Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. Peace and harmony have broken out across the House once more and I am struck by the irony of the fact that I think I've spoken in the House today more often in a single day than I have ever before in my nearly 10 years of a political career and for most of the day I have been railing against a bill that I have truly despised and have done my level best to stop and now I find myself ironically in the position not only of welcoming this bill but of wanting to thank the Government for bringing it to the House because as has been alluded to by one or two of the previous speakers this was a bill that I was working on in my brief time as Minister of Customs. I am truly delighted to see that it has reached this point and am impressed that we are now dealing with the third reading of it.If you'll allow me to digress just for a moment there is a point to this. Yesterday there was an investiture ceremony at Government House and I am particularly delighted to see that among the recipients who received their honours yesterday was Sir Bill English. I want to acknowledge him for his leadership of our country and also the fine support that he received from his lovely wife Dr Mary English and I'm so thrilled that members of the family including some of their delightful children were able to be there to acknowledge that.The reason I bring that in apart from the fact that I want to acknowledge Bill of course is the fact that while he was the Prime Minister this was a bill that I and others were working on very much with his encouragement and with his understanding because Bill English understood just what incredible harm illicit drugs and particularly serious drugs such as methamphetamine are doing in communities the length and breadth of this country. And so I know that Sir Bill English also would be delighted to see that we've reached this point today and that is why I was particularly pleased to have an opportunity to acknowledge his investiture.As Jamie Strange mentioned a few moments ago when he was speaking one of the great challenges that we face in New Zealand is that we're a small country with vast areas of water to patrol. It's been well explained that a major limitation that our Customs Service and other enforcement agencies face at the moment is that they can only go so far out and yet the threat is coming from much further out and it's coming from so many different directions. I don't want to name the countries from which some of those drugs are coming but I can tell the House that members might be surprised to hear where some drugs originate from. And I can see the Minister of Defence nodding because he will be aware—as the navy is obviously a part of this equation—just what a huge challenge that faces.Hon Member: Hamilton.Hon TIM MACINDOE: No sir they do not come from Hamilton. Although sadly to the best of my knowledge no illicit vessel has ever made its way down the Waikato River out to sea at Port Waikato and if they had I'm delighted to assure the member that they would have been well within the territorial zone that already is under our ability to enforce our illicit drug seizure powers. But I thank him for his intervention none the less and I apologise if I've embarrassed by picking up on his interjection.But Jamie Strange is right in making that comment. We do have to ensure that we take every step we can to deal with the changing realities. These incursions were few and far between only a few years ago; now they are increasingly frequent. Every time one of these incursions is successful and these appalling drugs land on our shores there are victims in our communities and we see that happening. Every day lives are destroyed by these drugs so everything we can do to empower our enforcement agencies to get on top of the problem or at least to reduce the damage is good for all of us.So I do want to acknowledge particularly the fine folk at the New Zealand Customs Service. I've said it before—I'll say it again—I was so proud to be their Minister and in the brief time I had the opportunity to get alongside them and to study all aspects of the work they were doing and to help advance the initiatives that they brought to my attention that were so important my admiration increased on a daily basis. They do a fine job for us and we're so fortunate to have their services.I congratulate the Hon Kris Faafoi on being confirmed in the role but I also want to acknowledge the Hon Meka Whaitiri because she did do a lot of this work that she picked up from the previous Government and converted into a legislative form and here we are today dealing with it at its third reading. I know that it's widely supported around the House and credit is due to her for the work that she did during the time she was in this portfolio on this particular challenging issue.In my second reading speech I made the point that there were only three submissions to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee on this particular bill. That in itself would indicate that there certainly wasn't much opposition to it. It may however of course have indicated there wasn't a great deal of awareness of it. But two of those submissions were very broadly in support. One was much more guarded and was effectively suggesting to us that we should be focusing our efforts more on boosting resources domestically—in other words as the drugs are coming into the country. There's no question we want to be doing everything we can to intercept the drugs as they arrive in New Zealand. Again the different agencies that do that work are very successful but we don't know what slips past them because obviously we don't know what we don't know until we see the consequences of drugs ending up in our small communities. So I'd simply say to the submitter who was arguing that we shouldn't be moving in this direction but rather putting the emphasis on more domestic provision that while I respect that view I would argue that circumstances are changing. We know that we are under increasing threat from the high seas and therefore this is an appropriate move for us to be making.As a committee we were naturally privileged to receive very detailed official advice and as this is a third reading members of the public who may be listening—either in the gallery or watching on television at home—would want to know why this Maritime Powers Extension Bill is needed and what the problems are that we're trying to deal with and what is hoped that we will achieve. So if I may I'd just like to quote from some aspects of that official advice: It is critical to ensure that law enforcement agencies have access to the full suite of options to disrupt and dismantle the organised crime groups bringing these substances into New Zealand."—for organised crime groups they are. And one of the things that frustrates me—and I imagine this is a view probably shared across the House as well—is that it's relatively easy to catch the low-level criminals. Often they're the ones on the ground here in New Zealand receiving and distributing the drugs. It's much harder to catch the very sophisticated high-level criminals who are pretty clever and know how to escape detection. "Without constraining the availability of illicit drugs in our communities it will be difficult for demand reduction and treatment options to be effective." and yet long term this is all about trying to minimise the harm that serious drugs do in our communities.There has always been a risk of organised criminal groups evading border controls through the use of dedicated ships to transport illicit drugs into New Zealand. However over the last two years it's become clear that criminal groups are increasingly using this method to smuggle drugs into New Zealand and more widely across the region and so that is why this bill is absolutely crucial.We are in New Zealand a party to international conventions which require us oblige us to cooperate in the suppression of drug trafficking by vessels in international waters and to take the necessary legislative and administrative measures to address the problems effectively and that's what we're doing here today. So this bill will gives customs in particular the clear ability to deal with vessels trafficking drugs through international waters with New Zealand as a target with the objective of stopping these drugs from getting into New Zealand and it will also ensure that any drugs or other evidence can be seized and individuals can be arrested and prosecuted in New Zealand and that's why the commensurate piece of legislation that's the other part of this equation is the amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act.In the final minute that is available to me can I just return to the point with which I started and say that I am truly delighted to welcome this bill back to the House. I want to acknowledge the leadership of Simon O'Connor and all of my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for the considerable energy and focus that they brought to this particular work. Again I pay tribute to all of the officials who have helped to advise the committee to draft the legislation and to all of the Ministers who have played a role in bringing this legislation together.This is a bill that matters in each and every one of our communities in New Zealand. This is a bill that will make a real difference to reducing the harm done by hard drugs. So that is something for us to celebrate; that is something that naturally we have an obligation to support our agencies to enable them to deliver the best results they can for us. So congratulations to everybody involved. As I said peace and harmony has broken out. I hope also that the incidence of drug importation and abuse in our community will go down accordingly."