Hudson Brett: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 15 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7300. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): Peace in our time—peace in our time. It does feel like peace has broken out in this place today. Pretty soon we will be sitting round a campfire singing “Kumbaya”. But I would note that New Zealand First members have not actually spoken on this bill yet and those words could prove as short-lived as they were when Neville Chamberlain first raised them decades ago. But it is a pleasure to stand in support of the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2). The principal change here to restore a 10-year validity period for our passports is something that Kiwis are very welcoming of. I too would like to reiterate our appreciation to the Minister of Internal Affairs and the members of the Government Administration Committee which I am fortunate to sit on.The committee did one thing I think that it is fair to say all of New Zealand would endorse strongly. So efficient and effective were we in our consideration of this bill the greatest amendment we made was to bring forward the introduction date by a full month so people like Nanaia Mahuta who are waiting to renew their passports can get a 10-year passport 1 month earlier than was originally proposed.It is fair to point out that the New Zealand passport is not only treasured by New Zealanders but is actually the eighth-most desirable passport in the world according to the Arton Capital group which created a passport power rank index. We have the eighth-most desirable passport in the world ahead of Australia not that that would surprise many people. But with that it is fair to say that not only does it make it a very trusted passport around the world—and that is evidenced by the fact that around 170 countries permit us to enter their borders without a visa—but it actually makes it a bit of a target for counterfeiters. After 9/11 with the terrorism threat in particular being what it was we had to take steps to ensure that it would remain a well-trusted and secure passport. One of the risks we faced was actually losing our visa waiver status with the US. I think Parliament at the time made the consideration that that would have been a greater inconvenience to travellers than shifting to a 5-year validity period. But it is a wonderful thing to be able to stand here now and hopefully within a few short minutes we will be restoring the 10-year validity to Kiwi passports.I will make just a couple of points before I finish up to help speed this through. I am delighted to also see that we are making a change to increase the validity of refugee travel documents from 2 years to 5 years because that aligns with the residency period for them to then seek permanent residency or citizenship. So that is good to see. It is also good to see that we are introducing the offence of false representation being applied extraterritorially. We had this odd situation that it was not an offence to make a false representation outside New Zealand.So all in all the bill is making some very sensible changes and the primary one restoring 10-year validity is one that will be welcomed across New Zealand. I commend the bill to the House.