McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I thank the Minister for ceding the floor so that I can speak so early in this debate. Can I say in looking at this here's another piece of legislation that a hard-working coalition of three parties is saying they are doing because they're hard-working but if we look a little big deeper it was presented to the House on 27 June 2017 long before the election and on 15 August it was sent off to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee a month before the election. So it's great to see they continue the work of the last Government which was very hard-working in focusing on issues that were important.While this may not be of great importance to everybody in New Zealand we do need to do our fair share. We need to line up with other nations and we do need to make sure that our rules our regulations actually meet the requirements of commitments New Zealand has made internationally. We certainly must take our foreign affairs extremely seriously. That's why it concerns me so much that New Zealand First must be voting against this bill. I think that's just appalling. But the good news for the Government is that National will be supporting it so they do have the numbers to get it through.Now why do I think New Zealand First is voting against it? The reason for that is on 18 August before the election last year in Opposition Ron Mark who was not honourable" then—he was not "honourable" back then—got up and put out a press release that said "New Zealand Customs proves 'War Dogs' Bill unnecessary." He called this legislation the "War Dogs Bill". We go a little bit further. He said in his press release "[The] National-led Government took us down a rabbit hole to regulate non-existent Kiwis trading non-existent arms in some Sub-Saharan fantasy." He went on and he must have been speaking about Willie Jackson when he said this and I quote "The peaceniks in the other parties love the opportunity to dance around the maypole sing Kumbaya and bag a bouquet defence industry but not us."Hon Member: Who said that?Hon TODD McCLAY: The reason we know Ron Mark said it back then was because he wasn't "honourable" back then. He hadn't got the title so we could hear him. If he said it today it would be hard to hear over the din of the helicopters flying in and out of the Wairarapa. But New Zealand First must be voting against it because a Cabinet Minister—actually ranked second amongst Cabinet from that party—said that it was a waste of time and that the Government was looking at taking us down a rabbit hole. Well I would say to Mr Mark that he wasn't "honourable" back then; if he has changed his mind he could well be honourable now—but that's really up to him.We do support this bill because it is important. The trade in illegal arms around the world is devastating and it can be devastating. We heard firsthand in the committee of the significant harm that is done. There is no suggestion that there are New Zealanders who are involved in this type of illegal trade but there is also no suggestion that we shouldn't have appropriate rules and regulations in place to be able to make sure that when we say that we can back it up and it's correct.The final point I would make in the debate is that the committee did take quite some time questioning officials to make sure that we weren't overburdening law-abiding citizens who trade in weapons for recreational use in New Zealand. We received assurances from them that actually the legitimate trade in firearms—there are many New Zealanders who use firearms for legitimate recreational purposes with appropriate licences and so on—won't be impacted upon by this at all. It was important that the committee got that assurance because it's not everyday Kiwis that this bill focuses on; it is those who could or may in the future be acting illegally. Thank you."