McCallum GrantGRANT McCALLUM (National—Northland): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak on the second reading of the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill. The purpose of the bill is clearly to just be prepared for the unbelievable potential mass arrival of asylum seekers. As unlikely as this is we have to be prepared because we as a country don't want to not be prepared in the event of it actually arriving. People say Well what's the likelihood?" Yes it's very low but we just have to look at the history of this great nation of ours and the original settlers whether they'd be Māori or European arrived here by boat. They travelled for very long distances in themselves. You can extrapolate that out where people could come from many parts of the world to come here.So why would they want to come here? Well when you look at some of the desperate situations around the world today you begin to see why people would want to leave the situations they're in and why they would then look to a country like New Zealand—even though it is a very long way away from anywhere. Because we are well recognised with human rights and all that sort of thing and being very very good to people. So in particular they could easily end up coming in and landing in the northern part of the country into Northland an area which has got plenty of coastline. And then we have to be ready and prepared to actually deal with these people and handle them appropriately when they get here because it's a fraught journey from very very long distances.I mean we only have to look at the world—there's lots of people in very desperate situations and these people are prepared to pay people large amounts of money to come here. So the case I think is definitely there—it is very unlikely but we have to be as a country prepared.Currently the rules don't allow for a well prepared professionally managed handling of mass arrivals. One of the key things we have to look to do is give ourselves time to process people professionally and properly. Because these people are highly likely to come here and they will be stressed they could be dehydrated they'll have high health needs high psychological needs really really challenging journeys. It's a long long way to get here even if—like the distance from here to Australia is a long way and of course we're likely to see them come from much much further.So we have to be prepared and give ourselves the legal framework to detain these people in a way that is both humane and allows us to look after them. It's really really—we have to look after them very very carefully. I mean when people come on long journeys like this we might have to give them specific health care we'd have to make sure that when they turn up we can then feed them properly and look after them in a way that we all will be proud of as a country.So currently we're looking to change the rules so that if an application is made within 96 hours of the initial arrest and detention the court must then determine this application as soon as reasonably practical and within seven days. If the court considers that this is not reasonably practical to determine the application—the number of people we've got to deal with—then they can extend it out to 28 days. This is a huge improvement. It gives everyone time to deal with these things because you don't just want people suddenly being released into the wider country. That's what all our laws allow. That would not be ideal at all.So we've talked about the risks the challenges of getting here and then the challenges of dealing with a mass arrival when they do actually get here. One of the things is that you also need the right people to help these people when they get here represent them; they want and need good legal representation. It's been noted by many that in the country there are only currently around 40 lawyers who are qualified to deal with this. So if we had a mass arrival of several hundred people this would take time and we'd have to give them due process. So we need to make sure we give ourselves proper time to be completely professional about how we go about this so that we are seen on the world stage as being humane and fair and reasonable about this sort of thing. Because we want to maintain our reputation as a country which I think is very very important. So the bill when it came through the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee—obviously this happened in the previous Parliament and I was not part of that previous Parliament. I came in on the last Parliament after winning the seat of Northland which was a great experience. That's why I can talk about the potential of arriving into the Northland coastline because I drive around the edges of it quite a bit—some of the best coastline in the country of course.Joseph Mooney: No Southland. GRANT McCALLUM: No no you wouldn't want to swim in Southland you might freeze. So we—Joseph Mooney: It's pretty nice you need to come to Riverton.GRANT McCALLUM: I'm getting lots of good advice here but that's all good. So when—I've lost my train of thought completely lost my train of thought.So anyway when they do arrive here we've got to look after them and maintain our reputation as a great country a free and reasonable country.There's been concern about holding people in prison and let's make this very very clear: there is no and there has never been any expectation that ordinary members of a mass arrival would be held in a prison. And I note the comments from a member across the House who highlighted this issue—and he's right to highlight the issue. We're talking about a humane detention not being put in a prison. Because that is not what anyone in this country would necessarily envisage all right?So we're working through the process now. So this came through the last Parliament and I was not part of that select committee process but I understand that there more than 300 submissions. The actual select committee at the time was made up with three members of Labour a couple of National MPs and a Green MP. They heard a number of submissions—obviously over 300—and they worked through them and they recommended back to the House what they should do. National at the time decided that they would not support it at that time but once coming into Government and being very pragmatic about things we took some good advice and actually we could see the benefits of actually working through this process and actually passing this into law so that we would be prepared. It's really really important that we are prepared. So it just shows that we are a Government that can be pragmatic and sensible and we are prepared to work with an idea that we need policy and legislation that the country needs.So the question is: why are people so concerned about the future of mass arrivals into our country and elsewhere? Why is it concerning about mass arrivals? Because actually we don't want to create a situation where—we want to respect people who make those distances travel all those things from very very desperate places. We want to treat them properly look after them when they get here make sure that we work them through a process. If we're going to settle them we can use places like the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre which has been managing people like this refugees for a very very long time and has got lots of experience in dealing with people with trauma with mental health issues—you can just imagine how tough this would be for people when they actually come from all around the world in a desperate situation then to land in a country where they've got no idea what it's like they cannot necessarily speak the language which would be a real challenge. So we've got to have interpreters and professional people who can actually deal with these sorts of situations.So it was with great pleasure that I finish my contribution to supporting the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill in its second reading. Thank you Madam Speaker."