Mitchell Clayton: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee[Sitting date: 22 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:6839. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I had to race back down here to make a call on New Zealand First’s behalf on the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) to get it through the final Committee stage before it goes to its third reading. I understand that we are under some sort of urgency. In fact in the second reading New Zealand First made it very clear that we would have loved to see this piece of legislation put through the fast-track system and almost done retrospectively like we have seen earlier on in the year with some of the other legislation that the Government has put through. However we acknowledge that the Minister of Internal Affairs has brought that date forward now to 30 November and I think that that can absolutely be heralded as a good thing for New Zealanders. I certainly am one of those intrepid travellers who enjoy having the use of a passport. Like many New Zealanders who have got one mine will be running out shortly and I will be replacing it with a 10-year passport.I think thebill would be more aptly named as the “Passports Extension Amendment Bill” simply because the title Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) does not really give the idea of what it is all about. Although you can never judge a book by its cover it certainly is quite nice to get a book that you can get from its title some sort of direction. So to that end I think it is quite important to get that name right.We do support this bill wholeheartedly. Back in the early 2000s when of course we had the terror attacks on 9/11 New Zealand First was one of the parties—in fact the only party—that was in opposition to shortening the time frame. In fact a lot of the countries around the OECD did not reduce their passports’ time frame from 10 years down to 5 years. Of course by the time you have put in the 6 months’ travel document time it actually was only a 4½-year travel document. So to have it put up to 10 years is a very very good thing to do.I have already acknowledged the Hon Peter Dunne for the pricing of this passport. We understand that it was going to be considerably a lot more when it went to Cabinet. To get it down to $180 is a reasonable step forward. We do have some concerns about the subsidised amount of $200 million. We are hoping that that is not going to be levied on to the passports in the future which could see these passport documents rising to $400 by 2020 or thereabouts. That would give some serious concern. I think that what we need to be looking at are ways to offset those costs. It could be as simple as reducing the number of pages. Certainly as far as a user-pays system goes it is the right way but that is going to cause some serious concerns about making travel affordable for the average everyday Kiwi who enjoys it so much. The biosecurity measures that have been put in place are another great step forward to bringing New Zealand into the 21st century with regard to its passports.I do not think there is a lot that can be added to everything everybody else has said today and in previous discussions. We certainly would like to see this legislation sped through the final reading so that we can actually start getting those applications ready for New Zealanders to apply for a 10-year passport from 30 November. Thank you.