Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): I'm pleased as a Government member on this side of the House to rise and speak to this bill. This is one of the more challenging pieces of legislation we will have to steward through in light of the circumstances that brought this legislation about. It's one of the more challenging pieces of legislation that I think this House has to consider and indeed we must consider it responsibly and I think we must reflect as well on many of the recommendations that have come through over the last 36 years. This Arms Act has been in place for 36 years. There haven't been comprehensive amendments to this Act in 27 years. I want to take a note from—it was two days after the events of 15 March. A journalist by the name of Laura Walters from the Newsroom made this observation. It was at a time when the country was in its heightened stage and she wrote this piece about gun law reform and some of the challenges that I think resonate with me today and this afternoon as this House considers this raft of reforms. She said The issue of guns is constantly bubbling away under the surface with debates rising to the top every time there's a high-profile incident involving a firearm. When this happens the reports are all the same: police saw it coming Police Association calls for tighter laws the firearms community pushes back saying that their rights as responsible gun owners were being eroded by the criminal minority—'guns don't kill people people kill people'—and politicians promise to look at those laws." That statement two days after one of this country's most tragic incidents in post-wartime couldn't resonate more loudly than what this debate has reflected in this House this afternoon. When you look through the detail—and I'm not sure how many of the Opposition members have gone through this bill—there's a raft of things that are being proposed by the Minister of Police the Hon Stuart Nash. One is the registry another looks at licensing and then there's a whole raft of reforms in terms of the offences and penalties. The registry has been a point of contention this afternoon across the House and that to me is very interesting. It's interesting that the list member for the National Party who is the spokesperson for the police can in this House get up and say that a registry is not wanted or required for law-abiding citizens. It astounds me that the Opposition spokesperson for the police can say that when the former Minister of Police from the now Opposition the Hon Judith Collins—she agreed at the time in March that there should be a firearms register. The former spokesperson for police the member Christopher Bishop—he agreed only a couple of months ago that there should be a registry for firearms. Why did they do that? Because those that are responsible for ensuring that all New Zealanders are safe have been calling out for that amendment for years. The Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern when she made her remarks in this House in March for the first tranche of those firearms reforms—she said and she noted that this House has tried to address arms legislation reforms in 2005 2012 and 2017 and never quite could get the momentum to get the numbers to get this piece of legislation over the line. One of the more—and he's been oft quoted this afternoon. The Hon John Banks right after the law-abiding citizen the gun-licensed citizen David Gray in November 1990—he was a licensed gun holder. He was a law-abiding citizen.Brett Hudson: No he wasn't.KIRITAPU ALLAN: In 1990 when he acquired that gun licence yes he was a law-abiding citizen and he went on to commit a rampage killing 13 lives in 1990. That triggered the review. That triggered the review and in 1997 the Thorp report came out. That recommended a raft of amendments. The Hon John Banks said that that was one of his lasting I guess sorrows leaving this House—that he could not get the numbers amongst his own side to get that gun reform legislation over the line. I implore the Opposition to stop playing politics with something so significant to public safety."