Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Chair for an opportunity to take a call in the annual review debate of the New Zealand Police and let me start by first acknowledging the Minister in the chair and also acknowledging all of our men and women who put on the police uniform day in and day out to keep us safe. I just want to acknowledge their hard work and their dedication to the role that they play—an incredibly important role that they play in New Zealand. One of the big areas that we discussed at the annual review of the New Zealand Police was the increase in gang membership that we're seeing and the increase in gang crime that we're seeing currently in New Zealand. It's no secret that gangs are becoming more emboldened. They are becoming more entrenched into our society. We've seen gang numbers increase by 2500 under this Government's watch—a 48 percent increase in gang membership. We've seen the number of firearm offences increasing rapidly. This is something which is incredibly concerning to New Zealanders as they can see this happening on a day-to-day basis on the streets and in their communities and whilst it's good to see that the Government is finally waking up to this issue by announcing today that they will be introducing legislation around firearm prohibition orders these changes come far too little and far too late. The briefing to the incoming Minister Stuart Nash recommended back in 2017 introducing firearm prohibition orders. That came about because of a select committee inquiry which also recommended the introduction of firearm prohibition orders. The Government then sat on their hands and voted against legislation which the National Party put up twice on this issue: voted against it once and then voted against it a second time midway through last year. The police consulted on firearm prohibition orders in January last year and it's now taken about 15 or 16 months for the Government to finally make an announcement to say that they are finally going to do something about this issue. But the reality whilst the Government has dithered and dathered is we've seen gangs become more entrenched gang membership increase and their violence become more bold and that is something which is becoming more concerning to more and more New Zealanders. So my challenge to the Minister who's in the chair is to tell the public tonight: when will legislation be before this House to debate firearm prohibition orders? My bill is still before the Justice Committee and it seems quite—you know yeah it's politics. The Government announced their changes today when the select committee was due to deliberate on Thursday. But when is the Government going to put their legislation on the floor of this House to be debated? They've said it's going to be some time this year. When will it be on the floor of this House because I tell the Minister New Zealanders have had enough? They want action now. They've seen the National Party put this issue up and they've seen the Government vote it down and now it's time for some action because actions speak louder than words when it comes to getting tough and smarter when it comes to tackling the gang firearm violence that we're seeing in New Zealand. So when will it be on the floor of this House? When will we see that legislation? When will it be released and then debated so that it can get to a select committee for the public to have their say on it? Will that bill include additional search powers for police? The select committee heard from the Police Association about the need for additional search powers and I acknowledge that my bill needed to have some changes made. That's what the select committee process is for. We listened to the select committee and we listened to the submissions. Will the Minister ensure that this bill that she is putting forward actually listens to what the Police Association have been asking for which is additional search powers so the police have more tools to go out there and actually take the guns off the gangs. New Zealanders are looking for bold leadership but they're looking for legislation which will actually also do the job. So I ask the Minister to please confirm to the committee when this legislation will be coming and whether it will include search powers.