Omer IbrahimIBRAHIM OMER (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak on the Maritime Powers Bill on behalf of the Government. This bill as introduced aims to prevent serious criminal offending at sea including transnational offending and organised crime. It would allow New Zealand to respond to criminal activities in the oceans and seas beyond its territory including our exclusive economic zones.We are a trading nation—quite obvious—and with a significant growing maritime economy and a domestic market that is increasingly reliant on connectivity and sea. Sea provides global supply and value chains through shipping routes. Therefore keeping our maritime environment secure is critical and the main component of our national security and also prosperity.The above facts make the maritime security environment very complex and dynamic for New Zealand and we must face it by establishing a comprehensive regime for the exercise of law enforcement powers in the oceans and sea. This means that our critical jurisdiction often extends outside of New Zealand to make sure that we can detect disrupt and prosecute criminal activities. It is also our law enforcement agencies—such as the police the New Zealand Defence Force customs and the Department of Conservation. So that these agencies can be able to do their job the law enforcement agencies must be provided with clear powers to enforce New Zealand's criminal law in international waters and uphold New Zealand's rights and obligations under international law. Now given agencies like this it can be a worry—I think we've heard it from some of our colleagues and therefore we must have a high threshold for the agencies to stop to check and to detain boats and suspicious individuals. That is very important and fundamental. To exercise powers in this bill an enforcement officer must satisfy legal tests including reasonable grounds to suspect and reasonable grounds to believe which align with well-established criminal procedure standards in New Zealand law—in particular the Search and Surveillance Act 2012.If left unsecured and unprotected our maritime territory could cause a serious threat to our national security. Some of the risks that we could potentially be facing are—I mentioned it in my introduction—transnational organised crime in networks such as my good friends Ingrid and Marja already mentioned illicit drugs migrant smuggling and human trafficking. This is a very significant threat; the International Labour Organization estimates it reached about $150 billion per year. Now I've heard Golriz expressing some concerns. I agree to some extent but I also disagree because human trafficking is not just about human rights but also it goes both ways because what the criminals and human traffickers are doing is using unsafe broken ships and overloading them and that is costing a lot of lives. Just two days ago a Tunisian coastguard found about 60 people drowned on the coast of Tunisia and the Mediterranean Sea takes thousands of lives every year—this is well documented by the United Nations and other rights groups; so that is not what we want to see.Firearms trafficking is another emerging risk as well. Obviously something that's dear to all of us wildlife smuggling is a serious threat to our biodiversity as well. There are many examples where States either fail to act to protect their maritime security or are simply too weak to do so and either way the results could be catastrophic. On that note I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call.