Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I feel very confident that if this had been a National Government bill the previous speaker Vanushi Walters would have opposed it vigorously. It's funny how these things work. But we certainly on this side of the House support this Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill. We do not support criminal activity; we're opposed to it. This bill is designed to give the police particularly and our law enforcement agencies extra tools to deal with—what I think all New Zealanders are aware of—a growing sense of disorder on our streets and in our communities particularly in relation to gangs and firearms but also particularly in relation to youth crime. This is not particularly focused on youth crime but it is focused on particularly the firearms side of things in creating a new offence to discharge a firearm with intent to intimidate. We had quite a lot of discussion in the select committee process about instances where one would discharge a firearm without intent to intimidate and there were a few exercises in a public place and it was pretty clear what we were trying to achieve. The law exists around discharging a firearm in the direction of a house but not unrelated to a house so that's one area that it's supposed to deal with. The second one is around careless driving but the primary piece which has caused most of the discussion is around a warrant of power to search and seize weapons during a gang conflict and the power to seize cash found in suspicious circumstances—believed to be over $10000—and also prohibiting cash transaction over a specified value also $10000 for high-value goods. Now all of these things limit previous rights available to New Zealanders to be able to buy whatever the heck they wanted using cash and to be able to have their privacy maintained and not be disrupted by police. And so we don't crimp and impinge upon those rights without careful consideration; we don't do it in a flippant manner in any way shape or form because those rights are fundamental and the free society in which we enjoy is based upon those rights. But we always have balanced them also against the need for public safety and for the rights of New Zealanders and citizens to be able to walk around free of the fear of being intimidated or robbed or injured or subject to some criminal activity—so there's a balance there.We got plenty of advice from the Ministry of Justice as we weighed up those issues and it's my view and the National Party's view that these are reasonable steps that have been taken. In some cases we would want to push further particularly in the warrant powers for searching for weapons. It's our view and it's our policy that prescribed gang associates should be given the firearms protections orders and that will enable the police to search for those firearms in cars or wherever they need to because we cannot have a situation where we continue to have a significant increase in firearms crime and shootings as we've seen in Auckland. We don't want to become like Chicago or other places around the world. In Auckland we don't want to feel like we're living in a TV show in New York with the permanent sound of a chopper flying overhead and sirens wailing in the distance which is what it feels like at the moment. And New Zealanders and Aucklanders are rightly concerned about the commitment that the Government has to restoring that law and order.The problem that we have—our fundamental criticism of this Government is that they have been sending mixed signals when it comes to gangs. On the one hand they want to be tough; on the other hand they give them money for their projects and drug rehabilitation like they have in the Hawke's Bay. So that's sent a very mixed signal. And in firearms policy there is always a tendency to add an enormous amount of cost and compliance on law-abiding gun owners confident in the knowledge as all New Zealanders are that it's the unlawful gun owners who are causing the problems and they carry on causing their mayhem. And so people rightly want to have a Government that's focused on the needs of law-abiding citizens and will be firm on crime. Unfortunately we've got the worst of both worlds at the moment where we have a Government that's both soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime because we continue to have a situation where those long-term drivers of crime are complete chaos when it comes to truancy from school thousands of kids continuing to be raised in motel rooms and all those long-term sort of drivers of crime not being dealt with effectively. And then actually when we get to the crime situation mixed messages and no consequences particularly for younger people. So look we're worried about the drift of law and order under this Government but we are pleased that this bill the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill goes some way to giving police and law enforcement agencies extra powers to deal with gang activity in particular with discharging firearms with intent to intimidate and also to bring some improvement to search and seizure powers for weapons during a time of gang conflict. We think and we hope that that will be interpreted widely but that's something that only time will tell. Again yes the previous speaker did refer to my previous speech on this kind of sister bill that has come through. It does put pressure on that balance between rights and liberties and the need for law enforcement. I do think it is important like all good legislation that we give it time and we hope that we will have a chance in Government to take stock five or six years after this has been introduced to make sure that it is achieving what it set out to achieve and it is in fact having an impact making it fundamentally more difficult to pursue criminal activities in New Zealand because make no mistake the only way to deal with organised crime is to continually harass those involved in it day in day out make their life a misery and make it difficult for them to get ahead. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. It is relentless and it needs to be relentlessly pursued by all involved. If a Government takes its eye off the ball for only a short period of time and wanders off into the mists getting confused sending mixed signals coming up with a culture of excuses for criminal activity it won't take long before many flowers bloom and we have a crime situation like we have on our streets at the moment. And so the police and authorities do need these extra powers outlined in the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill. This being the second reading I would want to acknowledge the work of the committee under the guidance of our former chair Ginny Andersen. There weren't a huge number of submissions on this bill 14 submissions which indicates I think a reasonable level of support for the legislation. We think it was a useful process and the National Party commends this bill to the House.