Prosser Richard: Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeProsser Richard: Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13742. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RICHARD PROSSER (NZ First): I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak to the first reading of the Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First supports this bill.I was discussing this bill with a colleague of mine last month and my colleague remarked: “What a shame it is that we have to legislate that we have to pass laws because of people’s stupidity.” Yet that is what we are doing. It is a great thing that Dr Calder has brought this bill to the House and we are pleased to be able to support it because it will address an issue of safety that is of genuine concern but at the same time it is a very great shame that he has had to draft a bill to address the matter at hand because the need for it has come about wholly and solely thanks to the stupidity of a few individuals.Lasers are a fascinating invention. I have been fascinated by them since learning the theory and workings of them in physics in high school. Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is what the acronym LASER stands for and a truly wonderful process that is. The principle of wave-particle duality the fact that light can exist as either a wave form or a particle but not at the same time has been employed by mankind to his great benefit since the invention of the laser in 1960. Today lasers are common in industry medicine and science. Lasers are used for precise and accurate measuring cutting reading and recording engraving incising excising and aligning and levelling. Everything from dumpy levels to DVD players have lasers in them. Of course they have other uses such as the hunter using a laser sight to pinpoint the hapless bunny in his crosshairs to a lecturer or presenter highlighting elements of his or her presentation on a screen or a whiteboard for the benefit of the audience and to driving one’s cat into a frenzy as it chases the impossible-to-catch little red dot all around the house. Indeed they have many practical and legitimate uses. They have less legitimate uses as well and it is one of these in particular that has been the reason for the good Dr Calder to bring this bill before us.Laser pointers—hand-held lasers in particular—have evolved rapidly in recent years and their availability has increased as prices have fallen exponentially. Once the preserve of fictional characters in futuristic movies and TV programmes the hand-held laser has become an easily accessible reality powered by ordinary torch batteries and capable of great feats such as igniting matches and bursting balloons over a great distance. I would have loved one as a boy and with hindsight in some ways I think it is just as well that I never did have one. But boys today do have them and some of thoseboys choose to do stupid things with them which is why we are here debating this fine member’s bill from the very fine member indeed if I may say so with the intention of making it into an equally fine law.I do own a laser pointer—I should confess that at this point. In one of my previous lives I was involved with the manufacture of colloidal silver which is a broad-spectrum germicide consisting of the suspension of microscopic silver particles in distilled water. One of the tools that is used to confirm the presence of the silver particles in colloidal suspension and solution is a laser beam. When it is shone through the brew the laser produces what it known as the Tyndall effect which is the scattering of light by very small particles diffused in suspension. The laser pointer that I used for this purpose was a very small device that I purchased from a well-known chain of red shops for the princely sum of $2. It has a power output of about zero-point-nothing of amilliwatt but that said it will still illuminate a reflective road sign some 2 kilometres away.The hand-held lasers that the silly boys I referred to earlier seek to own and misuse however are a different animal altogether. They are advertised online as being of great power and effect many hundreds and even thousands of times more powerful than my own little key ring device which despite its utility is really little more than a toy—a toy that could still blind somebody mind. But these powerful lasers are in a different league and use them to blind they do. Foolish boys have taken to using these devices to blind the pilots of aircraft approaching our airports putting literally hundreds of lives in the air and on the ground at risk. It is only a matter of time before some clown decides that drivers on the motorway are an equally hilarious target and fair game for their stupidity.Dr Calder’s bill will remove these devices from temptation’s reach and that is why we are happy to stand alongside him shoulder to shoulder in support of it. We despair that this bill has become necessary and that as my erstwhile colleague said we have to legislate because of people’s stupidity. But it appears that we do and here we are. New Zealand First congratulates Dr Calder on having his bill drawn from the ballot. We thank him for his motivation and his reasoning. We support this bill and I commend it to the House.