Dyson RuthANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND COUNTERING FINANCING OF TERRORISM AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Amendments to principal ActHon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): It is a very pleasant surprise for me to take a call on this bill. In order to contribute most constructively I have to say that at this stage of the debate which is the Committee stage I have heard only the first reading and the second reading because I was not part of the select committee. It seemed to me that there were a number of questions—well given that there seemed to be quite a lot of cross-party support for the intention of it there were a number of questions that will be answered.I am not sure whether the current Minister in the chair Judith Collins is the Minister who is actually responsible for it. But given the reputation of the Minister who is the chair I feel obliged to say that I think she will take responsibility for answering as many questions as she can regardless of whether she is actually responsible for this legislation.One of the first questions that I am really interested in asking is: why has it taken this long? This bill seems to have been before the House for a lengthy period of time and I do not know why it has always dropped down the priority list. The select committee made a number of amendments to the legislation and I am really pleased to see the way that it had quite a robust debate. From the report that is before the Committee now it seemed to have quite a robust debate but also quite a degree of consensus that we wanted to get this right. This is legislation that is not party political in any sense of the words but I think that there was a genuine willingness. So I want to acknowledge the members of the committee—I cannot even remember what committee it went to now. But I think—Jonathan Young: Law and Order.Hon RUTH DYSON: It was the Law and Order Committee—thank you. That is one of the committees that I think is being merged into another committee in the restructuring. It is going to go into the Justice and Electoral Committee I think in the post-election restructuring of our select committees. I want to commend the committee for what appears to be the very good work that it did.Some of the issues that are dealt with are the provisions covering the operation of lawyers conveyancers accountants and real estate agents—quite a broad range of areas but areas where there is a lot of public engagement with those individuals. I have to say there is a fair amount of trust required with the individual citizens who are dealing with those people. Most of us when we deal with a lawyer or a real estate agent or an accountant put trust in their profession and say that we are going to be protected by their standards qualifications and ethics. This bill I think goes a fair way towards progressing the level of trust that we can have in it. I think the Minister who is actually responsible for the bill the Hon Amy Adams is now in the chair and again I just want to commend her for being a Minister who has—as with the previous Minister who was sitting in chair the Hon Judith Collins—a reputation for actually listening to members' contributions not always as carefully as they might deserve and actually answering the genuine questions that are raised.So as I said at the start of my contribution this is a bill that has had rigorous consideration by the select committee. It has come back to the House in a better state than it was presented in. It has taken far too long to get it to this stage but it has got a wide degree of support. I do not imagine that the Committee stage of this legislation is going to take a lot of time but I would like the Minister to address the first question that has been raised in this debate and that is: why has it taken so long? It has been pushed down the Order Paper time after time after time. If the issues are as serious as the commentary from the committee and the comments from the Minister would indicate then you just wonder why other legislation such as racing amendments or statutes amendments—which do not change any policy—or statutes repeal legislation which we have recently had actually have to take such a lot of time.So I support the legislation. I pay tribute to the Minister for introducing it but more importantly to the select committee for progressing it. I look forward to the debate and also to the Minister responding to the questions that are raised.