Tirikatene Rino: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 15 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7299. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I am pleased to take a call on the third reading of this bill the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2). It is good to be able to speak in support of legislation that is very much welcomed by Kiwis up and down the country. Before I give some acknowledgment to the Government Administration Committee I would like to acknowledge two of my esteemed senior colleagues the Hon Phil Goff and the Hon Trevor Mallard who strongly advocated for a return to the 10-year period for passports. I know that a lot of their work has helped to bring about the swift passage of this bill which is now in its third reading today. So I do mihi to my mātua my senior colleagues for their input into this important process.Can I also acknowledge the Government Administration Committee and the Minister of Internal Affairs. From 15 June through to today’s date that is a pretty well-oiled machine that the Government Administration Committee is—it probably does not rival the Māori Affairs Committee but I must acknowledge—Chris Bishop: Nothing does!RINO TIRIKATENE: We deal with a mountain of very very complex legislation but we are able to deal with it very very thoughtfully and respectfully to all of the subject matter iwi groups that are concerned. But I digress. The Government Administration Committee did a fine job in considering this bill and I understand it has made some very sensible amendments.I am very excited really to be able to renew my passport which I think is soon to be expired—if it has not already. I am keen on that 30 November date. I will be waiting until that date before I reapply—if I need to—to be able to go for an extended 10-year passport. I do not know whether anyone would want to be renewing it at the moment in anticipation of the fact that they can get a “double bang” for the duration of their passport.So this is a very sensible piece of legislation. We do support it. I do know of one DJ actually who was a traveller. He went overseas on his passport and I think he used it only once and he actually had to pay for it urgently—so he had to pay double or even more. So the 5-year duration is as we call it in Māori a bit of a hōhā—it was a bit annoying. The fact that it can be now returned to the 10-year duration I think is very sensible.Of course we note that the period for I think children under 16 is still 5 years—5-year renewals obviously for growing children. I was actually just at my son’s basketball tournament the other day. It was an under-13s tournament but boy there was quite a variation between under-13-year-olds from some boys who were what we would call very very big boys to boys who were within that 2 to 3 year period from about 10 to 13 years—[Interruption]Hon Member: They looked like you Todd.RINO TIRIKATENE: Yes. The hormones were yet to kick in for some of these little lads so they were kind of outmatched. Even though it is like a 2 or 3 year age gap the growth of these young lads was quite a sight to behold on certain teams. So it is sensible that we do retain a 5-year renewal period for children under 16.Of course we know that the 5-year duration was not really 5 years because—and this happened to me once—if your travel was taking place within 3 months of the expiry of your passport you actually had to apply for a new passport. So therefore it was really only maybe 4 years and 9 months—the period that it was actually valid for. So again stretching out the validity period to 10 years is a sensible move and I am sure there will be a lot of folks queuing up as we are entering the busy summer season. A lot of Kiwis obviously love to travel especially due to our isolation here in the South Pacific. We do like to get out and about and venture abroad. So I am sure that there will be a lot of processing of these new passports with the new longer validity period.I also want to add that the security measures that have been installed—we know that in the aftermath of 9/11 that was a major reason why the validity period was halved to 5 years. But I think that in the 14 years since then and with the introduction of added technology to the passport documents and the central database which is a lot more geared up to deal with faster flows of information around travellers that has satisfied the Minister and the committee and this Parliament that a return to the 10-year validity period is a sensible move.Of course we know that as travellers everyone requires their passport to cross over our borders. Just to complement that as I look after the customs area I was intrigued to learn that the detector dog force at the Queenstown Airport has been doubled. It has been doubled from one dog Zeta to two dogs. It has been doubled to two. Those travellers who are coming in as tourists or are returning travellers to the mighty Central Otago area which is part of the beautiful Queenstown Lakes District will be able to not only go through what may be SmartGate technology if they have been to Australia but also they will be greeted by at least a double beagle detector dog force which will be able to sniff out any nasties that may impact on our wonderful Central Otago horticulture which is very important. It is very important for our trade and prosperity.So the border control border flow travel documents—it all flows into this. And big boys small boys high posts low posts—it is good to know that Kiwis out there will be able to have the reassurance and the confidence that for an investment of $180 they will be able to get their 10-year passport and have that security of knowing that they can have a good 10 years of travel ahead of them for them to enjoy. They will be able to venture across the globe and back to our wonderful Aotearoa. All that remains for me to do now is to commend this bill to the House. Kia ora tātou.