Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): It's an absolute delight and pleasure to rise and speak in support of this member's bill. To Ian McKelvie the member that introduced it to this House—I commend you good sir. For those of us from rural communities who are out there in some of the regions that don't get as much attention as the bigger cities with the lights we know how hard times can be particularly for those that are engaged in the primary industries in very remote regions. For example up on the East Coast the primary production sector is the backbone of our economic survival. I guess that the lawyer in me has a few twinges when I'm looking at a piecemeal approach to law development around sentencing and I'd like to see this type of legislation included into—or this particular point that the member is trying to address here which is really the security of our regions I'd like to see as part of a more comprehensive approach to our criminal justice law and sentencing law evolution. But I do acknowledge that there is a particular concern within our rural communities that they've simply—[Bell rung]ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Oh sorry. KIRITAPU ALLAN: I was going to say Well that was the quickest"—oh jiggers. I know that I sometimes lose track of time—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I apologise to the member. I was going for the mike. Sorry. KIRITAPU ALLAN: —but that really was quick. So I probably want to just touch on a couple of points of consideration. Up there on the East Coast we're really seeing an increase where the margins have become so slim for many of our particularly family-based industries as opposed to the corporate farmers. But for a lot of our smaller farmers who are counting every penny and every cent that is made and spent on their farms when there is a mass culling or an unlawful acquisition of stock taken from farms that has massive implications for that family. What we are starting to see—and I hear it within my electorate at the very least—is that times have been pretty tough for a lot of our farmers. In particular due to the stress of maintaining a number of our farms we have a very concerning rise in mental health incidents amongst my farming population. I particularly just want to draw attention to the work of the Tai Rāwhiti agricultural women's collective who have been really campaigning around just how tough things have been in respect of small farmers who are counting their pennies but not quite making ends meet. So I guess from a pragmatic perspective I do support the passage of this legislation. I guess my cautions are though—and it was one of our sergeants up in Gisborne. He was making a comment in respect of stock theft about a year ago and it was coming up to Christmas. He said "You know this is a time when a lot of stock is taken—up around Labour Day and these various statutory holidays but in particular getting close to Christmas." Whilst we are making considerations in respect of the unlawful acquisition of stock from our farms I too just want to make the note that things have been pretty hard out there in the regions. That doesn't justify poor decisions and doing the wrong thing but the theft spikes are occurring—well this is what my local policeman was saying anyway. They're happening close to Christmas because of the burdens on those families. So I guess as we are considering the passage of this legislation—particularly in regard to the aggravating and mitigating factors in relation to our sentencing—there are a range of considerations that we need to take into account. But I have full faith in our Primary Production Committee that they will indeed nut those particulars out as this bill passes through the House. So to the member thank you for bringing these issues of great concern to our regions to the House's full attention. I commend this bill to the select committee. Thank you."