McClay Todd: Military Manoeuvres Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Military Manoeuvres Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1215. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 What an excellent piece of legislation the Military Manoeuvres Act Repeal Bill is brought to this House by the hard-working member of Parliament Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi. Some members on the other side of the House will not realise that Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi is going through some difficulty with this. You see he is a man of some real military background and to repeal a piece of legislation like this when actually he spent much time with the military shows us the strength of the man his commitment to this House and why he has come here to make such an important change for all New Zealanders—[ 
Interruption 
] Can I say to Mr Prasad on the other side of the House that if you put in a draft bill to the members ballot you could almost be as successful as Mr Bakshi is— 
Dr Rajen Prasad 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member impugns my reputation by publicising that I do not have a bill in the ballot. In fact I do. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! That is not a point of order. 
TODD McCLAY 
: I will apologise to the member; I did not mean to impugn his reputation although his point of order might have done that on its own. 
Can I suggest to Mr Bakshi that in the last Parliament when I sat on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee we paid great attention to this piece of legislation when it came to us. We offered the opportunity to members of the public to come forward and pronounce their opinion on it. From memory not a single person in New Zealand spoke against this proposal he has brought to this Parliament. I congratulate him on that; he is a man of the people—well done for that. Can I say as I look through my notes in front of me that actually this is the mark of a good piece of legislation: my notes are longer than the bill. For that reason I will take my seat. I commend this to the House. Well done Kanwaljit—a great piece of legislation. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh is there still a speaker from the other side? I will take a few more moments. 
I say well done to Kanwaljit. It is very important that he as a member of this House has brought forward a member’s bill that he believes in and that has the wholehearted support of the vast majority of members of the House—at least the most intelligent members of this House will be supporting it. I look forward to spending much more time going into greater detail on this bill in the Committee stage at another stage. Well done; congratulations. Thank you. 
Sue Moroney 
: Mr Speaker— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The debate has now concluded. 
Sue Moroney 
: Oh—no it hasn’t. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Do sit down. I will put the question. The question is that the— 
Chris Hipkins 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Is this not a 12-speech debate? 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Yes we have had 12. 
Chris Hipkins 
: No we have not. We have had 11. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Excuse me. There has been an error. Yes I have got it now. I will call the member. I apologise; I was relying on information left for me.