Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. In light of the last member's opening remarks I encourage him to just reflect for a moment on question time today and the question that he put on the floor and potentially the inclusion of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the National Party constitution. But tonight we are discussing the Maritime Powers Bill. I would like to make a contribution because parts of it are of interest to what has been a journey for my whānau over the past 15 to 20 years and what we've seen is the impact of methamphetamine and class A drugs across Aotearoa New Zealand and amongst our communities. This evening we've heard in multiple speeches the challenges and the echo of those concerns. In that this bill is so relevant because obviously while we have some good outcomes at the moment—and I refer to Operation Worthington where our New Zealand Police managed to seize 44 kilos of methamphetamine—there is a way in this country that particular drugs are being smuggled in. And no doubt that they're coming from multiple channels and we need to address many many of them but we do need to strengthen the laws that enable both New Zealand Police and the New Zealand Defence Force and the Department of Conservation to strengthen security practices out on our waters.And so what this bill does is it responds to the increasingly dynamic and complex maritime security environment and ensures that we can keep our maritime environment secure against threats. This does include drug trafficking as I've spoken about; wildlife trafficking; and of course human trafficking. But the bill will give power to the police the New Zealand Defence Force Customs and the Department of Conservation and it will provide powers to respond to a range of criminal offending in our international waters. These will include offences that take place on board a New Zealand flagged vessel in international waters it will include the offences that take place on board a foreign flagged vessel or stateless vessel in international waters for which New Zealand has extraterritorial jurisdiction and it will include situations where an alleged offender or evidence of criminal offending is located on a New Zealand foreign or stateless vessel in international waters.The parts in this bill are: Part 1 provides the context and the legislative exceptions Part 2 outlines the powers and grounds for exercising powers and Part 3 outlines the offences themselves. Now it does sit within Labour's plan. It is within our manifesto that says that New Zealand has a proud tradition of an independent foreign policy with a focus on promoting multilateralism human rights and the international rule of law and this bill builds on that.Lastly I just want to acknowledge that this is also part of the briefing to the incoming Minister of this Government and keeping the maritime environment secure is a crucial component of New Zealand's national security. We've got a lot of work to do but this is taking steps towards strengthening our security systems to address our challenges around the access and smuggling in of drugs into Aotearoa New Zealand and the impact that it does have on our communities. So I commend this bill to the House.