Wedd CatherineCATHERINE WEDD (National—Tukituki): Look I rise in support of the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Amendment Bill and it's a real privilege to be the last speaker on this general debate second reading today. I'd firstly like to just commend the Justice Committee for their very hard work in navigating this bill through the select committee process and of course through the House because we on this side of the House are about restoring law and order keeping our communities safe and cracking down on gangs. This is about ensuring we are keeping illegal firearms out of the hands of gangs. Look I come from a region Hawke's Bay the East Coast where we have a major gang problem and we have seen a huge increase in the number of gang members in the past six years. In fact we have a ratio of 2.5 gang members to one police officer which I understand is actually one of the highest in the country. So that is why we need to crack down on the gangs because it's the gangs that are increasing crime. They are peddling meth and they are causing our communities to be unsafe; they are intimidating our communities. And look I am going to speak to an example of some gang members yesterday actually in Hawke's Bay. It was an example actually of our Hawke's Bay Regional Council—and I'm going to say it here in the House—not reading the room at all because they enabled a whole lot of patched gang members to come into the public space into the council chamber and interact with the council leaders which is absolutely beyond belief to be honest that we had our council leaders interacting with patched gang members when it is actually illegal to wear a gang patch in a public building in our schools and on our public transport. On this side of the House our Government has obviously already introduced legislation in our first 100-days to crack down on the gangs to ensure that we ban gang patches in public spaces and this is a really really powerful message that we've been sending to the gangs. So it does really beggar belief that yesterday we did have our council leaders interacting with gang members in the council building which is a public building and it is actually illegal for those gangs members to be wearing their patched gang memorabilia inside the council building. So I think that really was not reading the room which does lead me to talk about councils in general actually because—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): No no Ms Wedd. It leads you to talk about the bill. You've had a pretty good go for four minutes now let's lead you to talk about the bill. CATHERINE WEDD: OK yes I'm coming back to that because I think that our focus—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Oh yes you are.CATHERINE WEDD: No our focus obviously as central government and local government needs to be on getting the issues right and that is restoring law and order and that is making sure that we have safer communities and that is what our ratepayers want to see. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): And now you tell us how you're going to do that Ms Wedd or you'll be sitting down. You are talking about the bill. CATHERINE WEDD: Yeah I'm talking about the bill. I am absolutely talking about the bill because this bill is about focusing on the issues that matter—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): No you're talking about what's in the bill actually Ms Wedd.CATHERINE WEDD: Yeah that's right—in this bill because it does make three key changes to the firearms prohibition order regime and it specifies new qualifying offences for gang members who are convicted of these offences. It gives New Zealand Police additional search powers. And that's another thing actually police are really enjoying the fact that they've finally got a Government that is going to give them more tools in their kit to be able to crack down on crime. I actually visited the Hawke's Bay police station—quite a new police station in Hawke's Bay—and I spoke with a lot of our amazing Hawke's Bay police officers. I'd just like to congratulate our Hawke's Bay police officers for all the hard work that they're doing because they are actually really respecting these laws that we are pushing through to ensure that they do have more tools to be able to do their job and ensure that we strike the right balance so that they obviously have that balance between being able to execute more powers to be able to crack down on crime and deal with the rise in crime that we have seen over the past six years and also the increase in the number of gang members who are also peddling a lot of crime.During that week that I actually visited the Hawke's Bay police station I also visited the Hawke's Bay Regional Prison—CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Right and also it's not a tourist—Catherine Wedd: No it's not—CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Right Ms Wedd you have now not spoken about the bill for two minutes—Catherine Wedd: That is right but I am just going to come back to—CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): No Ms Wedd. Sit down.Catherine Wedd: OK. Thank you Mr Speaker.CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Ms Wedd you've had three warnings now. If you want to continue you speak about the bill and the bill only. It's not a tour of the Hawke's Bay or anywhere else.CATHERINE WEDD: OK. Thank you Mr Speaker. No I appreciate that. So if I am coming back to the bill and obviously the key elements of the bill which of course are about providing more police with the tools as I've said to ensure that they are able to have warrantless searches associated with the FPOs—so it enables a constable who maybe had the reasonable grounds to suspect that a person was subject to an FPO giving them the powers to execute those warrantless searches associated with FPOs. Alongside that that obviously enables them to get those illegal firearms out of the hands of gangs which really is the objective of this to create safer communities and make sure that we are reducing crime which is what we're all about on this side of the House—reducing crime creating safer communities. Therefore I would like to commend this bill to the House.