Roche Denise: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 04 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7724. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take a short call for the Greens on the legislation arising from the Organised Crime and Anti-corruption Legislation Bill. My colleague David Clendon has already outlined lots of reasons why we are supporting this legislation.It is great that New Zealand is exercising our international responsibilities and moving to align ourselves with the various conventions that we have signed up to like the United Nations Convention Against Corruption; the Agreement on Enhancing Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Crime between the United States and New Zealand; the OECD’s Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions; the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime; and the UN Protocol toPrevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children. The public submissions on the original bill were largely in support with groups as varied as the New Zealand Bankers’ Association the New Zealand Police Association and Transparency International all expressing support.However I would like to raise some of the concerns that were raised in some of those submissions as well. Transparency International for example stated the importance of this bill making it explicit that facilitation payments to Government officials are bribes. It rightly notes that facilitation payments are widely recognised in many countries and are common practice and it also says that many of our close allies and friends actively prohibit facilitation payments including the United Kingdom with the UK Bribery Act.I hope this Government has not deliberately stymied this legislation because of its own embarrassment over its facilitation payments to a certain Saudi Arabian national. There are important principles at work here and I hope that the Government’s deserved embarrassment over its own poor conduct has not resulted in New Zealand condoning a poor practice.I guess a timely reminder of how important it is that New Zealand maintains a strong stand against facilitation payments is the developing case in the Philippines that was covered recently. It is the case of the laglag bala or the “fallen bullet” scandal where Filipino airport customs officials were allegedly placing bullets in people’s luggage to extort from them later and demand a facilitation payment. As far as I know no New Zealander has been caught in it so far but if an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade or another staffer elected to pay that type of payment it would be completely legal and it disturbs me that it would not be illegal under our own law. Our Filipino New Zealand citizens with ties back to the Philippines who visit their home country as well as other New Zealanders with interests in the country could potentially be affected by this and my heart goes out to them.We are by failing to criminalise this behaviour in New Zealand tacitly supporting corrupt systems empowering corrupt officials and normalising a culture of corruption and we have to stand up and make it clear by our words and by our deeds that corruption and facilitation payments are unacceptable whether they are to secure an agri-hub in a Saudi desert or to make sure the baggage that you are travelling with goes through airport security unmolested. We should take a stand on this. Corruption is a bit like tooth decay: if you allow a little bit through and do not clean it up it spreads and trashes the whole mouth. It also causes other feedback loops within systems and by not taking a firm stand against it we are partly enabling cultures of corruption and that is a lost opportunity with this legislation. We do not believe this legislation goes far enough to stamp out facilitation payments. We could do better and with the Greens in Government we certainly will.