Muller ToddTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): I rise to take a short call this evening on the first reading of the Brokering (Weapons and Related Items) Controls Bill and my contribution is going to continue in a similar vein to that of my colleague David Parker who essentially talked to the rationale. It is very good to see that this already has the support of the Labour Opposition members and I wait to hear their contributions. I see a thumbs up from my friend and colleague Barry Coates which suggests that it could well be a reasonably uniformly supported piece of legislation which would be nice.The key purpose of this bill is to establish a regime to regulate the brokering of arms and military equipment by New Zealanders and New Zealand - based entities. As we have already heard part of the importance of creating a regulatory regime like this in New Zealand is to ensure that arms and military equipment do not end up in the wrong hands. There is no particular suggestion that this is a huge pressure in a New Zealand context but it is important that we play our part to ensure that as signatories to the Arms Trade Treaty we are seen to be doing as much as we can do in this space. We have had a sort of voluntary approach to date and it is the Government's view that that now needs to be augmented with a fleshed-out and enabled regulatory regime.In terms of the brokering itself brokering is where arms are transferred from one foreign country to another and it is widely recognised as we have heard already this evening that the brokering of conventional arms can assist the movement of arms and military equipment to illegitimate users or undesirable locations. One of those locations that has had quite a lot of proven arms movement which has created an enormous amount of death of destruction is Iraq and Syria. Both David Parker and I and the Minister of Defence Mark Mitchell were up in that region only a couple of months ago and firstly saw the tremendous work that our New Zealand servicemen and servicewomen are doing up there as part of Operation Inherent Resolve playing our part in terms of ensuring that the Iraqis are well trained in terms of taking the fight to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).Whilst I cannot be sure that arms had been illegally obtained when you are up in that part of the world and you go through as we did the miles and miles of land that is within the Camp Taji set-up and you see the equipment that has been used over the various Gulf wars stretching out in front of you as far as the eye can see you certainly do get a small glimpse—I got a small glimpse—of the scale of this problem the scale of essentially the amount of military hardware that is used in these conflict zones and the very last thing you want is to have military hardware in that space that has turned up there illegally. So this is New Zealand's small but I think quite meaningful effort to ensure that we and our New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses are following the appropriate approach.In terms of the key provisions of this bill no doubt we will explore these in great detail those of us who are privileged enough to return to the 52nd Parliament and indeed be part of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee when it returns. We will step through the key provisions. As a highlight the provisions outline the purpose of the bill describing the nature of brokering in quite detailed terms; they describe the weapons and related items that this bill covers specifically arms military equipment and civilian goods; and they talk around the conditions that can be placed on a registered broker and the permit system that underpins that and also the conditions in terms of the importance of alignment with international obligation.Of course if you have a regulatory regime that sets up some requirements for the permit holders there also need to be consequences if there are breaches. So there is a specific clause clause 10 which talks through in again pretty significant detail the offence provisions. They are actually quite significant. The penalty for the offence in the case of the individual is a term of imprisonment not exceeding 5 years or a fine not exceeding $100000—that is for an individual—and for a company larger than that.I think you can see that this is a framework that has been well considered. We are obviously applying international best practice. This is not a new model. We are taking what applies in other countries that have signed this arms treaty and already have this framework in place and we are applying the New Zealand version of it. I look forward to the debate and discussion that will happen in the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee if I am back and have involvement in that committee. I am sure the legislation will be a useful addition to demonstrating New Zealand's commitment to this very important cause. Thank you.