Mitchell Mark: Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee[Sitting date: 09 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1210. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney):I want to open by just saying that I support everything the Minister in charge of the NZ Security Intelligence Service said. Of course I want to highlight the fact that it became very clear to me during this process exactly why the Prime Minister has entrusted our security services to the hands of Minister Chris Finlayson. I want to acknowledge the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee members: my deputy chair Shane Reti; Lindsay Tisch David Bennett Jian Yang and Jami-Lee Ross; and of course David Shearer Phil Goff Kennedy Graham and Fletcher Tabuteau. David Shearer and Phil Goff—without a doubt there was a spirit of cooperation and working together. I think everyone on the committee understood that when it comes to national security matters we should be working together in the spirit that we are going to deliver the result that is best for the country. It was apparent as we got moving through the select committee process that everyone had agreed with and bought into that concept.I also want to acknowledge Mr Little. I had a conversation with him during the process and it was apparent that he too saw the need for haste which brings me to comment on a point he made about the process being shoddy. I accept the fact that the process was truncated and I made a statement during it saying that it may not be a perfect process but it is not a perfect world and sometimes we have to react quickly to a changing security environment. In this case we did have to react quickly. Our threat level was changed from very low to low which is a good thing—it means we still are at the lower end in terms of the threat we face. However it also meant we had to make some changes. Of course it was also incumbent on us to recognise and make the changes in relation to the UN resolution that was passed.We heard from the Director of Security. I personally was extremely impressed with her. I know we have a world-class director who definitely is working in the best interests of our country. Without a doubt I want to acknowledge her and her team. They are often subject to criticism but they are working hard out there day and night to make sure we maintain security and are not subjected to a terrorist attack regardless of the scale.I just want to share a couple of my own experiences. One thing that became apparent during the select committee process was that it is very difficult for people and submitters to understand exactly what we are dealing with when we cannot speak openly about what the threat is. Obviously some of the evidence we heard was heard in secret so it is incumbent upon all of us that we are unable to actually talk about it in public. However—and maybe Mr Shearer may take the same opportunity to speak—in a previous life I was able to see personally some of the threats we face.There is one story I have related previously in this House about a situation in Iraq. It is going back a few years now but it is certainly still relevant to our situation today. A supply convoy was attacked in Iraq. During the attack a satellite phone was taken. It was taken by al-Qaeda terrorists and they made several calls while they had the phone. In fact they made well over 200 various calls around the world. What was significant was that I cannot remember the exact number now but I think it was about 15 or 16 calls were made from Iraq by an al-Qaeda terrorist cell to New Zealand. So we would be naive to believe we are somehow inoculated or because of our geographic location we are insulated from these types of threats and there is no exposure.Another example I want to use is some information that was shared with me in the last week. There was actually a list that was recovered from the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant fighters. It had a lot of information on it including call signs operation orders and also nationalities of fighters who were expected to be or who were already on the ground fighting with them. They were from the Netherlands the UK and also Australia. But also on that list was New Zealand. This is information that is fresh—within about a week. So I hope it is clear we did actually have to move quickly. We did have to act quickly. We have now got another layer of protection wrapped around us a nation as we move into Christmas and our festive and holiday season. I feel very proud of the fact that as a House we have been able to move the process through the select committee.Just very quickly one commitment the committee made was this. Every submitter who wanted to appear and make an oral submission to the committee was given the chance to do that. The committee agreed to work long hours and into the weekend to make that happen.Finally I just want to acknowledge our advisers and our secretariat staff who were with us every step of the way. They provided us with great support and advice—the support we needed to actually make this happen and get this bill back into the House. Thank you.