Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is only barely over six months since our nation's heart was broken on 15 March when 51 lives were lost in Christchurch as a result of the biggest act of terror in living memory in this country—a hate crime that also wounded dozens more people in body and in spirit for ever. We all remember the victims. We remember the small children who remind us of the little kids in our own lives. We remember the elders who remind us of our grandparents. We remember those who fought back those who tried to save loved ones. The stories of those victims are what propels the change that we're about to make in this House. I remember little three-year-old Mucad Ibrahim who lost his life who was ravaged by a military-style semi-automatic weapon that had no business being in the hands of anyone in our community and that that weapon was owned lawfully. But in the wake of that tragedy that act of terror Aotearoa came together in love. All across this country people came together to hold the victims in our hearts to support all the affected communities. It was something to behold. And the legacy of that love that strength that was shown by the nation in the wake of that attack is to make real change. It must be. We must be brave as we have these hard conversations about what is actually wrong what shortfalls exist in our law and in our culture but mostly in this House we're responsible for keeping New Zealanders safe. We've been working to ensure that nothing like that tragedy will ever happen again. The Green Party has a long legacy of working on our kaupapa of non-violence that stands against firearms being out there in the community but in particular for regulation like what this bill is about to introduce in terms of introducing things like a gun register. We've been saying for so long that our gun laws are not fit for purpose. We know now that it's been 36 years since we've had significant reform or change in our gun laws. That is unbelievable given the changes given the tragedies that have happened and we here on this side of the House are about to change that culture of apathy in the face of a grave tragedy but also knowing that New Zealand is behind us. The calls for change were so loud have been loud for decades and include the voices of our law enforcement agencies. It is unbelievable that change hasn't happened until now. But I am so proud that we're doing it and we're doing it starting today. This bill proposes five heads of change so to speak. It will strengthen the purpose of the Act by explicitly acknowledging that gun ownership here in New Zealand is a privilege not a right. It will provide for an online registry to collect information about firearms and that will link those firearms to the licence holders. Again it's unbelievable that we don't have a registry that tells us where firearms are how they're being stored and whose hands they're in. It will make it far easier for law enforcement to do their job. We keep talking about you know Law-abiding citizens are being punished" but this is actually about knowing who where and when firearms are being kept and used in our communities so that the police can enforce the law. That's what was being made hard by lack of a registry.Storage will be better monitored. It will reduce risk of theft. So just all of the things that we're trying to do when we talk about law-abiding versus non - law-abiding. This is about making our gun laws more effective more knowable more transparent. The register will also show A category licence of firearms holders in New Zealand—again unbelievable that we didn't have it. The bill will strengthen and make more transparent the licensing process for individuals including more clarity around the fit and proper person test to hold a gun licence. It will introduce disqualifications for example for anyone who has been released from jail in the last 10 years been convicted of serious firearms offences and serious violent offences among other things. The Green Party will be working further to clarify whether or not the definition of the fit and proper person test in this bill covers the right types of criminality in someone's record so that we do make sure that the bill works together with the bigger purpose of our law reforms in terms of stigmatising drug users for example and it actually targets people who may be unsafe to hold a gun licence instead.We're going to be increasing penalties and expanding compliance with our gun laws. Most New Zealanders again would be shocked to know that there are higher penalties for infringement of fishing rules than there are for some firearms offences in New Zealand. So this is about making it clear and allowing law enforcement to do their job when we deal with a culture in New Zealand where people don't actually want gun ownership to be something that can be flagrantly held that's something that's kind of insidious and uncontrolled and like we see in other parts of the world considered to be a right to the point of making other community members unsafe and to the point of making law enforcement so difficult that in fact the problem balloons.We stand at a moment now where we can say that actually fishing infringements may be less significant than something that risks the lives of vulnerable people. We know in New Zealand as well that terrorism aside we live in a nation with epidemic levels of domestic and sexual violence. Victims of domestic violence are at a risk from firearm offences including murder and very serious injury. While we're working to eliminate domestic violence we owe it to those victims to ensure that they're not at greater risk of harm than they need to be. Likewise we live in a nation with epidemic levels of mental illness including suicide—another vulnerable community that we need to look out for. Yesterday even the United States Department of Homeland Security placed white nationalism on its list of types of terrorism on the rise and while we know that threats like that grow globally online we know that we're not immune.So our communities are at risk of gun violence and we owe it to them to change that. The whole world is watching. New Zealand has so far shown that we are a nation that reacts responsibly with compassion that prioritises values like peace and love and public safety above what a small lobby group would have us scream about. We are not a country whose Government sits apathetically on its hands because they sit so comfortably in the pockets of the gun lobby.DEPUTY SPEAKER: You can't—GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: We owe it to the victims—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry order! But you cannot accuse any members of being financially in the pocket of anyone else.GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: Sorry what I meant is that we are not that here in New Zealand unlike another nation who shall remain nameless.In that context we've acted far more responsibly so far and far more quickly. So the hope is that we will continue to have those hard conversations we'll continue to make real change. We do owe it to the victims. We owe it to all of the affected and vulnerable communities. We owe it to little Mucad Ibrahim. We must be brave as we weave that love—outpouring of love—all across New Zealand into the enduring fabric of our society. So I do commend this bill to the House."