van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Well an unsurprisingly soft stance on drugs from Gareth Hughes the previous member who has just spoken who was talking about how we need to be focusing not on the impact of drugs but actually on the source of drugs and around education. Well I'm sorry but I can't see many criminal drug traffickers wanting to stop their business on the high seas to sit down for a lesson around the table in the ship's galley on the potential impacts of drug use. Quite frankly they're focused solely on profits and on ensuring they can get those products into our New Zealand environment and that is something that we strongly oppose on this side of the House. Actually it is encouraging to see that the Green members are supporting this bill in this second reading and I do commend them for that because this is indeed an important aspect to refine both the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and the Customs and Excise Act 2018. So what we're really doing here as we've heard from the previous member on this side of the House and one-time excellent customs Minister the Hon Tim Macindoe is that this is really about enabling us to meet our obligations internationally and to ensure that we contribute to the reduction where possible of the flow of trafficked drugs across our borders obviously extending outside in this instance past our territorial waters 14 nautical miles and another 14 nautical miles past the contiguous zone into those international waters.One of the key aspects that I think is important here is around the intent. With those boats and ships that are trafficking these drugs and that currently sit outside that zone we don't have the capacity under current legislation and of course that's what this is looking to amend by inserting a new schedule 5A to actually enable our defence forces and our customs people to reach out as appropriate where there is a clear likelihood of drug trafficking being conducted or about to be conducted and to act accordingly with that.Actually I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge the fantastic work carried out every day by our New Zealand Defence Force personnel and by our customs officers in the environments that they operate in. The risks they are faced with on a regular basis to protect New Zealand to the best of their capacity is admirable and I certainly thank them for all they do have done and will continue to do in that space. So in terms of this particular bill there are a couple of aspects that I wanted to highlight around it really. One for me is around international responsibility. As a major player in the Pacific realm it is very important that as a nation New Zealand does take a strong international leadership role in a raft of different areas. Of course some of those are around trade which is very important for us. We recently passed through this House the Tariff (PACER Plus) Amendment Bill relating to the trade deal with a number of our Pacific neighbours and this is another area where it's really important for us to take some leadership to demonstrate that actually we are adhering to and adopting the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea article 108 and article 17.So this is really as I mentioned earlier enabling that strengthening advancement of powers perhaps to beyond what we have seen to give greater flexibility to react to the range of different scenarios that our fine people might be presented with in trying to restrict drug flows. That is one of the areas that has grown evolved and presented significant challenges over a number of years now as these drug traffickers—unsurprisingly perhaps but surprisingly on one side as well—display increasing variety in the manner of methods in which they try to implement the movement of drugs. They have greater innovative techniques their complexity has increased and indeed the technology they're able to harness and utilise as part of everyday society gives them additional options when they're trying to evade our authorities and bring their products into our country. So it is important that we can evolve with the times and make sure that we remain relevant and current and we are able to operate in an appropriate manner with an appropriate response and in an appropriate time frame to ensure that actually we are protecting our citizens as best as possible. If you look at the stats from 2017 we had over $1 billion worth of drugs seized by our customs people coming into New Zealand—$1 billion. That is a massive amount of damage that could have been done on the streets around our country. Unfortunately in my electorate in the Waikato we have some areas that have drug challenges as well as there are all around the country. This is not an area-specific challenge but it's something that New Zealand as a whole faces and so it's really important that we take any step possible to actually expand our potential and our capacity to negatively impact on the flow of drugs across the borders. Taking that $1 billion out is a fantastic mark of progress.That's actually ramped up over the last couple of years. In the year prior I believe it was about $800 million and prior to that it was about $650 million. So it is trending in the right direction I suppose although I guess that there's an element—there could be an argument that it's hard to say exactly how much is coming across the borders if indeed we're not capturing it all or necessarily seeing it all flowing through to the market as well.The estimates would suggest that there was about $1.8 billion of drug harm done domestically in New Zealand in 2017 as well. So through that same comparative time frame $1 billion was stopped through the border but there was $1.8 billion unfortunately in drug-related harm. So I guess looking at that $1 billion out of $2.8 billion that's five-fourteenths or about 35 percent that we did intercept at the border which is a great step but actually there's obviously been 65 percent getting through our clutches at this stage.So the two proposals that we're looking at under this particular bill will provide greater capacity for our forces our people out there to employ the right skills to actually delve into their tool box and to have another option available to them that they can explore or deploy to enable them to react appropriately. That impact on drugs is just something I wanted to touch on as well and we heard from the Green member briefly about that. Whilst we need to be mindful of what we're talking about here in the bill actually the overall intent is to stop drugs coming into New Zealand because of the significant negative impact they have in our society within our young people often but also in older people and the impact that has on families in particular and communities even more so. So anything we can do in that space I absolutely support as we do on this side of the House. That's why I would be very happy to see this pass and indeed I'm happy to see broad support across the House for this as well—in particular from the Greens as I mentioned who are typically not supportive of any additional powers when it comes to the impact that might have on a drug environment drug traffickers or any criminals engaged in that sort of activity. Matt Doocey: Invading farms they like. TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Well that is an interesting point because this bill provides powers for defence forces and for our customs agents to extend past our current boundaries and we saw that just recently where the Government chose to support the extension of warrantless search powers in a National Animal Identification and Tracing environment. There are some similarities there but then on the flip side when it came to firearms prohibition they were not prepared to support warrantless search powers. So with this bill actually it's important to demonstrate clear consistency in the messaging that we're giving to our forces and the tools we're providing them with when they look to enact on our behalf safety and security in our border environments. Certainly I think it's very key to get that highlighted today which is why I just wanted to raise that point in particular. Now when it came to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee's report there was very broad support and very wide-ranging agreement on that. There were minor drafting changes within that; otherwise there was very little made to change it. So it was really about clarity and consistency through those minor drafting changes. I just want to highlight in particular the key change that was proposed off the back of the select committee process: clause 7 inserting new section 12D(2)(c) in terms of adding the controlled drugs or prohibitive equipment or material into New Zealand—so really specifying down Mr McAnulty into what it is that we're looking to capture under this particular bill to ensure that our customs officers have the right powers to secure and protect our borders as they need to. I think that's something that I would just finish this debate on: that that is absolutely key. I would like to remind the Government of that—all parties in this Labour-led Government—that it is absolutely critical we contain and minimise the drug impact where possible and have a strong stance on crime. Therefore I commend this bill to the House.