van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. All right now—I'm looking forward to this call of course—we've seen that a number of the aspects that are relevant to this bill have already been traversed tonight some in shorter calls than others but tonight I just wanted to touch on a few of those aspects. Really what we're looking at here is trying to provide greater flexibility to our fantastic men and women in customs to carry out the duties required of them in their roles—in particular protecting our borders from the transition of a broad array of illicit drugs coming in or going out of New Zealand. This is a scourge on our society and we've heard about that already somewhat this evening but I just wanted to expand a little on that.We've already got a vast array of laws under the Acts we've heard about tonight covering those obligations or options that customs can deploy at their disposal as necessary within our territorial waters or in the contiguous zone further out—again another 12 nautical miles past those territorial waters. This bill is about expanding that and providing that flexibility to go beyond that as necessary to ensure that we can carry out those functions for any situation that is impacting on us in New Zealand or has the ability to take these drugs offshore and provide further detrimental impacts in other nations. So I think it's really important that we do extend this to give that flexibility because otherwise what we can see—and at the moment we've seen—is a vast array of diverse manners in which drug traffickers are able to bring their products into New Zealand or indeed look to take them out. So this provides that capacity to reach a little bit further to capture them perhaps in staging areas outside zones that we're not currently able to reach into.I'd just like to take a moment to acknowledge the great work of the New Zealand Defence Force—primarily the navy and indeed also the air force—in supporting customs through this role. They do some fantastic work and work that's nearly as good as the army! I have to put that plug in of course with some background in the army myself.So look the drugs are the issue here. It's about getting tough on crime and that's a stance that in the National Party we have long supported. We've seen over a number of years now and not just in New Zealand but internationally an increase in the volume of drugs coming into different jurisdictions and an increase in the ingenuity perhaps of members of the illegal drug trade looking to bring their product in with different innovative approaches—and we've already heard some of those tonight during the debate with the hauls that have been intercepted. So this is about trying to adapt to evolve and to ensure that we remain able to best respond to this ongoing threat to our society—and indeed it is a significant impact on our society. You can look all around the country and unfortunately see the negative impact of drugs in our communities. I think every member here who represents an electorate would be able to agree with that and point to instances in their areas. Certainly in the Waikato we are not exempt either despite some of our areas being some of the most inland in New Zealand.That aside what we're looking at just to recap here is providing the additional discretion to operate outside current jurisdictional boundaries and to respond in an appropriate manner. Now this is quite succinct around seizure options boarding vessels to ensure that actually there is some restriction to what we're proposing when we're operating outside our boundaries because that is important to give context and confidence internationally that we're operating in accordance with international law in this regard.I think that's probably about enough on those aspects but I just want to recap that we are here really trying to evolve and to adapt to ensure that we can continue to provide the best options to our team and to customs to carry out their great work. And I'd just like to finish on a wee trivia point if I may: customs was actually the first Government department in New Zealand set up in 1840 actually—around the time of the Treaty signing I believe. So it was really interesting to see that as the first department. Here we are now continuing to evolve continuing to ensure their relevance and their ability to conduct their duties in a professional and succinct manner. So I commend this bill.