Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party to support the Maritime Powers Bill. The Maritime Powers Bill provides New Zealand law enforcement agencies with powers to enforce New Zealand's criminal law in international waters the oceans and seas beyond New Zealand's territorial sea including New Zealand's exclusive economic zone. The bill does this in a manner that will be consistent with New Zealand's rights and obligations under international law in particular the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and international human rights law. It reflects the fundamental importance of maritime security for New Zealand as an island nation with an extensive maritime domain. New Zealand has the fourth largest exclusive economic zone in the world covering a little over four million square kilometres approximately 15 times the land area of New Zealand itself. New Zealand also has rights to an area of the continental shelf beyond our exclusive economic zone covering approximately 1.7 million square kilometres. So it's a very significant area and then of course New Zealand has responsibilities further out in terms of the Pacific. The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand is also responsible for coordinating all major maritime and aviation search and rescue missions within New Zealand search and rescue regions which is one of the world's largest at 30 million square kilometres extending from the mid Tasman Sea halfway to Chile and from the South Pole almost up to the Equator. So New Zealand has a very big role to play in the world's maritime environment. This bill provides powers to respond to a range of criminal offending against New Zealand law in international waters including offences that take place on board a New Zealand vessel in international waters offences that take place on board a foreign vessel in international waters and situations where an alleged offender or evidence of criminal offending is located on a New Zealand or foreign vessel in international waters. The bill does not create any new substantive offences or expand the jurisdiction of any existing offences. It only creates powers exercisable in respect of serious criminal offending against New Zealand law which the bill defines as offences punishable by 2 or more years' imprisonment". This threshold reflects that the bill is intended to respond to serious criminal offending at sea particularly transnational organised crime. The bill provides powers to enforcement officers who are defined as constables customs officers members of the armed forces Department of Conservation rangers and Endangered Species Officers. This will enable the powers to be used to address a range of offending including trafficking of humans drugs arms and wildlife.It is important to know that New Zealand has adequate powers to enforce our criminal law in a constantly evolving and increasingly challenging maritime security environment as resources become more and more important and particularly food security to the world.There is a concern the National Party has with this bill in that it proposed to give powers of arrest search and seizure to rangers and conservation and endangered species officers which are the same as those given to police and customs officers. This is an expansion of powers that National-led Governments have resisted in the past. The National Party members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee sought assurance on the use of those powers and were assured that they will be limited and used judiciously. National will continue to scrutinise the use of these powers as the bill comes into force. I'd note as the MP for Southland I can tell the House about some exciting work coming straight out of Alexandra and Central Otago from the Xerra Earth Observation Institute which is pertinent to this conversation this afternoon. Xerra is building science-based software using satellite data to help tackle some of the challenges involved in maritime security. The Starboard Maritime Intelligence programme helps the analysts and decision makers by detecting non-reporting dark vessels. This software can provide valuable insight into illegal fishing practices identify potential COVID-19 transmission vectors by vessel history analysis and identify biosecurity threats before they even enter New Zealand waters. Xerra's work in this area recently earned them the top honours in the latest New Zealand Biosecurity Awards and is only the beginning of how this technology can benefit New Zealand.This is an example of some of the great work that is being done in New Zealand and even in this case in Central Otago which is a reasonably long way away from the ocean but I can say even for my electorate the ocean is very important. It covers a huge area but I have a significant part of the Catlins and a very significant part of Fiordland in my electorate and we are deeply interested in what happens both on our coastlines and also what happens further afield and want to ensure the security of our resources and also ensure that harmful substances and other things are not brought into our country. So this is a positive bill. It is one that I am pleased to support as it's sensible."