Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Tēnā koutou. I am as delighted as everyone else to speak to this the Maritime Crimes Amendment Bill. Essentially as others have said the bill before us goes back some 30 years and it recalls initially the sinking of the Achille Lauro but I think to New Zealanders it might also recall the bombing and sinking of the Rainbow Warrior which we all might remember as one of the most serious terror crimes committed in New Zealand. And we might also as a nation who remembers that maritime act of terror welcome a new regime or a strengthened regime to bring the rule of law as a means to remedy or to react to that kind of crime at sea.Effectively the initial Act the Maritime Crimes Act 1999 implements the initial Rome convention which was to suppress unlawful acts against the safety of maritime navigation but also its immediate protocol the Rome protocol which related to fixed platforms at sea on the continental shelf. But the two 2005 protocols seek to bring that initial regime and so thereby our initial implementation of it through our legislation to better react to modern transnational maritime crimes. So New Zealand signed those two protocols two years after they were introduced in 2007 but it's taken us to this day to finally enact the enabling legislation.To focus on the 2005 protocols which are essentially before the House via this bill they seek to ensure maritime security framework is established under the parent treaties and to introduce very serious crimes: illicit trafficking by ship of weapons of mass destruction transportation by ship of fugitives intentionally causing death in connection with those offences and maritime terror.The initial Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee report identified this bill or legislative means of implementing those protocols and the treaty as the only way of really ratifying and implementing those treaties so the bill before us is essential. The Green Party initially expressed grave concern and our concern was related—although we supported the bill as a means of bringing international rule of law to our reaction to maritime terror we did express concern because of the broadness of the term terrorism" that was included in the initial draft bill. As the select committee process revealed the term "terrorism" was never in fact even defined in the initial bill so our concerns were very valid.The public consultation process revealed that the public in fact was also very concerned about this and the fact that the term "terror" was used without definition meaning that certain peaceful acts of protest at sea would also be caught. Now we're a proud nation in terms of protest movements as well and especially protests at sea so to think that a law like this could catch inadvertently or deliberately movements such as the one that the Rainbow Warrior was in fact a part of would be somewhat perverse. The public reaction as the select committee process went through also reflected this.The select committee's recommendations—in identifying that terror was not defined and that that was unacceptable—were satisfactory to us. The new draft bill has in fact removed all reference to terrorism from the proposed legislation. Instead each crime is simply defined. So to give effect to each of the crimes identified and defined in the 2005 protocols this bill simply identifies acts and mental elements of each crime without reference to terror. Although it has come about in the context of the global war against terror and modern terrorism there's in fact no need to place these crimes in the context of terrorism at all. If they've been committed—if the act from the mental elements are present the crimes are identified and prosecutable.We're satisfied with that and in fact the bill goes further. The bill expressly excludes peaceful protest labour movements and other such activity at sea which is of course very welcome by the Green Party. Overall the bill enables New Zealand to meet its obligations as an international citizen and it is in line with our principle of non-violence. Hence we are now very proud to support the bill. Thank you."