Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I'll take a brief call on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill. As chair of the committee it has been a thorough process and it has been a difficult task in confronting some of the hard issues—particularly given the fact that New Zealand had a recent terrorist attack just on 3 September which was right at the final stages of when this bill was going through consideration and deliberation.So at that point I would like to acknowledge those victims in Auckland—LynnMall—and their whānau. I'd also like to acknowledge those victims in New Zealand from the March 15th attacks in Christchurch which was really the generating reason for this legislation to be drafted.This legislation really came in part by responding to the report of the royal commission of the inquiry into the 15th March terrorist attacks and in particular it implements recommendation 18 which is giving a priority to considering precursor or preparatory offences. That is exactly what this legislation does: it enables those people who work to keep New Zealand safe to put into place protections when someone has been identified as a risk.I'd like to note that the bill also provides an extension for control orders. It is interesting to note that no counter-terrorism measure is ever going to be guaranteed to prevent a terrorist attack. There is no cast-iron guarantee that these tools will in fact work but it does enable New Zealand to respond and be ready in a much greater way than we have been in the past and particularly given that the past two terror attacks that I've referred to are both from lone actors—while in the past our terrorism legislation has been geared to wider groups.So overseas experience indicates that things like control orders can be a really successful way of preventing some types of behaviour particularly of radicalising groups and individuals. Those independent reviews in other countries—the UK and Australia—show that they have been a useful tool for managing that.This bill really strengthens our counter-terrorism laws to better prevent and respond and these changes will also enable police to intervene earlier—and if it saves lives and makes New Zealanders safer I believe that's a good thing.I'd like to close by acknowledging the police who have worked incredibly well over the period of both of those terrorist incidents in New Zealand but I would also like to acknowledge the officials. When they appeared before our committee—there is a thorough departmental report that I encourage all members with an interest in this area to read; over 160 pages that really goes into the detail of what the risks and the benefits of introducing this type of legislation is—every question that the members from both Opposition and Government asked those officials they had a full answer to be able to put our minds at rest as to the steps this legislation was taking and whether it would lead New Zealand down the right path.I am happy as the chair of the committee that consensus was generally reached amongst those members and thanks to that largely is due to the hard work of those officials to be able to satisfy the request for further information and make sure we were taking a step in the right direction. So without further delay I wish to commend this bill to the House.