O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): It does give me pleasure to speak on this bill. Unlike my namesake on the other side of the House Simon O'Connor I'm a newbie to this. It's one of those wonderful occasions where having listened to a lot of my colleagues speaking on this as I prepared for a speech on another issue I couldn't help but absorb much of what they were talking about such is the interest in this topic. I couldn't help it too—I did look up and often as you'll know Madam Deputy Speaker sometimes you're working here and I saw the Hon Mark Mitchell describe himself as a peacenik. My mind immediately drifted to the sight of Mark Mitchell with perhaps a tie-dyed T-shirt a ponytail a headband and a banjo. I look forward to perhaps seeing him in that because as he looked up dreamily I think that's how he saw himself.But going back to the bill Madam Deputy Speaker—as I know you'll be pleased to see I intend to do—as I read through the papers there's one thing that did occur to me. With this legislation what it will do is actually protect a lot of New Zealanders as well. Being an immigrant nation where many of the peoples who arrived here in different waves be it the 12th century right through to today were people who were coming from places for—obviously you only emigrate for something better. Often we left areas of conflict and places where traditional rivalries going back centuries often had brought about the conditions that required our families to immigrate. One of the downsides of that is that often when we come to a new land like New Zealand we bring the history of those conflicts with us.As someone who's of Irish Catholic descent I know I grew up with stories of how badly the English had treated the Irish going back a century and a half. What that did tend to do is manifest itself in a belief that even generations later you needed to help in those conflicts that had perhaps continued. Of course the way to do that—and again I look at the experience that I've had with those who continued to supply the IRA in Ireland through the conflict and also the Protestant groups on the other side. A lot of the funding for those groups came from groups in the New World where they'd gathered money through charitable organisations and various others and sent arms and money back to accentuate those conflicts.So when I see that and remember that and I look at this legislation I see that it's actually a piece of legislation that while it will achieve much of what the previous speakers have spoken to is something we can reflect close to home providing the protections so that when perhaps that requirement that request comes from one of those old countries—whether they be in Africa Asia Europe or the Pacific; wherever we came from—for people to assist by way of sending arms or brokering or sending that back to those areas then this will actually form: Well I'd like to help but I can't because there's a five-year sentence involved in this."So I think it's looking at it slightly from an internal point of view. Again of course I look at—it's unusual I see that in New Zealand we do regulate activities overseas. This of course gets up there with the regulation we have around child sex exploitation up in Asia. So that is again another area where we have previously legislated the activities of New Zealanders who are overseas. So again it shows how seriously we do take this—the misery we can cause overseas and I suppose the measures we can take within our own country to prevent that happening. So again looking through this legislation it is not only very sensible and not only very timely but also something that provides protection for those overseas who are so often victims.I see also the prohibition does not apply—it's got that pragmatic approach to it—to a person who carries out in relation to a weapon that's related or is a dual-use good. In other words it may have a civilian use but is intended for military end—so again a sensible thing. It's not designed to prevent New Zealand companies doing business just because something could perhaps at the end of the day end up in those hands. A person who carries out the brokering activities outside New Zealand and complies with an equivalent overseas regime so as long as it's not breaking the law of that place and anything done by a person who is employed by a department—and of course obviously giving that protection within New Zealand.Again unlike my namesake having been something of a johnny-come-lately to this piece of legislation—in the time I've had to examine it it looks very sensible. It's something that I'm very pleased to stand here and commend to this House."