Omer IbrahimIBRAHIM OMER (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I feel very privileged to rise to speak on this very important bill. Before I do so I'd like to thank the Hon Mark Mitchell for his collaborative and positive view. I too would like to start my speech by remembering and acknowledging the 51 shuhada who lost their lives in the March 15 Christchurch terrorist attacks.Today I'm not only speaking to you and to the House as a member of Parliament but also as a Muslim who sat there in horror and grief. I felt any sense of security I had in our country disappear on that fateful day. In our attempt to debate the counter-terrorism legislation bill today we must not forget to remember why this bill is being introduced into the House in the first place. The Minister went into details I am not going to go into that but the royal commission of inquiry into the terrorist attacks on Christchurch clearly came up with the 44 recommendations which this Government proudly accepted and agreed in principle to implement—particularly number 18 which recommended our Government review legislation related to the counter-terrorism efforts including the Terrorism Suppression Act of 2002 and the Intelligence Security Act 2017.While the report did not find the attacks could have been stopped or prevented it was outlined that there was a disproportionate amount of surveillance to minority groups specifically to Muslims. Just as the report has recommended our legislation needs to adapt and reflect the changing nature of terrorism. For far too long terrorism has been unfairly coupled with Islam and Muslims. This was the first time myself and many others heard terrorism finally being used to describe the lone wolf or the white terrorists white supremacist terrorists. We have watched overseas the rise of white supremacy and the disregard the subsequent disregard of the terror and the fear that their actions have caused to so many communities. We need to recognise the surge of lone actors rather than the terrorist groups and our laws need to respond to that in order to enable public sector agencies to operate effectively. To highlight this I want to share with you a mini story of what I have experienced a few years ago. While I agree with the Hon Mark Mitchell on the good work that the agencies have done but also I've really—while I was active in my community as a leader in the refugee and the Muslim communities I was approached several times by NZSIS and was spoken to over coffee and asking for collaboration with me to find out more about the internal state of my local Muslim community. At that time this really made me feel uncomfortable and caused me to decline and question the intention behind it. Looking back now I see that clearly it was an inefficient use of their time. This bill asks us to build the clarity for public agencies mandating them to undertake the counterterrorism operations to focus on identifying and dealing with the real threats. In the last few months I had the privilege of accompanying Minister Little and Minister Radhakrishnan and we conducted over 30 hui around the country. We heard from the Muslim youths men women and panethnic and pan-faith communities who posed a common question: what will the Government do to make us feel safe? And today I stand here and I remember those faces and words.We have heard a lot of cynicism about the bill in the media—that it is not going to do what it is intended for. These sentiments are misplaced and do not reflect the voices of the community that were consulted in those huis. So in fact it was an unfortunate disregard of those who suffered from the terror attacks. New Zealand should be a place where all people feel that they can openly express their identities culture and beliefs and to feel valued and accepted and safe without fear of violence. Our laws should act to ensure just that. With that I highly commend this bill to the House. Thank you.