Dean Jacqui: Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Bill — Second Reading 
Dean Jacqui: Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6888] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 It gives me a great deal of pleasure to rise to speak to the second reading of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Bill. I follow in the footsteps of the most excellent Minister of Justice the Hon Simon Power who very succinctly elucidated the purpose of the bill and of the chairman of my Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee John Hayes who followed on with a very good exposition of what was contained in the bill.  
Unfortunately we have had several contributions from the Labour side of the House that have been embarrassing and sadly lacking. Firstly we had Lianne Dalziel who spent the first 5 minutes lamenting the fact that Labour is no longer in Government. Well hello I tell that member to wake up—it is not. She was lamenting the fact that the bill was not a bill that a Labour Government would have introduced. I am sorry but this bill is an excellent bill that was worked on by the National members of Parliament of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and we made some good changes to the bill. Then of course Trevor Mallard went on and on about trust.  
I find it sad that Labour members do not trust their colleagues to speak on this bill. The two Labour members who have spoken on this bill so far do not even sit on the select committee. Talk about trust! I think it is a shame because this select committee worked very well on this bill. It is a shame that Labour has seen fit to put up two speakers who were not even on the select committee and quite frankly do not understand the content of the bill. They have been fixated on the bill as it was introduced. Luckily the select committee did some very good work and we have moved on from that point to where we have reintroduced the bill to the House with some excellent changes to it in order to make it more closely fit the needs of today and New Zealand’s obligations under the Financial Action Task Force regime.  
This bill is designed to enhance New Zealand’s legislation against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. Close and careful attention has been paid to ensuring it is in line with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force. It will enhance New Zealand’s financial system.  
I want to go over the key objectives of the bill. They are to improve the detection and deterrence of money-laundering and the financing of terrorism within the New Zealand— 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: This is a serious matter. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: My colleague raises a very good point. It is a serious bill and it is regrettable that the Labour members of the House have not read the bill. They are fixated on what they would have done if they were still in Government. New Zealand has moved on from that. I regret that the good work of the select committee is not being reflected in the House this evening. I know that my colleagues on the select committee will continue with the exposition of this bill.  
To continue with the key objectives this bill will enhance New Zealand’s international reputation and indeed it is critical that New Zealand’s legislation comes in line with overseas legislation. A number of changes were made by the select committee and I will go through some of them. Implementation will be staggered to reflect the difficulty and the complexity for those who are affected by the imposition of this bill—that is the banking system. I note the cooperation and great help the committee received from representatives from the banking industry from both here and across the Tasman.  
Another purpose of this bill was to align our legislation as closely as possible to legislation in Australia. For those members opposite who have not looked at the bill I tell them that it looks like this by the way and they can get a copy of it from the Table. Clause 3 makes it clear that one of the purposes of the bill is “to detect and deter money laundering and the financing of terrorism;”. It is designed to facilitate cooperation—and the select committee took great care over this point—between reporting entities supervisors and Government agencies particularly law enforcement and regulating agencies.  
I know I have a couple of good speakers following me so I will leave it at that. I recommend this bill to the House.