Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): Tēnā koe Madam Deputy Speaker. Tuatahi māku e tautokongia ana ngā kupu o tērā o ngā mema arā ko te Pīhopa wāna kupu e mea ana mō ngā wiki e rua kua pahure ake nei kua tangi te motu. Engari kua tae te wā kia puta atu i te ao pōuri ki roto i te ao mārama kia tahurihia ai ō mātou hinengaro kia whakapakari ai i ngā ture e pā ana ki ngā pū kia kore anō tēnei āhuatanga e pā mai ki a tātou kei roto i Aotearoa. [Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Firstly for me I support the words of the other member namely Mr Bishop. He said that for the past two weeks the country has been in mourning. However it has come to the time to emerge from the world of darkness into the world of light and to turn our minds to strengthening the laws pertaining to guns so that this type of thing doesn't happen again to us in New Zealand.]I'd just like to acknowledge the words of the honourable member Chris Bishop who said that although we've been in a period of mourning and we still do mourn for those who lost their lives in the events of 15 March it is time for us to turn our attention now to strengthening these laws the legislation so that we never have this sort of event occur again here in New Zealand. So I'm proud to stand and support this bill the Arms (Prohibited Firearms Magazines and Parts) Amendment Bill and proud to support the Government and dare I say the whole Parliament that's taking action in response to the March 15th terrorist attack so that we do protect all New Zealanders and keep us all safe. Can I just acknowledge my colleague the Hon Stuart Nash. I know that within about 36 hours of the attack he had already turned his attention to law changes that needed to be made in this regard. I'd just like to also acknowledge his words and our gratitude to the New Zealand police force for the sterling job they did on that day and subsequently since then. He also made the comment that the reason we are doing this is that public safety needs to be as strong as it can be. So I'd just like to acknowledge Stuart Nash. In the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attack New Zealanders were asking ourselves many difficult questions such as why has this happened in Aotearoa how could we help the victims how could we heal as a nation and are we safe? New Zealanders around the country have come together to express our grief and to show our solidarity with the Muslim community. We have united to reject the hateful ideology that inspired this attack and we have begun the long journey of healing. We're strongly affirming our values of compassion tolerance and manaakitanga and that's crucial—it's a crucial way we can make sure New Zealand is safe for everyone. The Government is taking every action to ensure the safety of New Zealanders. We've agreed to hold a royal commission of inquiry into the Christchurch attack. We need to get to the bottom of how the terrorist was able to do what he did and understand what we need to do to make sure it never reoccurs. We've been asking tough questions about the role social media has played in the attacks and we know New Zealand will be a leading part of the global conversation on stopping the spread of hate on social media. We've maintained a high level of vigilance in the aftermath of the attack. Our threat alert level remains high meaning that the police and security services will provide extra protection at the border and in public places. A crucially important way to protect New Zealand is to make sure we have safe and effective gun laws. That's why six days after the attack the Government announced the ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. We need gun reform now. Any move to slow down the process is a move to stop it and that is the same rhetoric used overseas to stop gun law changes. For example the American organisation the National Rifle Association—it's straight out of their playbook. They claim the legislation is being rushed and they throw out mistruths they muddy the waters they create anger and confusion. If we don't act now how many further attacks will we tolerate in this country before we will do something or will we become like the United States where deaths through use of guns occur so often that they almost rarely rate a mention now?DEPUTY SPEAKER: I hope the member is not reading his speech. He's an experienced member and he knows that he doesn't read speeches.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: OK. So we are banning all military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles that are designed to kill people to make our country a safer place. There is no reason for us to have military-style semi-automatics here in New Zealand. I don't mind doing a bit of deer shooting. Deer shooting pig hunting shooting tahr—they can all be achieved through bolt-action rifles. We don't need semi-automatics to do it. In fact there's very little point of a semi-automatic. If you fire at a deer and you miss it it disappears and you'd have to be spraying bullets around in a pretty outrageous way and even then the chances of you hitting one are pretty slim. So the legislation is not directed at the vast bulk of law-abiding gun owners especially those in rural communities who use .22s and shotguns with limited ammunition capacity for farm work and hunting. This move is widely supported. It's got the full support of the Government parties: New Zealand First the Greens. It's also got the support of the National Party. Federated Farmers Fish & Game TradeMe Hunting & Fishing and others have all come out in support of the ban. That's because as I've said we all know that in order to hunt deer or tahr or pigs you don't need military-style semi-automatics. It's also no secret that I handed in my own gun to the police—I think it was the Tuesday after the attack. I had a .22 calibre semi-automatic rifle with a 15-round magazine. I had no qualms about handing it in. I used it to shoot pests when I lived out in the rural areas. I haven't had much chance to use it since I've been in Parliament. The reality is that when I'm no longer in Parliament and I feel the need to go and shoot the possum in the apple tree in the orchard I'll just go and buy another .22 bolt-action and I can achieve the same thing. There is a joke in the family that the largest thing I've ever shot is a tree. I was aiming for the possum but that says more about me than the gun. The point is that the safety of New Zealanders is more important than my need or my right to own a semi-automatic .22 with the magazine or the capacity that I explained. So we want to reiterate that our actions are directed at making sure that this act of terror never happens again. We strongly believe that the vast majority of legitimate gun owners in New Zealand will understand that these moves are in the national interest and most people will take these changes in their stride—just as they did in Australia when they made similar changes some years ago.No one is being criminalised overnight. In fact an amnesty will be put in place for weapons and in fact those people who currently have illegal weapons can hand those in under the current amnesty. They will not be criminalised for handing those in. This is actually an opportunity for those law-abiding New Zealanders to actually go and hand the guns in. Those guns that are illegal—that will become illegal—just go and hand them in. This is what we can do to make New Zealand a much safer place. So our focus is on getting these guns out of the community. Like I say I was a gun owner—well I still am a gun owner: I've got a slug gun left in the safe now. We need to get these out of the community and we will work with owners to make sure that that does happen in an orderly way.So there will be a fair buy-back scheme. We're committed to that. The exact details are still being worked through but it will be similar to the Australian scheme that they implemented and people did receive a fair price for the guns that they handed in. We can't say with certainty what the cost of the buy-back will be. It'll be somewhere between $150 million to $300 million—we're not exactly sure. But then again what's the cost of an event like we saw on 15 March?The public will have a say. We encourage them to submit to the select committee. The select committee will be meeting over the next week. We're open to hearing the technical issues. We're open to hearing that the legislation gets finessed and gets made right. This is the first tranche of changes; there will be more legislation to come. So I commend this legislation to the House and I just again would like to express my condolences to all those who perished.