Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I rise to speak in respect of the Forests (Legal Harvest Assurance) Amendment Bill at its second reading. This amendment will help to address illegal forestry by ensuring that wood harvesters will have to verify as legally harvested and therefore ensure that imported timber is not illegally sourced.I should say that forestry is a key contributor to the New Zealand economy generating $6.3 billion for the year ending June 2021. It employs around 35000 people and accounts for roughly 1.6 percent of New Zealand's gross domestic product. So it's a really important part of the New Zealand economy and also provides significant employment. This bill is intended to help reinforce the integrity of New Zealand timber as legally sourced on the international export market. National does support legislation aimed at preventing illegal forestry activities and also advocates for an effective assurance system to this end.The bill was the outcome of a 2019 Cabinet direction on developing a national definition for wood legality. At the same time Cabinet directed the Ministry for Primary Industries to introduce a compulsory registration scheme of log traders and possibly forestry advisers and this bill is a second bill to amend an Act which came into force in 2020 with a strong focus on alignment of regulatory systems.There is one point I do need to raise: unfortunately the select committee did not have before it a submission from the New Zealand Law Society which did identify a clause which the New Zealand Law Society said raised some potential constitutional questions regarding clause 6—protection of persons outside the Public Service. This clause they said would extend the protection of Crown officials from personal liability to those outside the Public Service as a result of section 63D of the Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Act 2020 which delegates any or all of the forestry authority's functions or powers under Part 2 of the Forests Act to a forestry industry body or other person outside the Public Service.The Law Society was concerned that the clause raised constitutional questions about the use of the Crown protection from liability and tort for the benefit of private actors. Because the select committee did not have that before it the regulatory impact statement does not address this feature of the bill and therefore the select committee will actually be looking at this matter tomorrow. Ideally we would have had that considered before this bill was before the House. Nevertheless I do have confidence that this issue will be addressed. We will be getting advice on that tomorrow and if any issues should arise from that I'm sure we can address that at the committee of the whole House stage.So with that caveat the National Party is supporting this bill. It is a positive step we believe. It does balance a number of considerations and we do think it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully we'll be able to address that specific point tomorrow and ensure that we are passing a good piece of law that will be longstanding. So with that as I say the National Party supports this bill at its second reading.