Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. We obviously have pointed out in the other speeches during this debate that National supports this bill the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Bill that the Government has brought and we've supported it being passed sooner rather than later and quickly. We've just had the committee stage we're now having the third reading and the bill will be passed. We've supported the swift movement on this because we are conscious of the fact that there is a sense across the community that the Government isn't on top of the law and order issues in our community.I live in Auckland and I'm subject to the constant background of sirens the helicopter flying overhead the smash and grabs the ram raids the shootings across the city which have increased dramatically this year—more than 35 in the last few months in Auckland. I saw a picture of them scattered all around particularly around South Auckland and West Auckland but throughout the city including in the CBD. People are conscious of the sense that things are somewhat out of control. They're worried about their communities and they're worried about their families and they want to know that all members of this House are focused on that as an issue. And we certainly on this side are.It comes on the same day that the Government has just passed another bill which reduces sentences for our worst repeat offenders by repealing the three-strikes legislation which is a little bit odd. In this bill they're creating an extra tool in order to deal with an issue of gun crime and violence in our community at the same time as they're reducing sentences for our worst repeat offenders. So that I suppose sums up the mixed messages that we've been receiving from the Government on justice matters and law and order matters for the 4½ years that it's been in power. It's been like they're anti-gang but they're also going to give gangs some money a couple of million for rehabilitation programmes on drugs and things like that. And so people can't work out exactly what the message is. Are we tough on crime or are we soft on crime? And many people have concluded that this Government is indeed soft on crime.But this bill is I suppose on the Jekyll-and-Hyde kind of attitude that you get from the Government on crime—the Jekyll or the Mr Hyde I don't know which is which—where they're pretending to be a little bit tougher and introducing a piece of legislation that will as Minister Hipkins has said help in some way. It's not going to solve gun crime in totality. Nobody would expect that it would. But it will create another tool that the police can use and the justice system can employ to impose these firearm prohibition orders on people who have been sentenced and convicted of crimes involving firearms in particular. You go and shoot somebody and the chances are when you're sentenced part of your sentence will be a prohibition on owning a firearm for 10 years. And we support that.What we are a little frustrated by is the reluctance of the Government to really expand the search and surveillance opportunities that went hand in hand with this in parts of Australia where similar powers have been introduced. Because ultimately yep they've relied on the existing search and surveillance powers which have a reasonably high test before police officers can go for a warrantless search such that in the case of people driving along the road who have a firearm prohibition order against them that wouldn't really provide sufficient means for a warrantless search that may be appropriate in the circumstances. And so we see this as a step in the right direction but not as many steps as we would like. We continue to be concerned about the fact that this Government's response to the surge in crime across our community hasn't been sufficiently robust in order to get on top of it. New Zealanders are seeing the consequences of that in their communities. They're worried about it and they want the Government to do a better job.Anyway this bill will help. This will help to some degree. It could have helped far more but in so far as it does provide another tool for our justice system to use and our police to use in the ongoing fight against gun crime—which as I say is rampant across our cities at the moment—then we support it. Thank you Mr Speaker.