Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm taking this call on behalf of ACT in support of the third reading of the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill. I want to acknowledge all the changes that have been made to this bill in the committee of the whole House and I want to thank all the members who contributed and as this is the final reading I again want to acknowledge the work that was done by the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and everybody who contributed to make this bill or bring this bill in the form that it is now.As we know this bill is to change the Immigration Act 2009. It is to extend that time period that is there to process the applications for warrant of commitment from four days to seven days and then giving the authority to judges to extend that to 28 days if really needed.Now it was very clear in the committee of the whole House that members wanted to see that the time line is as minimal as possible. So that change I want to acknowledge that. If this kind of incident happens in New Zealand mass arrival happens the maximum numbers of days will be utilised but this is to make sure that there is enough time for processing of those applications for the warrant of commitment. And this is to include the natural justice component for people who arrive if it happens here in New Zealand. So I think allowing this extra time actually is a really good thing because it will help us ensure that these people will have fair representation and we uphold our international obligations as well.Now in this regard we also want to take into consideration the capacity that we have at the moment. And we know that the capacity that we have at the moment is not going to be sufficient if we had any incident of mass arrival especially if hundreds of people arrive here in New Zealand. We have limited numbers of lawyers who specialise in this field and we want to see that enough time is given to these people because the current legislation says it's four days and four days may not be enough time for hundreds of people to be represented in a fair manner. And also when we talk about the capacity it's important to note that—in terms of the resources that the Green MP talked about just now—this is also part of making sure that the resources are available so that these people can be fairly dealt with. Resources" doesn't mean only buildings but "resources" also means that those who are doing other things important things to keep our borders secure are not diverted to this job because all of a sudden we have this mass arrival.And this will have impact at multiple levels. If I want to just highlight two one is of course how these mass arrivals are dealt with if we don't have enough capacity and enough resources to give them a fair representation. The second level is about New Zealanders because if something of this sort happens it can make New Zealanders quite anxious if they see that the New Zealand Government the Government of the day is not prepared to handle that mass arrival. So this is also to give that signal that if anything of this sort happens then yes we can handle it because there will be enough time allowed for the resources to be made available to these people and be handled and also our court systems can be managed. So it's not just immigration; it's also our court systems. And we have to also keep in mind our border security and we don't want to divert all the staff to just deal with this if something of this sort happens.Now we know that our geographic location of course we always say is good in some circumstances and not good in some circumstances. And in this case so far our geographic location has been beneficial to us. But we cannot take it for granted. Things can happen. As we know in the last few years we have seen the numbers of those seeking asylum around the world increasing. So anything can happen. And these kind of things when they happen don't happen with much warning. So this bill is about ensuring that we are prepared for anything if something of this sort happens.Now I also want to in this third reading speech give the message that this bill is not about saying that New Zealanders are ready to welcome mass arrivals with open arms. That is not the message we want to give but I want to acknowledge that people flee their country for many many reasons. It could be political unrest it could be a prosecution or other reasons but sometimes people leave their home country because of economic reasons. And to those people I would say don't fall in the traps of human traffickers because human traffickers usually exploit vulnerable people. They will charge big sums of money and put people on these boats without caring about their wellbeing or even survival on that boat. And they are made big promises that they will arrive at the port and then all they have to do is seek asylum and they will be totally fine. So to those people I would like to give this message: do not fall in the traps of human traffickers because New Zealand takes human trafficking very very seriously. It is a crime and there are good provisions in our immigration system if you are looking for economic opportunities to come to New Zealand through various visas that we have.Now for any mass arrival of course they need to be processed individually individual by individual to see what their circumstances are. And talking about improving or increasing the capacity that we have at the moment—the Green MP talked about the Māngere refugee centre—it has been clarified in this bill that when we talk about "detention" in this bill it doesn't mean a prison. So detention is basically going to be a place where they will be kept. It will be not as restrictive as one would imagine because of the term that has been used and this was one of the concerns that came up during the select committee process as well.So this has been already addressed. Time line has already been addressed and making sure that we uphold our international obligations in regards to human rights has been also clarified in the committee of the whole House. So the form of the bill that we have in front of us actually is quite a balanced way of going forward. Of course we have to identify that there is a risk. This can happen and as I said before it can happen without any warning. We need to be prepared and this bill is to make sure that New Zealand is prepared to handle these arrivals and also to give assurance to New Zealanders that if something of this sort happens then we can handle it. But on the other hand I want to again emphasise on this that this is not to send any signal that New Zealand is basically willing to welcome mass arrivals with open arms if they are just being exploited by some human traffickers. So we need to be really careful here. So the ACT Party supports this bill and we look forward to seeing it going through. Thank you."