you will of Magnitsky sanctions. We had a talk the other day with Geoffrey Robertson one of the leading human rights barristers in the world: a conversation with the likes of Senator Kitching from Australia and others from Canada the UK America—actually a lot of people I work with through something called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. We've been advocating for a while now for New Zealand to have a comprehensive autonomous sanctions or Magnitsky law so that New Zealand can to pick up the words of our Deputy Prime Minister act with an independent foreign policy. But we don't have that mechanism. It's something that I would argue has been missed for some time. But as the saying goes you can't cry over spilt milk. So tonight arguably we had a chance to do more. We could have crossed out the word "Russia" and allowed actually a number of other countries to fall within the scope of this bill. As I say it's important that we don't get bogged down in that. I think we must pass this bill. There is an urgency with what's happening in the Ukraine. But fundamentally and importantly a Magnitsky piece of legislation is exactly the same: it's just not one country specific. I think it's important to say here tonight that the human rights abuses in the world don't stop just because Russia's invading the Ukraine. It's still continuing. And I might remind the Parliament too: it's only been in recent years that another democracy that of Hong Kong was crushed by the Chinese Communist Party and we did not have the ability to do more. We should have and we should still be able to when we look at countries like China and what they're doing—amongst other jurisdictions in the world where human rights abuses are far far too prevalent. So it is an encouragement to the Parliament: yes let's pass this bill tonight but let's have the courage as well to expand the legislation. In many ways we have the template. It's always important to acknowledge Gerry Brownlee; that is right and proper. What is being presented tonight is very simple. I had somewhat tongue-in-cheek—and now I feel bad on a serious topic—said it pretty much was Gerry's bill just with "Russia" pencilled in. But that's relatively accurate. I just encourage that we take out the eraser in a few days' or weeks' time remove the word "Russia" and allow all countries all States that perpetrate human rights abuses to come within the scope of a bill like this. It's what allows New Zealand to act. A lot of people say "Well that doesn't fit a multilateral framework." Well actually it does; New Zealand's the outlier on a lot of this legislation as I've said before. I did it on a podcast. Here we go: there's a shameless shameless shout-out for my podcast On Point. I had Tom Tugendhat on the chair of the UK Foreign Affairs Committee. He knows I know the Minister knows: we're outliers. It doesn't matter if it's modern slavery it doesn't matter if it's Magnitsky laws: we're outliers. We're not being multilateral ultimately. And let's put it on record too: the UN is failing. That doesn't mean we want to get rid of it—nothing like that—but it's not working and I think a couple of people have noted that tonight around the use of the veto and so forth. So there's much more that could be done. I think New Zealand has for me been slow out of the blocks but it's good that we're here tonight to discuss this. I would certainly encourage as we think of sanctions in the wider sense too: there is much more that we can do. It was good to hear the Minister for Sport and Recreation address how we're engaging in that space. You know politics and sports are not meant to mix but sometimes there are exceptions. We certainly want to see Government engage more around how we can bring Ukrainians who have New Zealand family here. How do we set up a lifeboat scheme for refugees something I called for with Hong Kong residents? I'd like to see it here with Ukrainians. Has any thought been given to closing our immigration office our visa processing office in Moscow? What thought has been given to bringing our ambassador back or to kicking the Russian one out? What encouragement can we give to more New Zealand companies to pull like Fonterra have out? I would acknowledge too the New Zealand Superannuation Fund whom often I have had a few challenging words to around their investments in China. It's good to see that they're pulling their funds from Russia. There's much much more that can and should be done. And fundamentally too—it was part of a discussion I had recently—a lot of this is coming out of a perception that the West is weak. That's one of the reasons Putin's acting: the West appeared weak. He's learning the hard way that actually we're not and I think today and through you Minister it's really good to see New Zealand is stepping up to join the West.I wanted to end with a semi-theological quote but it actually comes from the UN Ambassador of Ukraine Ambassador Kyslytsya. I just liked it; I shared it on my Facebook the other day and I think it sums up my views not in the theological area per se but more the political when he said to the Russians: "There is no purgatory for war criminals; they go straight to hell". And that's a message for you President Putin.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Our next call is a remote call and just before I call the Hon David Parker I'll just remind members calling in remotely that they should apply for the call via the chat function."