Bridges Simon; Faafoi KrisHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): Thank you Mr Chair. I just want to make a small number of remarks and then ask the Minister a question. I just would agree with the Minister—indeed something I said at the second reading. It was a thorough process at select committee. I don't accept the criticism we see from parties to my left about that. It wasn't rushed and much of what happened in the committee process was in fact unanimous. And so it does—and I'm not seeking to be overly political here but it does seem strange that there's now opposition to this bill. Certainly National isn't opposing it. We support it fulsomely. We did at first reading we did at the committee process; indeed we sought to strengthen it and I think we've achieved that in some regards. That's because we take like the Government of the day the obligation to keep New Zealanders safe—the first obligation really of any Government—very seriously. I just want to note that the Hon Mark Mitchell MP for Whangaparāoa is now our spokesperson on counter-terrorism measures. He has deep expertise and experience in this area actually in the field and he would have liked to have been here today speaking asking questions—Hon Member: A very good member.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —a very good member—but he is in Auckland and of course with COVID restrictions that's not possible or appropriate. My question for the Minister is I hope actually a very simple one with no tricks to it as it were. I simply want to have a sense from the Minister that he believes that the High Court decision of Justice Downs from what was a year or so ago involving the perpetrator of the LynnMall supermarket attack—has the gap that he believed was present in the law and I haven't got the case in front of me around planning and preparation—that we've now as a Parliament in this law comprehensively addressed that really and we now feel confident as a Parliament the Government feels confident and therefore you know given that Government and Parliament feels confident New Zealanders can feel confident that we've comprehensively addressed that. I wouldn't say that that would mean that we will never see the like of an attack such as we saw at the supermarket—and we all regret and we thank those involved in keeping people safe there the police and so on. I'm not saying we'll never see that again but does he feel that with the law it does comprehensively address Justice Downs' gaps as written to the Attorney-General and so on and that this should keep on that basis more New Zealanders safe and make something like the supermarket attacks less likely in the future?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice): Can I thank the Hon Simon Bridges for his contribution and for his reinforcement of his comments in the second reading speech especially around the select committee process.To the question that the member posed: obviously the gap was identified in the case that was before the High Court judge last year and I think that sent a pretty clear signal to Parliament that the offence the judge had before him—or the attempt to bring about a conviction for the case before him—did not exist in legislation. So in plain English there was no offence around planning or preparation. I would echo the comments of the member: nothing can ever guarantee something not happening when we legislate. But we must as a Parliament—and we do take very seriously our responsibility as Government to make sure that we can do everything we can to prevent attacks of this nature occurring. Again of this nature" is an important phrase because over the last 10 20 years we have seen the nature of these kinds of terrorist attacks which are ideologically motivated change in their nature and we have seen both here and overseas horrific incidents where everyday items end up being used in terrorist-motivated attacks.I do believe to answer the member's question that we've done everything we can within this piece of legislation to fill the legislative gap. It was highlighted both by the royal commission and by the judge in the ruling that was made last year."