Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Well thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT in support of this Foreign Affairs (Consular Loans) Amendment Bill. As others have said it's quite a straightforward bill for a number of reasons. First of all it's not actually a bill that changes policy. It doesn't change what happens. It's already as the explanatory note and general policy statement say a longstanding practice to issue consular loans which previously didn't require express authority under the Public Finance Act until that Act was changed in 2013. Now that means for the last nine or so years for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade through its embassies around the world to issue a loan to a New Zealander who found themselves stranded overseas they would be technically breaking the law. So this bill tonight is not changing the policy. It is rather retrospectively or at least for the future making legal something that everyone accepts should happen but technically is not legal at the moment.It also is worth noting that this is not free money that will be handed out to any New Zealander who may have run out of money at the pub. There are specific criteria for consular loans. You have to be in distress exceptional circumstances must exist and it must relate to a person's immediate health or safety. So it's not as though this is a lender; it's more a lender of last resort for people that find themselves in deep difficulty while overseas.And I think there is something—perhaps not uniquely Kiwi about it because people from many different countries travel and get themselves into all sorts of trouble. But I think it is perhaps more Kiwi than for most countries to have this network and this kind of assistance. There's not many of us and we're from all different walks of life but the one thing we have in common is that we are travellers. If you're a New Zealander there's one thing I know about you for sure and it's actually the only thing I can be certain of given the great diversity of people that make our country home and call themselves New Zealanders. But I can be sure that at some point you or your ancestors have paddled sailed flown or otherwise got yourselves to New Zealand for a better tomorrow. We are the quintessential nation of immigrants. We are people who have travelled further across the globe to give our children a better tomorrow than anyone else. Some people will say Actually what about Australians?" I just make the point that Australians if you look at the map haven't travelled quite as far as New Zealanders for a better life. And some people who know their history are also aware that Australians did not travel quite so voluntarily either.To travel to seek a better tomorrow on different parts of the world is a quintessentially Kiwi thing. And often we find that we want to explore the rest of the world and find out what else is out there. We are a country that has perfected the OE—and that's the second time in recent history that the Prime Minister's tried to defend herself against my charges she's made New Zealand unattractive to young people by pointing out that her and I both spent time and learnt overseas. Well the OE is something that means young New Zealanders find themselves travelling and may often get into situations of bother and difficulty. And if the bank of mum and dad is not immediately available a consular loan may be what gets them out of trouble.I personally in my travels have never taken advantage of something like that. I have had some interesting times out there but one incident that I always recall was a time probably about 15 years ago I was in DC and I needed to get some documents notarised by a New Zealand passport holder. So I went to the Kiwi pub in New York a couple of days before and ironically there were no Kiwis there. I was in DC a couple of days later and I looked up and found the New Zealand embassy. And what an oasis of Kiwi-ness in the middle of that mad city was our embassy! The funny thing was I'd been living in North America with Canadians and Americans for a few years—my own accent had started to take on a bit of their timbre—and these Kiwis inside this embassy I think they only talk to each other because I got in there and it was just an oasis of flat vowels [Speaks with an exaggerated New Zealand accent] and they're all talking like this. And I thought what a wonderful thing. The way they had it set up they had you know mist and fern and ponga fronds inside and they'd really made a great effort of making this oasis of Kiwi-ness. I got there and I found someone that worked there who was obviously a Kiwi and I got them to notarise my documents and that was all good to go. And then I said "Well you know is there a fee?" And they said "Oh look bugger it we don't know. We probably should charge it but we don't know how so it's on the house." And off I went on my merry way to continue my exploration of the capital of the United States. It was a good time made all the richer by being able to visit New Zealand's network of embassies around the world.So I always think when I think of these consular loans and this extension that the Parliament is ratifying tonight or at least putting through the first reading of the role that having that network of embassies around the world can play for our small or at least numerically small nation of people who love to travel. Because despite biological reality Kiwis certainly do fly. And if we're going to be flying I think that it's important that our laws—in very limited circumstances with the obligation to pay it back—allow our embassies and consulates to advance moneys to New Zealand citizens who find themselves in distress and need to borrow some money immediately for their health and safety to be preserved. So with those thoughts recorded I would like to further commend this bill to the House on behalf of the ACT Party. Thank you Mr Speaker."