McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Mr Speaker thank you so much I'd just prepared a 10-minute speech. I'll read it twice as fast as I normally do perhaps.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Ha ha! You're a great reader.Hon TODD McCLAY: It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. It's important work that is about to be done when this is finally passed into law. It's a shame the Government hasn't shown more urgency in this as they have so many other things that they've said are important but in the end the New Zealand public is not quite as sure that they are as urgent as they say.The reason for that is it is about New Zealand enforcing our own laws internationally—or this Parliament makes a decision it passes a law as to what we think is legal and what's appropriate. We will now be able to enforce this in as far as New Zealand registered ships are concerned anywhere in the world or ships that are not flagged under New Zealand within an area that we have an extraterritorial jurisdiction—which largely means a few parts of the world and our exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The reason I say it's a shame they haven't shown more urgency in doing this is right now in our EEZ there is bound to be a boat there a ship on its way on its way out nearby that actually we would want our services to look at if they suspect or believe that they are breaking international law that is in New Zealand law. But the reason I point that out in as far as the Government not showing urgency here is there's another situation that is comparable to this that's going on at the moment in the Ukraine and as far as Russia is concerned. And there's another area where decisions by New Zealand perhaps this Parliament are not able to be enforced overseas just as in this legislation they are equally not and the reason for that is that this Government has dragged its feet and even today said it won't pass an autonomous sanctions bill. So whilst we're here debating this about what could happen on the high seas or you know under a New Zealand - flagged ship or let's say a Russian ship in an area of the world where New Zealand has extraterritorial jurisdiction when this law is passed we can enforce New Zealand law in as far as that Russian ship is concerned. So it's a good thing that we're passing this. We should be doing it faster.What's not a good thing is that the Government today drags its feet and says it won't pass an autonomous sanctions bill under urgency although we are debating this piece of legislation today; instead of this today we should be debating and passing an autonomous sanctions bill so that tomorrow if we did so in urgency the Government could put in place sanctions against Russia for the actions they have taken in the Ukraine where today people are dying defending their country. We could put in place sanctions as the US has as the United Kingdom has as all European Union countries have as Australia has. But no; we're here passing this legislation. And if it follows through the normal process at the end of this three-week sitting block it will enter into law; that's a good thing. And lo and behold if one of those Russian fishing vessels happens to wander down here we're going to send out our military or—what does it say here?—an endangered species officer" or "Department of Conservation ranger" to grab them. But in as far as three weeks from now here's an ironclad guarantee: this Government won't have passed sanctions on Russia when actually I believe there is a majority in this House to do so today to stand with our allies around the world and to make a very very strong statement.The Prime Minister put out a press release; that's a good thing. I don't think Russia read it and if they did it didn't alter their behaviour. But as the rest of the world is taking a position to sanction them New Zealand should be able to also rather than only being able to if the UN allows us to—we should be making those decisions here in this House and in New Zealand. The legislation is a good thing—Hon Andrew Little: Why didn't you pass the bill?Hon TODD McCLAY: Well the member said "Well you've got to pass the bill." There's a lot of noise over there but they were pretty quiet when it came to the Prime Minister's statement about the Ukraine and not being able to pass sanctions because she wasn't clear about this. But this legislation will go through over the next three weeks and they'll rush out there and say "Ah ha! If one of these Russian vessels happens to wander down to New Zealand waters we'll grab it." But that will do nothing for the people of the Ukraine. We do support this legislation. We do think there are some changes needed. I mentioned a couple of areas there—we think probably some of the authority of powers given to Department of Conservation rangers or endangered species officers will be the same as the police or Customs or the military. I think that probably goes too far. There's another way to do that. The Government did say in committee that actually those powers would be used very very cautiously. Actually there is not such a thing. Once power is given people use it. And in this case I don't think we've got it right. So we should talk about that more in committee stage and look to fix it. We will be supporting this and passing it. But we would support and pass an autonomous sanctions bill in urgency today if the Government actually could show urgency in areas that matter.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The next call is a remote call—five minutes."