Walker HamishHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Just before I start I'd like to acknowledge the old MP for Clutha-Southland Sir Bill English who was knighted last night. It's great to see Bill get knighted for his services to—Simon O'Connor: Sir Bill!HAMISH WALKER: —sorry Sir Bill—our country. He took over at a time in 2008 when we were in the middle of the global financial crisis and then we had the Christchurch earthquakes. He will go down as one of the most courageous politicians of his time with his approach to social investment and to complex social needs. His social investment approach will truly go down as a great mark to him.Can I also acknowledge the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee who this bill has gone to. I'd like to acknowledge the chair sitting here to my left Simon O'Connor. You're doing a wonderful job Simon. I was just going through the submissions to the select committee and it's a shame there were only I believe three submissions made. There were some very good points in those submissions and I thank those submitters for taking the time and raising some very valid points.I'd also like to acknowledge a previous customs Minister the Hon Tim Macindoe who was here earlier. I was a wee bit concerned: he was talking like he knew a lot about the drug-trafficking industry and I'm sure he got that knowledge from—Chris Penk: Too much!HAMISH WALKER: —his work—too much about the drug-trafficking industry! I'm sure he got that knowledge from his time as the customs Minister.This bill the Maritime Powers Extension Bill is around the powers that customs and police can use to search vessels coming within New Zealand waters but more importantly outside those New Zealand waters. So currently under the law they can get outside the 12- to 24-mile zone and then once they're in international waters the laws are a wee bit murky a wee bit muddy. This bill seeks to clear those and also give police and customs more powers.I just want to acknowledge the great work that those customs officers and police officers do for our country. It is a shame at the moment that between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. at Auckland Airport the working dogs of the Ministry for Primary Industries have been taking a bit of a snooze but it's great to see the Minister is getting on to that.The Customs Service is the oldest New Zealand public Government department and even though they are the oldest they are now one of the most tech-savvy. Technology has moved on greatly in the last five or 10 years and it's great to see the Customs Service using that technology. For example you can walk down an international terminal now and they have sensors which can basically sense whether or not you're carrying drugs. It saves a huge amount of time. But the problem is that the attempts to smuggle drugs into New Zealand have been increasing over time.You would have remembered Mr Speaker back in June 2016 there was some excellent work by the New Zealand Police and by the Customs Service. They intercepted a shipment of 450 kilograms of methamphetamine and it's very interesting to see how they did that. They basically intercepted the boat once it reached Ninety Mile Beach. It did go outside 20 miles to a mother ship; they transferred the drugs from the mother ship on to the boat and made it to shore. Two men were caught with 449 kilograms of methamphetamine in their caravan and they found around about 50 kilograms buried at Ninety Mile Beach. If it wasn't for the tremendous work and surveillance of the Customs Service of the police these offenders would not have been caught.Similar to the World Trade Organization—the World Trade Organization was set up to give a sort of framework for countries trading with one another and if there is a dispute with trade there are clear guidelines and a framework that the Governments contesting the trade can refer to. So this bill here will beef up the search and surveillance rules and regulations for customs which is needed because you just need to look around to see the different damage that P is doing to the communities. On that I commend the bill to the House.Bill read a third time.