CHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central): E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I want to start this contribution tonight with a quote from a parliamentarian in this Chamber in 2015—and I quote: "[This] bill will go some way—some way—to strengthening [the] standards of animal welfare and protecting animals from ill-treatment. But it also represents a real missed opportunity to take our legal protections for animals a lot further and to be a world leader in the area of animal welfare. I am pleased, for instance, that there will be a new "low-level" [offending] for people who [want to] hurt animals, so [that we're] not focused just on the worst offending. We need to be focused on all offending, and this bill addresses just that. I am pleased the new regulations will specify mandatory and enforceable animal welfare standards. I am pleased that the wilful or reckless ill-treatment of wild animals will now be an offence that can be prosecuted. These were [some of the] issues [that] I raised with the Minister at the time all those years ago, so I am pleased that some of them are being addressed in this piece of legislation." 