Wood Michael; Williams PotoMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): Approximately three weeks ago I stood at the Mount Roskill mosque with our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern; the Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff; and a huge crowd of people who had come together to remember what happened on 15 March and to provide support and solidarity and aroha to our Muslim community. What was most evident at that gathering was that although we were there gathering to remember an episode of great darkness there was also some light. That light came from the fact that people in the Muslim community felt enormous support from their fellow New Zealanders. It came from the fact that they felt the solidarity; that people were standing with them. It came from the beautiful leadership of our Prime Minister who ensured that those people knew that every step of the way their Government would be standing beside them.But it also came from the fact that those people had hope and confidence that there would be action that there would be action in memory of those whose lives were taken and action to make our country a safer place to minimise the possibility of the horror of 15 March ever playing out again. So it is so important that here we stand in this Parliament less than one month after 15 March collectively as a House taking that action. The action that we take is not the only action that must be taken. We must resolve ourselves to building a community that is truly inclusive in which we combat all forms of Islamophobia and other forms of prejudice but we also must take this action the action of removing those weapons that were used on that fateful day that dark day and which struck such fear into so many of our communities—weapons that as the Minister Stuart Nash in an earlier debate identified were specifically designed to kill many people in mere moments. That of course is what happened on that day.Along with other members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and others who watched it I was horrified by the demonstration that we received from police when we received our initial briefing on this bill about how easy it is for a category A firearms owner like myself to take a category A weapon and put on to it certain parts and turn it into a killing machine of the nature that was used on that day. There is simply no place for these weapons in our country.This Parliament is taking decisive action but it is not rushed action because this has been talked about before. We have been reminded that it was talked about in the years following Aramoana that it was talked about in the Thorp report in the mid-1990s and that it was talked about in the select committee report a couple of years ago but the forces of reaction mobilised every time to prevent action from being taken.So I wish to commend every other member of this House and the leadership who has driven this reform forward—our Minister and our Prime Minister—for taking this decisive action at this point. We cannot allow and we are not allowing those calls for delay to be a cover for inaction again. In the select committee members across parties have worked to make this legislation effective and fair. We have listened carefully to submissions within a short period of time. We have heard from all perspectives. We have made changes where we have believed that this will make the legislation more fair and more workable.I do wish to acknowledge that there are firearms owners many of whom are good people law-abiding people who are affected by this legislation. I wish to acknowledge that and put that on record. This is no besmirchment of their character or their decency as New Zealanders but this is about the public safety of all citizens. We are a country of laws and norms and values and every time we legislate in this House we balance the rights of different citizens and different groups within our communities. On this occasion we say that the right of all New Zealanders to live peacefully and free from the terror that inflicted our country on 15 March is a more important right than the right to own these weapons. In our select committee we heard from Mustafa Farouk the president of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand. He came and told us that he was there to speak for the 50 New Zealanders who could not speak. In this House today we stand in memory of those and we stand to keep faith with those 50 lost citizens and I commend all members of the House for the action that we have taken to make our country safer. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I call Kiritapu Allan—you have five minutes.