Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's my pleasure to take a call on this the first reading of the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill that will be going to the Justice Committee. I don't sit on that committee but I'll be watching the passage of this bill with interest. I have had a chance to read the bill tonight. It looks comprehensive. I'll talk to some of the parts of the bill later on. But I just wanted to state and put on the record for the House that the National Party will of course support this bill through first reading and to select committee. It's important that we do that because I think that in relation to matters of our national security we do have a long and proud history in this House of the two major parties recognising that it's incumbent upon this Parliament to take action to make sure that our population is kept as safe as possible especially from external threats. That is why we'll be working with the Labour Party and the other parties on the select committee to try and make this the best possible bill.I'd like to go back to 2014 when I was chairing the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. The Prime Minister at the time the Rt Hon John Key asked me to ask the committee to pass the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill. It was a bill that we had to pass through in a truncated time frame because of information that had been received by SIS and GCSB that there was an imminent threat to Kiwis and the country. So I worked very closely the committee worked very closely—in particular I want to acknowledge the right honourable Phil Goff and David Shearer who were both Labour Party members on the committee at that time and there was a genuine bipartisan approach to making sure that that was the best possible piece of legislation that came back to this House and was then passed. I would hope that the Justice Committee will adopt and take the same attitude and the same approach in their work on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill. I think that—in fact I know that—collectively as a country we were left in a state of paralysis and shock for moments on hearing about the terrible terror attack in Christchurch. It was really a time for us as a nation where we lost part of our innocence because up until that point me included probably many of us thought that we'd never have to face a terror attack on our soil and a terror attack that could come from anywhere from any corrupted ideology as we witnessed and were confronted with in Christchurch. The thing that I like about this bill—one of the things that I really like about this bill—is the fact that they've covered off and the Minister has covered off through clause 10 the ability to shut down financing for terror networks. This is an area that is not always focused on. We're always very focused on human intelligence surveillance and interventions through warrants physical interventions when in actual fact one of the major disruptors and a real disruptor that we should not ignore is that of financing because many of these organised terrorist cells rely on a steady stream of finance to be able to plan and execute a terror attack. So I'm pleased to see that there is a focus on finance in this bill. The other point that the Minister raised and I agree with is that often a country's security services whether it be the GCSB or the SIS—and I want to acknowledge both of those services and the leadership within them; they are world class. They are services that as a country we have come to rely on and trust. And there has to be a high level of trust that's given because they're dealing with serious matters around individual rights and privacy. They are given a big licence. With that licence comes accountability and responsibility and I think that everyone in this House or certainly myself acknowledges the fact that we have got a world-class intelligence service in both our SIS and our GCSB. These types of bills are critically important in terms of making sure that people's rights as much as possible are protected. Yes it's incumbent upon all of us in this House to make sure that New Zealanders are protected from external threats but it's also important that as far as possible we protect individuals' rights around privacy. Those will often be a lot of the debates and the discussions that will happen throughout the select committee process. The other point that I just wanted to address quickly is the point that the Minister raised around the police being able to respond quickly. We have seen a major change in the way these terror networks and often individuals—and we were a victim of this ourselves in this country—operate. You may get some terrorist cells that operate with a very very high degree of sophistication. We saw the Twin Towers as a clear example of that where you had individuals that were planted in the States years before that went through genuine commercial pilot training were accepted in the communities and the societies that they lived in and then they flew commercial airliners into the Twin Towers—a lot of finance highly organised and a very sophisticated attack that rocked the entire world. But then you'll come back to a very basic terror attack where it might quite simply be an individual that is completely corrupted with an ideology that gets in a truck and drives into a crowd of people. So the one thing that the agencies that are tasked to protect us—and here in New Zealand it's the police it's our customs it's our SIS it's our GCSB. The one thing that we can give them is the ability to be flexible and to be able to move quickly and if they come across information or they need to respond—because I can tell you now that the person planning a terror attack or a terrorist cell that is active is not restricted. They don't have to be compliant with regulations. So it's actually really important that we give our police the ability to be able to respond and act quickly if a sudden threat becomes apparent to them and there seems to be some effort in this bill to be able to do that. So I am pleased to be able to stand in support of this bill. We will be watching very carefully as it makes its way through the select committee process in terms of any changes that need to be made. But in terms of national security the National Party feel very strongly that it is a responsible position to support this bill through the first reading and to the Justice Committee for select committee process. Thank you Madam Speaker.