Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Speaker. It certainly is no pleasure to stand and take a call on this the Arms Legislation Bill. I think that every member of this House would agree that the reason why we're in this House debating this bill is in large part to the tragedy that we experienced as a nation in Christchurch. I would make an appeal to both the chair of the committee and also the Minister of Police to take a deep breath and to do a reset and to sit down with us in Opposition and work on this bill and stay true to the intent of what this Parliament did on the first tranche. I was the first one to stand up and say that there's no room in New Zealand for military-style high-capacity weapons. Most of our law-abiding firearm owners and users in New Zealand actually agree with that sentiment. But it's somehow being distorted and I would ask the Minister quite simply to do this: let's remember that the alleged offender in this case was a foreign national. He came to New Zealand he somehow was able to get a firearms licence—and we need to look at that and study that—he was able to get access to a gun club and he lived amongst us. You will never convince me that there weren't red flags and indicators there that we should have acted on. So what I would like to see—and we'll work with you; we'll work with the Minister on this; we'll work with the select committee—is to reset and go back and look at what those red flags were look at what those indicators were and let's address the real issues. Let's address the issues that we know will give us confidence as a nation that we can do the best that we can do to ensure that we don't have an individual like we saw in Christchurch being able to perpetrate another attack like that. I appeal to the Minister to take a deep breath and to sit down and work with us and get focused back on what the original intent of the legislation that was coming through this House was meant for—not targeting law-abiding Kiwis. They are going to continue to be law-abiding Kiwis.The other point that I'd really like to make which is critically important—and the Minister did allude to this in his opening speech and I'm pleased that he did—is that we have been trying in this term of Government and as Opposition to introduce firearms safety orders or firearms protection orders. Quite simply the reason why we want to do that is because—I get anecdotal information coming to me constantly from police officers working on the front line through to district and area commanders—we know that there is a growing prevalence of firearms being carried and used by gang members and organised crime. We know for a fact that with the prevalence and growth of 501s or returning gang members who are highly resourced—gangs like the Comancheros—the amount of violence that actually the police are having to deal with now on the front line is growing.I had the owner of a security company that's been providing security for the Auckland CBD for over 20 years come and see me about two months ago in my office. He showed me four videos—disturbing videos—of what his staff have to deal with now from patched gang members presenting firearms and using firearms. He is finding it more and more difficult to recruit staff to actually provide security in our CBD and that is reflective of what is actually happening around the country. Why would the Minister not take this opportunity to work with us to actually target the people that have got illegal firearms and that are creating the harm?I make a prediction: if this Government doesn't show some intestinal fortitude around this if this Government doesn't decide to pick up and support our firearm protection orders—that actually enable the police to take serious action against organised crime and gangs—then we will continue to see deaths from the use of firearms which is what the previous speaker the chair of the committee spoke very passionately about; we will continue to see unnecessary deaths perpetrated with illegal firearms by gangs and organised crime.So I would appeal to the Minister to signal to his members and through the process of the select committee for us to work together to get focus back on what is actually going to make a real fundamental difference to ensure that we as a nation and our people are safe and to restate that intent and restate that focus instead of moving into different areas where we're targeting people that actually have got nothing to do with the atrocity in Christchurch and every day are just living law-abiding lives. Let's focus on where the real issue is for us and that is around organised crime and gangs. Thank you Madam Speaker.