Simpson ScottSCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Before I commence my contribution I would just like to acknowledge with grateful appreciation the speech of the member who has just resumed her seat the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. I think she neatly and aptly summed up the opportunities and challenges that the Local Government and Environment Committee was confronted with in terms of addressing what on the face of it seems like a relatively minor change but is actually a change that extends powers to full-time DOC rangers and indeed to full-time Fish and Game rangers to help them do the good work that they have done for so long and will continue to do to protect our native creatures that these days sadly are highly valued on the international black market. It is 60 years since the principal legislation was introduced. Most of us in this Parliament have not seen any change to this legislation in our lifetimes. So I want to commend my friend and colleague the Minister of Conservation the Hon Maggie Barry for introducing this piece of legislation to the House. I think it is a good piece of legislation. It is balanced it is measured and it is appropriate. It modernises a piece of legislation that has actually served us as a nation well and it has served the Department of Conservation well but it is time to modernise it. I particularly noted at the select committee and the Minister made reference to it in her speech that the existing principal legislation has that rather quaint gender-specific reference that was typical of the time. For instance currently DOC staff if they need assistance from members of the public for instance to help them do their duties and maybe apprehend or intervene in a matter they are permitted by statute to only request assistance from men. Of course that is something we would not want to have necessarily limiting the ability of people of whatever gender to assist and be involved in the good work of DOC officers should they need it. The Hon Nanaia Mahuta and the Minister both made reference in their speeches to the delicate balance that we had to find in terms of getting the civil liberties aspects of this legislation in perspective and with the right balance. This relates to giving people some quite serious powers—the powers to stop detain and arrest. These are not powers that are given lightly by this Parliament and nor should they be. So very careful consideration was given to how far we wanted to extend those powers. In the end the select committee went further than in the bill as first introduced. After consideration and careful thought we decided to extend those powers to full-time Fish and Game rangers because they do excellent work. In fact Fish and Game do excellent work both full-time and voluntarily as honorary officers. But we thought on balance that the appropriate position to land this legislation was that full-time staff would be the best placed to do that and not to extend it to volunteers in this situation. I think that was about right. I do not think it is in any way a slight or a discounting of the work and effort that Fish and Game do in our conservation estate and indeed around the country. This is a very good piece of legislation. As the member Nanaia Mahuta said it is quite a small piece of legislation but its impact is quite large on protecting our native creatures and species from those ratbags who want to come here steal them take them away and then sell them on the international black market which I think all New Zealanders would want to be stopped. This bill extends the powers to enable full-time DOC rangers and full-time Fish and Game rangers to do the job that they already do but to do it better. I commend this bill to the House.