Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. That was a really interesting way to end your speech Mr Reti. Can I just say that I am a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and I just want to provide a bit more history because I'm a bit of a history buff. I like to know where things began and how we've ended up where we are today and I just want to quote that the Arms Trade Treaty was part of a global effort which began in 1997 by Costa Rican President and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias Sánchez and it was actually about the concept of human security. There was a general recognition at the United Nations and in some countries that we needed to regulate an unregulated activity. So that was the reality of the beginnings of the Arms Trade Treaty that as some of my colleagues have already noted we signed in 2013 we ratified in 2014 and we will accede to it through the progression of this legislation through the House and join 94 other countries.The question of why we would do that is incredibly important and this is where I do want to pick up on what my colleague Dr Shane Reti said. This is all about stopping military weapons and arms getting to areas such as Afghanistan Iraq Syria Ukraine Yemen the Democratic Republic of the Congo Mexico and the Central African Republic. I mention those territories in the world because that is where armed conflict is happening today. The whole intention of this bill is actually really simple: it's to create a registration process in a regime that ensures that—when these types of weapons are being distributed exported and imported around the world—to do so in New Zealand you now have to register.Currently it's voluntary registration. So through the implementation of this piece of legislation (a) you will have to register and in that registration process you will be given a permit if your activity or if the activity you or your business wants to engage in is consistent with New Zealand's obligations under this Arms Trade Treaty. There could be conditions on those permits so it's not an open slather of once you get your permit you can do what you like. The reality of what we're trying to do is to ensure that the world is a secure place. Underlying this is security for us as a country. Obviously it has to reinforce our defence commitments but it's also critically about our international relations and actually everything we do on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee critically looks at our international relations. So the whole intention of the bill is to build peace it's to reduce human suffering it's to promote cooperation and transparency and also to hold countries accountable for their actions and the consequences of those actions on other countries.My colleague Willow-Jean Prime highlighted some really good discussions and debates in the select committee which actually did happen. I do want to take the opportunity to comment about Duncan Webb Golriz Ghahraman and Chris Penk—all lawyers. They had really interesting discussions about issues of jurisdiction. As you'll see—and I note that in introducing the debate tonight the Hon Winston Peters actually highlighted the seven changes that the select committee recommended. And they weren't random changes. Actually on a lot of occasions we had quite intense discussion about the jurisdictional scope and having to limit it and be really clear about who this piece of legislation applies to.So I too want to add my thanks to the officials who had to listen to those discussions and translate those discussions into this coherent piece of legislation that we have before us tonight. I see my colleague Simon O'Connor who is the chair of our select committee nodding his head because in some instances I was a passive observer as these three people had these dynamic conversations. So it really was a lesson in a select committee wanting to work together for the best interests of our country and also to produce a piece of legislation that actually we could hold up as world leading world class. So I'm quite proud of the amendments that we made and obviously will be accepted by the House tonight if we all agree at the conclusion of my speech.I do want to highlight one of the issues that I think was really good about the submission of annual reports. So we are regulating the trade and weapons and we're wanting transparency and I think our request for those who are granted permits to then submit an annual report again speaks to our wanting to be as transparent as possible. So we want to know what weapons have been brokered. Where are we sending them to? We need to hold ourselves accountable to the intention—as I said before—of the Arms Trade Treaty and to ensure that things that happen in our country actually don't contribute to exacerbating those conflicts that I've mentioned earlier because fundamental to us doing this and ensuring transparency actually at the end of the day is to deter the people that do want to contribute to war that are profiting from war that are distributing these weapons in these areas that fundamentally lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. So from our perspective I think what we've tried to do is actually embody the spirit of the Arms Trade Treaty throughout the whole of this piece of legislation.It was also really interesting—no one's really talked about why we've increased the period for which brokers are required to keep records from five to seven years. Actually for us it was about aligning it to requirements concerning tax records and Fire and Emergency New Zealand contracts and levy payments. So within the piece of legislation we also had some principles about it aligning to other pieces of legislation so that there was some symmetry and that there was a rationale and there was also again an ability to hold those companies accountable going forward.I really don't have much more to say other than I like how select committees work sometimes—you know really constructive engagement. We do listen to one another. We have quite dynamic discussions and end up making changes to bills that make them better. I'm presuming—even though the other side's been trying to beat up the fact that Ron Mark in a previous life did not support this bill at first reading when it was entered into the House by the Hon Gerry Brownlee who then was the Minister of Foreign Affairs—actually as a Parliament we should celebrate the nights and the days when we have pieces of legislation that we all agree on and that there is consensus. Kia ora mai tātou.Bill read a second time.