Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. The motion that the Minister has put forward—the Minister in charge of the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill that is—would have the select committee considering the bill report back on 3 December. That is in exactly four weeks' time and it is not practical for New Zealanders to make meaningful submissions and have them considered in a meaningful way. Let me just spell out what four weeks actually means. If the select committee is to deliberate then often it needs to meet several times over a number of weeks go back to officials get advice reconsider it discuss it deliberate and then decide how to report back to the House. That in itself can easily take four weeks but before that happens members of the public and I suspect in this case those with considerable expertise in the topic need the time to consider and draft and finalise and send in their submissions. Now these people don't have a full-time job waiting for Parliament to ask for submissions so that they can make one. Oftentimes for people who have other jobs and busy lives simply going through the process of preparing the submission could take easily imaginably four weeks.But then there's the process of actually submitting and that involves the committee receiving the submissions and arranging to decide which submitters are to be heard in person and then making arrangements. Often people will have to make arrangements in order to travel to Wellington although I am pleased to see that this committee might be able to travel to places other than Wellington. But even so the scheduling of appearances is something that can easily and conceivably take four weeks. So in order to do this properly the select committee would need at least three times as much time as it's been given in order to properly do the job of scrutinising the bill with well-prepared public input with the appearances by people in front of a select committee scheduled with all the logistical requirements that go with people having busy lives. It's a shame to lose that in part because of the lack of quality that we may end up with in the bill due to not having a proper submission process particularly when we're dealing with an issue such as this that balances the individual freedoms of New Zealanders with the need to sometimes use quite severe coercion in order to keep us safe from thugs and bullies offshore.It also is a great shame for this institution of Parliament because one of the things it means to be a New Zealander in a parliamentary democracy is that if you are a voting-age citizen or permanent resident for that matter you have the right to send representatives to Parliament to scrutinise bills to hold the Crown or the executive to account and to be heard on specific matters when you are concerned about the actions of the Government and want to give your feedback. All of that is lost with this motion. I know there are parties in this House that will argue over whose fault that is and what it would've taken to have had more time. I just simply wish to put on record that there are practicalities in the select committee process and those practicalities are essential to the functioning of our democracy as New Zealanders currently conceive it.With that I'd like to put on record ACT's opposition to this motion and ask sincerely that the Government reconsider its options. Can it do this law in a way that allows proper consultation? The danger is that through a number of other legislative initiatives over the last two years which I won't name they have slowly eroded the public's trust in this Parliament and their own belief in the functioning of the democracy that they were born into or chose to come and be a part of and that is a great shame. That is something the Government and in particular Mr Little—who generally has a very good grasp of the constitutional and civil liberty issues that arise—should be sincerely considering and asking themselves: is there a better way to solve this problem that preserves New Zealanders' right to democracy and enhances the quality of legislation that comes out the other end? Thank you Mr Speaker.