Mitchell Mark: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: General Debate[Sitting date: 21 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12688. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney):I would like to talk about something that has been in our media a lot over the last few months and that is our national security. In 2006 in AnNasiriyah Iraq a supply convoy carrying food for coalition troops was attacked by al-Qaeda. During the attack al-Qaeda operatives took a satellite phone from a dead driver. Before the account was cancelled there were over 200 calls made. The calls were spread around countries like Saudi Arabia Yemen the UK some European countries the United States and 14 calls were made to New Zealand. Why were terrorists who were attacking and killing our allies in Iraq making calls to New Zealand? That is why we have agencies like the SIS and the GovernmentCommunications Security Bureau (GCSB)—so they can find out who and why and so they can protect us.Mr Shearer said yesterday that when he was the victim of a terrorist attack he witnessed the death the human suffering and the carnage that that brings. I am sure he has played over in his mind many times how that attack might have been prevented or stopped. The quickest way to invite a terrorist attack is to become complacent and to say “It can’t happen to me. Why would anyone attack us?”. Is that what happened to Mr Shearer? Was he a victim of “It can’t happen to me.”? Had complacency crept in? Mr Shearer indicated yesterday that he had to witness death and suffering before he became serious about security. Well our Prime Minister has shown that he cannot and will not wait for people to die before he becomes serious about our security. He takes our security seriously right now.We are incredibly lucky in New Zealand that we have the most transparent and open political system in the world which allows us to debate and challenge ideas and legislation. The GCSB legislation has been a classic example of this. The legislation has had the full blast of sunlight on it for all to see. It has been debated until the cows come home. It is good legislation which has created certainty and clarity where there was none. It provides rigorous checks and balances and multiple hoops to jump though before any information is able to be obtained by the agencies tasked with protecting us.Finally I would like to share some of my own observations. I do not want to be an alarmist but on the other hand I do not want a malaise to become part of our psyche—a malaise that tells us that somehow we have become immunised against the threats that the global community faces. We have not. For a decade I witnessed the pain suffering and fear that come with terrorism. I was forced to deal directly with groups like al-Qaeda al-Shabaab and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Sometimes they are brutal and unsophisticated in the way they operate. At other times they have the use of the best and the most sophisticated technology available. Sometimes terror attacks are planned sitting on a dirt floor in a shanty town in Mogadishu. At other times they are planned in a penthouse in a European city. But one thing they have in common is a desire to defeat security measures that Governments put in place to protect their people. They can sniff out weakness and complacency at a thousand miles.I would like to acknowledge our Prime Minister who is making sure that we are not an easy target and who is taking the steps necessary to ensure that someone like Mr Shearer does not become a victim again. Thank you.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.