Doocey Matt; Rurawhe AdrianPOLICING (KILLING A POLICE DOG) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): I move That the Policing (Killing a Police Dog) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Governance and Administration Committee to consider the bill. The purpose of this bill that we will be debating tonight is to amend the Policing Act 2008 to increase the penalty for killing a police dog from a maximum of two years to a maximum of five years' imprisonment. The bill replaces section 53 of the Policing Act 2008 to extend the maximum imprisonment for killing a police dog from the current two-year maximum to a new maximum of five years. The current maximum fine of $15000 remains unchanged. One of the absolute joys of being an elected representative is to take the views of your constituency to Parliament and I love opening my doors in my electoral office with a range of people coming in with a range of issues and ideas that they want to champion forward and what I love about my electorate of Waimakariri is they are an electorate that cares. They care very deeply not only about people but about animals. In fact I'd say Waimakariri represents and reflects New Zealand at its best. I remember the day when the media covered the tragic death of the police dog Gazza and I received like many members of Parliament in this House a number of emails and phone calls where people were appalled that that would happen in New Zealand. What people ended up being absolutely more exercised about was the lenient punishment that we have in New Zealand for killing a police dog and I want to take the time to acknowledge one constituent Thomas Tripp who I know will be watching this tonight. Thomas is a caring man and it was his idea for this bill to increase the penalty as a tougher penalty as a tougher way of supporting our police dogs and I want to acknowledge his work in getting this bill here today because what this bill is about is caring for the service dogs that go out and protect us. I want to start off by putting it in the words of Chris Cahill president of the New Zealand Police Association who supports this bill. To quote the New Zealand Police Association because I think they put it in a very articulate way: A police dog is a key part of a police team and within police any act of violence towards the police dogs is considered similar to an attack on a police officer. It is a direct attack on law and order and needs to be recognised for the serious offence it is." We also note the cost of training a police dog is considerable. I think those words sum it up quite eloquently from me: an attack on a police dog in New Zealand is considered similar to an attack on a police officer. That's the view of the many men and women in blue who serve out country. They go out every day and every night to keep us safe. I was actually surprised when I worked with Thomas Tripp about this bill and we looked at the penalties comparatively overseas and it is interesting. We are quite lenient compared to other jurisdictions. In the United States it is up to 10 years' imprisonment; Canada up to five years; and South Australia up to five years. In fact only through this bill now being pulled out of the ballot with the Attorney-General's New Zealand Bill of Rights Act report I've since learnt that there actually is an inequity currently in New Zealand statutes because the Animal Welfare Act puts the penalty as up to five years. However in the Policing Act it's capped at up to two years. I would argue there is not one New Zealander who would say that that is fair and that is right. The reason I am confident of that is because many in this House would have seen on my social media that I put up a petition in the last week. That has received thousands of signatures because what we know in New Zealand is we care about people but also about animals—more so our hard-working police dogs that serve us to keep our families and to keep our communities safe. We have around 132 police dogs in New Zealand nine in training. It costs over $60000 to train a police dog and they are called out over 40000 times a year. Sadly in New Zealand we've lost a number of police dogs; and not only have we lost a number of police dogs in service but a large number of police dogs have been injured in service as well. Those dogs quite often not only go out on the beat with our hard-working servicemen and women but also they're family pets. They go home to kids at night and under the current law in New Zealand it's a two-year penalty. How is that fair? I'm not saying this is the biggest bill around—this isn't going to change the fabric of New Zealand—but what I'm doing is bringing the voice of people I represent and this is the right thing to do for New Zealand's Parliament tonight. Gazza the dog this bill was based on was the seventh dog that we've lost in the line of duty since 1972. Twenty-four police dogs have died in the line of duty. What I'd like to see tonight is the support of all political parties to send this to select committee because I actually think we can look at other types of service animals and how we look to protect them and I'm looking forward to the submissions that we are going to receive. I've also had a suggestion by the New Zealand Police Association who want to add to proposed new section 53A a provision around reckless disregard for the safety of a police dog: "Because the concept of reckless disregard is consistent with the wording in the Crimes Act our reasoning for this suggestion is that showing reckless disregard covers a possible loophole for an offender to believe that they were trying to stop the dog biting them or trying to get away from the dog and didn't intend to kill it." This is the wish of the New Zealand Police force. I carry also the wishes of the people of Waimakariri and the thousands of people that have signed the petition but what I took the greatest heart from was an email I received yesterday from the police dog handler of Gazza who had tragically lost his dog. He had heard about this bill through some of his police colleagues. He was stoked. He was stoked that this bill would come forward and would actually recognise the service of the police dogs and the protection they provide our families and our communities. So I'm looking forward to full support for this bill tonight. I genuinely think although a small bill it is significant. It shows we care and we have full respect for police and also for the police dogs that serve them well. Thank you Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."