Andersen Ginny; Watts SimonHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): All right my contribution Madam Chair is in relation to the commencement but I was wondering if I had to make it climate-change related given who's sitting in the Minister's chair but I'll try and keep it on gangs. So in terms of commencement I understand this bill will come into effect immediately after it receives the Royal assent which will be in couple of days. So it should be all going well up and running by the third reading coming up. That should be sort of I guess what are we now? Late August—in October or November it should be up then.So my proposal and the Minister who's available may wish to address this is that I actually think that in order for this legislation to be effectively able to be implemented there needs to be an extension to that commencement date because currently there's insufficient police resources for this legislation to be enforced. I consider it's really irresponsible of this Government to pass a law without having the resources in place to be able to actually enforce it.We know that there's around about 124. There's been a wing but a few more have left. We're sitting at around about the 120 mark. There are fewer police officers on the front line than when this Government came into office and so this legislation is quite resource intensive for police officers.My major concern is that the additional police officers that this Government has promised—the 500—actually need to be fully recruited before police are at an operational capability to be able to effectively enforce this legislation. So my suggestion would be to kick out this commencement date until they actually reach their 500. I think that would be a far more realistic way to make sure that we're not putting I guess unattainable expectations upon the front line to be able to roll this out.We get regular updates on the vacancies currently carried right across New Zealand Police and those vacancies are heavy in our rural areas. We know that there are places around New Zealand where there are one or even just two officers in a station where there might be currently carrying four five or six vacancies in different roles. That's a huge administrative burden on our police service. If this legislation is enacted and there is a clear public expectation for police officers to enforce this as soon as it comes into force then that's not fair on those police officers because they need that resource in place to be able to do that.So my proposal is that this Government gives some serious consideration to effectively recruiting the additional 500 police and making sure by talking to those district commanders and the Commissioner of Police that those staff are put into areas that are able to make sure that legislation is able to be enforced as it's intended. Otherwise what's the point of this bill? What's the actual point of passing this if the law is in place but it can't be enforced? That would seem like it was just kind of stuff to look good on the telly wouldn't it? Of course I'm sure they're not doing that. It can't be that; of course they want to make sure it's actually going to have some effect.So I actually think that that's a pretty fair idea: to kick out that commencement date to make sure the Government meets their target of 500 additional police and I think that that actually would give police—it would allay some of their concerns. The New Zealand Police Association have come out really strongly on this. They're quite concerned that having laws that can't be enforced by police officers undermines the credibility of the New Zealand Police service and effectively undermines the rule of law in New Zealand. Why pass a law you can't enforce? Because that gives people the understanding or the impression that all laws don't necessarily have to be enforced.So if we are talking about restoring law and order as promised by those members opposite why are we passing laws that can't be enforced? Because that would just seem to be good clickbait or a pretty good slogan but it wouldn't actually be delivering on what's being promised to voters in New Zealand.Hon SIMON WATTS (Minister of Climate Change): Thank you very much Mr Chair and I thank the member for the question. As the member will be aware the commencement date was covered as part of the select committee process. The agreement around the commencement of the bill being 21 November 2024 was through discussion in the select committee process and was actually based on the date on which the police requested that the legislation would be commenced. So on that basis we are happy to accommodate the police's request of 21 November 2024. That is the date in which this bill will commence and that is how we are going to proceed.