Bakshi Kanwaljit SinghKANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you for the opportunity to speak during the second reading of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill. The previous speaker Stuart Nash was just mentioning that it has taken a bit long but I would like to acknowledge his contribution during the Law and Order Committee process. He knows that a lot of things were discussed and it took a while before we came to the conclusion of the report and I think that was the reason why it has taken a bit long. I would also like to acknowledge the Minister of Justice as well as the officials who have really supported the select committee process in coming out with the report. The Minister has already acknowledged the report and so has Stuart Nash.This bill is the second phase of the anti - money-laundering and countering financing of terrorism legislation which is very important. It has been mentioned by both the Minister and Stuart Nash that it is important because our reputation on the international platform is very important. It is also part of our being signatories to our international commitments that we will be working to reduce these kinds of activities in New Zealand.We have to understand how these things operate and it is very important that we have to stop these money-laundering things. What happens is that when some money is sourced illegally the people try to source it from A to B and pretend that there is a legal transaction—that there has been a sale or purchase of goods or brokerage or any kind of legal transaction—so that that money looks like legal money. But in fact dirty money is being turned into legal money. So we have to be very careful. And we can see that this is happening everywhere in the world—dirty money is attempted to be cleaned up and brought into the system. That is why this bill is a balance between stopping those types of transactions—it is not only the dirty money—but also money that is used for terrorist acts. We want to make sure that money is not used for terrorist purposes. The bill strikes a balance between combatting crime minimising the cost of compliance and meeting international obligations. International obligation is one of the most important things because we are signatories to some of those commitments.In the select committee we received 31 submissions most of which were supportive of what the bill intends to do. But still there were some concerns. We in the select committee recommended some changes which the Minister has mostly agreed to and we hope that this bill when it goes through the parliamentary system will be one of the bills that will help to stop these money-laundering things.There were some changes. We have recommended a date when the legislation will automatically come into effect. It will not go through the Executive Council to be enacted. That was very important. Officials as well as some of the submitters were very keen on it. The lawyers the accountants the high-value dealers and the Racing Board all submitted in the select committee process. We heard their concerns and we tried to address some of those during our process.This whole industry is worth billions of dollars and we want to ensure that that money does not come into New Zealand. The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill aims to detect and deter money-laundering and the financing of terrorism so that the criminals cannot enjoy the profits of these activities or reinvest them into further criminal activities. With these words I commend this bill to the House.