Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): I am pleased to speak in support of this bill the Customs and Excise (Prohibition of Imports Made by Slave Labour) Amendment Bill sponsored by my good colleague Peeni Henare and can I congratulate him on bringing this bill to the House.This is a very worthy bill which cuts to the heart of a great evil that prevails in this world unfortunately in this day and age and that is slavery. It seeks to prohibit the importation of goods produced by slavery. As we know there are those unscrupulous operators who profiteer from slave labour and indeed we do import goods that are produced by slave labour.It is almost ironic that we have just had the Government reject a worthy bill to guarantee a minimum wage for contractors—that has been rejected. But I am not surprised because once again the Government has shown its complete ineptitude at navigating its moral compass on behalf of New Zealand. Here we are again: what have we heard from the Government in terms of this bill so far? I have reviewed Mr Mitchell's speech that he has just given and all we hear are excuses excuses excuses. All we hear is that Oh yes slavery is abhorrent but—but—it's too difficult to define it's too broad and the supply chains are too complex. How will we be able to differentiate between what is produced by slave labour and what is not?". We get the same excuses coming forward from the Government so it really just rings hollow.Their rhetoric rings hollow because what we know is that this is all about their ideology and the principles that they stand for. If this bill had some sort of free-trade agreement dimension to it well the members opposite would be doing cartwheels and doing whatever they could to make sure that it gets over the line. But a worthy bill that is all about taking a stand as New Zealanders where we take a stand and we show leadership from this Parliament against the evils of slavery—what does the Government do? It says: "Oh it's too hard too complex. Oh no we can't do it. It's a worthy cause slavery is not OK—but no sorry we can't go there." Well that is not good enough—that is not good enough.I was hoping that this bill would be an Amazing Grace moment for this House. I was hoping that there would be some enlightenment that would elucidate the Government so that they would—my colleague Peeni Henare he is a modern day William Wilberforce. He is leading the charge against the abolition of slavery the abolition of the perpetuation of slavery in these modern times through us banning the import of these goods. I was hoping that this would be an Amazing Grace moment for this House but sadly they have not taken up the call from my colleague here. Alas they have not. That is very sad because we should be taking a stand. This is a worthy piece of legislation and we do need to take it seriously. That is exactly why this bill needs to go to a select committee.The USA has implemented legislation to this effect. Belgium has passed legislation to this effect. So if it is good enough for those major countries to implement such legislation then we should be investigating it. We should be looking at their examples as to what they are doing. So sadly yes I was hoping that this would be the Amazing Grace moment where this House would come together and we would take a stand for our country and think of all of those millions of folks around the world who are victims of slavery and take a stand against that but alas it is very disappointing that this Government is opposing this bill. But I do support this bill and I support my colleague Peeni Henare. I congratulate him on bringing this bill to the House. Kia ora tātou."