Hipkins ChrisThird ReadingHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Police): I present a legislative statement on the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I move That the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Bill be now read a third time. I'd like to thank members across the House for their unanimous support for the legislation progressing. I do think it will be an additional set of tools for the New Zealand Police to help to ensure that some of our worst offenders cannot access firearms and therefore it can help to reduce firearms-related harm. To recap on the bill as a result of this bill the Arms Act of 1983 will be amended. It will enable the courts to issue a firearms prohibition order against an offender who is 18 years or older who's been convicted of a qualifying offence that they committed after the amendments under this bill have been made. The eligible offences are all serious offences with sentences of more than five years. They include serious offences against the Arms Act: serious offences including murder attempted murder conspiracy manslaughter discharging a firearm with intent to injure aggravated robbery strangulation and sexual violation offences with intent to cause harm or grievous bodily harm violent sexual offences terrorist offences including planning a terrorist act; and participating in an organised criminal group for the purposes laid out in the Crimes Act 1961. Once subject to a firearms prohibition order those people are prohibited from accessing possessing or using a firearm airgun imitation firearm pistol restricted weapon pistol carbine conversion kit any part of a firearm magazine prohibited item or ammunition. Being subject to a firearms prohibition order will also place restrictions on a person's ability to associate with people who have firearms or to be around firearms unless they are in a secure storage; stay where firearms are stored or are available; join or visit shooting clubs ranges or galleries; attend any activity that uses firearms; and visit places where firearms are made repaired modified or sold—i.e. gun shops and workshops. Similar regimes to this are in place in places such as Canada the UK and in five different Australian jurisdictions. One of the key differences between this New Zealand bill and several other overseas jurisdictions are the issues around search and surveillance powers. We did carefully consider those as a Government. We made the decision that the existing powers under section 18 of the Search and Surveillance Act of 2012 which already enable the police to carry out warrantless searches in relation to arms offences if there are reasonable grounds to do so—we made the decision that those were sufficient powers at this point for this legislation. In bringing this legislation forward to the House the Government's always mindful of the need to balance the rights and freedoms of New Zealanders. That includes of course the right and freedom of New Zealanders to be safe in their own community. We believe that this bill strikes the appropriate balance there. I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): The question is that the motion be agreed to.