Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I join with other leaders in thanking the royal commission for their report. I want to start though by saying al salam alaikum to the 51 shuhada to those that they have left behind and to every Muslim New Zealander. Today is a day that I suspect nobody wants to be talking about this topic but all of us must and what we must say first and foremost to those victims and those they left behind them is that we are one with you that we reject the actions the incomprehensible barbarism of this terrorist and that this is your home and you should have been safe here. It's difficult for New Zealanders as other speakers have noted. Normally the bad news is confined to the world section of our papers and we found 20 months ago that we'd supplied the bad news to the papers of the world. We will never erase the scars on the heart that this tragedy has left but we can choose a better way forward and that's what this royal commission of inquiry has chartered for us to do. We should acknowledge the exemplary rhetorical leadership that our Prime Minister supplied for New Zealand and the world in the wake of our nation's tragedy. Her call that He may have chosen us but we utterly rejected him." I think was exactly the right thing to say. Now we must turn to positive practical solutions that will ensure that such a thing cannot happen ever again and as the Government seeks to respond to this royal commission report I believe it will face some paradoxes. I do not believe it is possible to say that it is nobody's fault but that somehow new entities will be more accountable. There has to be accountability when 51 people are slain. There cannot be simply an excuse that no one person was in a position to do so. It is critical that we face up to the paradox that this terrorist came from without. It is not acceptable in my view for New Zealanders to flagellate themselves and believe that we must have a form of social engineering led by the Ministry of Social Development when actually the response of New Zealanders to this tragedy and this hatred was united and exemplary and a beacon to the world. In particular it would be wrong to introduce British-style hate speech laws without even the exemptions for free and fair debate that those laws have in Britain. I hesitate to bring up the case of firearm laws today in this debate but unfortunately the Prime Minister chose to make a number of political points about them. The sad truth is that the Government's response was ineffective divisive and—without the benefit of this royal commission of inquiry report—premature and one only has to look at the fact that the Government banned around a quarter-million firearms and collected 60000. How does that help keep New Zealanders safer? This report calls for—and the Government has responded positively to—the idea that we must build social cohesion and capital. Nothing this Parliament has done in the six years that I have been here has been more divisive than the rushed firearm laws with no consultation. That's not the way to show leadership. Those 51 shuhada deserve much better. They deserve a Government that holds those accountable to account before shifting to new agencies and one that recognises that the terrorist's intention was to create chaos and disruption. We must remain united around our common humanity and the freedoms of our liberal democracy that make New Zealand so special. That is the way to honour those lost last year. Thank you Mr Speaker."