Bindra MaheshMAHESH BINDRA (NZ First): Policing is and always has been the core responsibility of the State. The citizens have the right to feel safe in their homes and in their businesses. Indeed as a First World progressive country we all have the right to demand that our streets are also safe. New Zealanders pay their taxes to enable the State to fulfil that responsibility. As much as it is the responsibility of the State to keep its citizens safe it is also the responsibility of the citizens to pay their taxes fairly equitably and honestly. New Zealanders are reputed to be very honest by far in fulfilling their duties towards the State and therefore they have the right to expect that the State also reciprocates in the same manner.During its proceedings the Law and Order Committee heard a large number of submissions from private citizens from NGOs and from community organisations. Almost all of them were very very concerned that this legislation after being passed will cause them to incur extra costs as far as their vetting requests are concerned. Let us take the latest figure that has been thrown around for vetting which is $8.50. Now we also have been told that about half a million requests are received annually by the police. So by those calculations it works out to $4.25 million that the police will generate out of this process whereas the cost that has been told to us for the vetting process is only $2.2 million at this stage. This actually means that this is not cost recovery—it is shameless profiteering. It is profiteering when the Government spends only $2.2 million for vetting and it is likely to recover $4.25 million. This is not cost recovery; it is profiteering.New Zealand First believes that keeping our communities safe through policing is the core responsibility of the State and police vetting is inseparable from basic policing. The police force and the services it provides are funded from tax revenue and we believe that it should stay that way. New Zealand First believes that taxpayers should not have to pay for a vetting service with a separate fee. We believe that police should carry out vetting as part of their core policing work. We also believe that this bill will provide the impetus for police to start charging for the services they currently provide as core business such as attending to emergencies family violence incidents property crime or child abuse incidents. We are strongly against this.The Vulnerable Children Act 2014 requires standard screening and vetting of all central government and Government-funded contractors who are working with children. This will be a voluntary regime for businesses NGOs and voluntary organisations but will be reviewed in 2 years. It is going to set a bad precedent. At the moment we are saying that only $8.50 will be charged but there is nothing in this legislation to stop the police from increasing these charges. It has actually come up from $5 to begin with to $8.50 and this bill has not even been passed yet. So we have a suspicion that this will very quickly rise to a very high figure such as $50 or even more. That is the concern that all the submitters had and that is the concern that we have got.Powers are vested with the Commissioner of Police as to what exemptions he or she can make for the organisations that will not be charged fees for vetting services. That of itself actually makes this legislation very ambiguous and there are grey areas left there. Equally the commissioner will later on have the power to increase the cost because there will not be any parliamentary debate on that. That will be a matter of regulation and the police commissioner will be able to increase the rates of police-vetting charges. That means that depending on what he or she likes the police commissioner will be able to actually charge the organisation what they wish to and will be able to exempt those organisations as they feel fit. That is not a very fair distribution of the revenue that is intended to be collected. Paying for the service will increase compliance costs which will have a negative impact on the operational budgets of schools particularly small schools. New Zealand First will not support this bill. Thank you.