Identity (Citizenship and Travel Documents) Bill

I will take just a short call to ask members to support my amendment. Last year the Minister of Internal Affairs impressed upon the House how important it was for this legislation to be passed in a hurry, in order to protect New Zealand from international terrorist attack. But we see now that the original commencement date for clauses 4 and 8, which was intended to be 1 January 2005, is long passed.

My amendment, which would introduce some certainty for people affected by the changes to the qualifying period for citizenship, would substitute a definitive commencement date of 1 July 2005. The Minister’s amendment simply states that the Act will come into force on the commencement date, without actually specifying what that date will be.

I invite the Minister to take a call. He has sat there behaving exactly like one of the monkeys in my three-monkey collection—saying nothing. He has not answered any of the very serious questions raised by members on this side of the Chamber, including half of the caucus of the Progressive Party. So I invite the Minister to take a call. If he does not, then I just urge the Committee to support my amendment.

Clause 1 agreed to.

The question was put that the following amendment in the name of Pansy Wong to clause 2 be agreed to:

to omit from subclause (2) the words “1 January 2005”, and substitute the words “1 July 2005”.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It is just a point of clarification. Now that the bill has been divided into two separate bills, I take it that the third reading debate will cover amendments to both bills, or do we have separate debates?

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich): The debates will be taken together, and the questions, of course, will be put separately.