McKee NicoleHon NICOLE McKEE (Associate Minister of Justice): Thank you Madam Chair. I've got a few there to answer but I'm just going to come back to the Green member's question the Green member that—oh I can't speak to people who aren't here but perhaps it could be passed on. I have a more fulsome reply. The definition of firearm or related item" in the firearms prohibition orders (FPO) regime is the same as the definition of "arms item" covered in the whole of the Arms Act except "firearm or related item" also includes ammunition and imitation firearms. I suspect once we look to do a rewrite you might have to add 3D-printed in there somewhere as well. So that sort of speaks to all of that if you wouldn't mind passing that on.To the honourable member Duncan Webb who talked about the intention to search—and gave the example of boarding houses being occupied and controlled by an individual and spoke of boarding rooms being occupied by other individuals who are not under the control of the person with the firearms prohibition order and was worried about them also being searched—I think that we've made it very clear within the legislation that it's actually unable to happen or should not happen. In fact it would be grounds for an unreasonable search if indeed that did happen because police need to specify that the search is for checking for compliance. They also need to make sure that they are only entering into the areas where that individual is. It may be their boarding room it may be the bathroom it may be the kitchen. I don't think I've aware of many criminals who blatantly show that they are in possession of illegally held firearms; they rather go about trying to hide them. But we do need to respect the privacy of individuals that are not caught up within that regime.Now there could be a difference if that individual is associating with someone else in the boarding house who is part of an organised crime group or part of a gang and is known to be associating with that person and meets the criteria within the regime. That will come down to New Zealand Police at the time that they instigate their search as to what that relationship may be and whether or not the person with the FPO is able to have quick access to that individual's room. I'll also note that the member the Hon Duncan Webb said that I referred to the Evidence Act. I did not refer to the Evidence Act so I'm not taking on board what the member said there because I didn't refer to that.To the member the Hon Ginny Andersen who asked questions about the amendments for public safety and an offender with what we now call prohibited firearms—they come under many categories now quite a quite a number of them. They're not just what was previously noted as military style semi-automatics but they also encompass a whole lot of other firearm types as well. So we'll just call them prohibited firearms.I was asked about the regime on people breaking the rules with regard to firearms. What we currently have in the legislation is that there is a penalty or an offence that could have a person imprisoned for five years if they were indeed in possession of a legally held firearm. If that firearm happened to be a prohibited firearm it goes up to seven years of potential imprisonment. If there are other offences—say they're in possession of other types of prohibited weapons or ammunition—they face a penalty of up to two years. Now if a licensed firearm owner sells a firearm to a person who has an FPO upon them and they're aware that an FPO is upon them—if that firearm is a category firearm it would be a five-year offence of potential imprisonment and if that person sells a prohibited firearm to a person with an FPO that is a seven-year jailable offence for that person as well. When I'm looking at section "G" which is about 42A—just going off the top of my head and I might be wrong here—I think that's what I refer to as the drive-by shooting clause. Looking at what the member's saying about you know with wanting to insert the word "must" I don't want to have our front line get to the point where they are really waiting until the last minute to try and take firearms away from these people. If they reasonably suspect that there is a firearm in a vehicle and an event's about to take place I don't want them to get to the point of "Let's wait till we get to that point." If they think that a crime is about to be undertaken or is being planned I'd like the police to have the ability to go and search that person with an FPO to monitor their compliance to make sure that they are not in possession of a firearm. If anything that also protects the person with the FPO because it will be shown that they don't have a firearm upon them.But at the end of the day this is about the monitoring of the compliance of the firearms prohibition order and everything that's placed upon them. The member the Hon Ginny Andersen also spoke to Alfa Carbines in a category and I've made a very good point of notifying the committee we have four phases that are going through. I have not spoken to what would be ruled in or ruled out at this stage because I really want the people of New Zealand to be able to have a conversation about this. There were 250000 people who were restricted in their time to be able to have a debate and I think it would not be good of me to rule things in or rule things out. I think it's a discussion that needs to be had and that will come at the time that we produce the Arms Act rewrite for consultation.But I do understand the member's concern around those particular types of firearms and how they are being utilised and perhaps we need to look at how we address those ones particularly. But I also think we need to have a look at technology advances in New Zealand and also really just modernise the Arms Act overall so that public safety is adhered to but we also have the tools in the toolbox to make sure that the Arms Act is fit for purpose as things technology etc. modernise around us. So I look forward to having that discussion when we go through the Arms Act rewrite and ultimately look at the public safety outcomes that we can achieve together across the House."