Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Thank you sir for the opportunity to speak in the second half of the split call—a game of two halves so to speak—which I share with my colleague across the House Jan Tinetti. Like many across this House I'm pleased to say that I support this bill of course as a member of the National Party which is supporting this Government bill in this space which is essentially one of customs but also does involve other elements as we shall come to.I propose to make my remarks in a way that befits the nature of a third reading speech which is essentially to summarise some of the key elements in the hope that by reading into the record my thoughts on this we'll have a handy summary in a five-minute form—if anyone should be interested in that in the future then they might pick my contribution above those of some of my colleagues.So with no further ado I will launch into my summary which will take the form of first talking about why; second what; third when; fourth where—you'll probably see where these are going—and finally my fifth and final point would be how so talking about the way that the bill achieves its various aims.Jamie Strange: It sounds like an essay.CHRIS PENK: So first the why. I note that across the House a former teacher remarks that it sounds like an essay. Well I hope I can achieve something near full marks. Speaking as to the why—well the reason that we have had this bill come to our House really exists on a couple of different levels. The first is that as stated in the introduction it is to incorporate into domestic law a couple of international instruments namely the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea known to all its friends as UNCLOS and also the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. So on one level that's the purpose of the bill: to bring into domestic law and to ratify those treaties. But on another level it is of course to recognise and deal with the harm that drugs do on our shores and to take steps beyond our shores to prevent the further incursion of those.My second point is what. So what the bill does is to make a number of changes to existing law. In that sense it is an amendment bill; it will be an amendment Act. The word Extension" is used because of course it is existing powers that are being extended but it's also worth noting that there are a couple of different current Acts of Parliament that will be amended in that way namely the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.Moving now to when—briefly then on the commencement date. I note that it's unusual for such a short commencement date certainly by way of a particular calendar date being specified—1 October 2018 is not so very far away. At the committee stage of the passage of this bill I asked the Minister in the chair to comment on why it was such a short period of time. He gave a very good answer in relation to other legislative and regulatory requirements being aligned. I can't improve on that answer; I don't intend to do so so we'll move on forth from the when to the subject of where.Obviously in the maritime environment as the name of the bill implies—and so just to pause and reflect by way of a footnote that means of course not only the Customs Service but also the New Zealand Defence Force including our navy. And I note the presence again of the Minister of Defence appropriately enough and also the Ministry for Primary Industries as my colleague the chair of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee Simon O'Connor has mentioned perhaps among others as well.So having covered the where and without needing to go into the more specific detail about the high seas New Zealand's exclusive economic zone or the EEZ—seeing as I'm doing the abbreviation thing—but also the EEZ of other States we move finally to the how. Well that much is probably readily enough ascertained by anyone reading the bill so I don't intend to go into that in too much detail. But suffice it to say a few definitions are set out that are useful for understanding where exactly the bill applies; also the establishment of offences so that if the mechanisms of the bill are used such that a drug smuggler—to use a non-defined term—is apprehended then they can be dealt with accordingly in a New Zealand court; and of course providing the specific powers for our agents to do these things on the high sea on our behalf. So I commend the bill to the House and look forward to its passage."