Pugh MaureenANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND COUNTERING FINANCING OF TERRORISM AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingDebate resumed.MAUREEN PUGH (National): It is my pleasure today to stand in support of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill in its third and final reading this afternoon. As we have heard this bill has been considered by a very cooperative select committee the Law and Order Committee. The current Act that is under operation is phase one of the tranche of changes that is being made and it was brought in for those organisations that were probably of a higher risk of being used by criminals to launder their money—they were the banks casinos and a range of other financial service providers. It was the first step in closing the gaps that had the potential to provide ways for criminals to launder their money.This bill is a further step and it is helping us protect our businesses as well as ensuring that New Zealand's reputation remains of a very high standard and is respected and that we are continuing to be known as safe country in which to do business. This bill phase two extends the regime to lawyers conveyancers accountants real estate agents racing and sports betting and businesses that deal in high-value goods such as jewellery precious stones cars artworks etc. These are the organisations that still have potential in terms of being used by criminals to launder their dirty money. The committee wanted to give these organisations time to implement their systems to train their staff and to have their systems in place in time to meet time frames. Those time frames have been staggered and that gives these organisations a range of time but also gives the staff within the Ministry of Justice time to work with these organisations to implement their systems. The lawyers and conveyancers' implementation date is 1 July 2018 the accountants is by 1 October 2018 and the real estate agents is by 1 January 2019. As we have heard from my colleagues across the House the New Zealand Racing Board is the last of those organisations to be required to meet its implementation date and that has been set at 1 August 2019. The rationale behind that was that the racing clubs across the country are quite small and do have some challenges in setting up these systems so their time was extended out to help them to comply. The timing was important to the select committee because in 2019 the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering will be doing its review of New Zealand and we know that this will have a direct effect on our international trade reputation. So it was important to the committee that we were able to meet those international obligations and that is why this bill is being staggered and the implementation dates fit with that review. The act of laundering money is the way that criminals do clean their illegally gotten gains and that is usually through illegal activities like selling drugs or stolen property. This bill will make it so much more difficult for those criminals to clean their dirty money. That also includes people internationally who may have been looking to New Zealand as a place to launder their money. So it protects our honest business owners and operators and it does tighten up the systems that criminals may have seen as an easy ride for them in laundering their dirty money here in New Zealand. It is much more challenging for them now. This bill protects New Zealand's integrity and I commend it to the House.