Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Associate Minister of Transport): Thank you Mr Chair. Fantastic to hear the contribution from the member Jami-Lee Ross although I'm sorry to hear that the National Party won't be supporting an amendment that is clearly going to be better for small-business operators as well as being better for safety. Just to set the record straight with the member I think he got a few things wrong in that prior contribution. The amendment put forward by the Government and supported by all three Government parties still allows for director testing and actually does meet all the objectives that were set out by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission. The primary motivation for the change is to ensure that there is an ability for there to be testing for impairment following an incident and that is very much provided for. What we heard from submitters—and this is why this Government is amending this law because we listen to the submitters at select committee unlike the National Party. We listened to the submitters and what they told us is one all the large operators already have in place drug and alcohol management plans. Two there are already provisions under other legislation and the maritime operator safety system that provide for drug and alcohol management and that make clear the expectation that people who are undertaking activities that specifically have safety sensitivity—that's what they're called; safety-sensitive activities—are expected to not be impaired while on the job. So that's already provided for under other regimes and what this bill under National had been proposing to do was to set up a whole new regulatory framework that was going to impose enormous costs particularly on small operators for no additional benefit. There was no evidence submitted by the prior Government that made any sort of connection between random drug and alcohol testing and an actual reduction in impairment. There have been a few high-profile incidents and it is important that we have the ability to do post-incident testing. What the director testing still provides for is a regime in which the Director of Maritime New Zealand when there are appropriate risks and reasons to believe there's a problem can go and undertake testing—non-notified testing. They can audit an organisation and ensure that they are complying with the rules. So what this Government has done is it has found a simple solution that won't impose an enormous bureaucratic hurdle and burden on small operators and that will none the less be more effective at achieving the safety outcomes that we all share. I would also note that it was not just the unions that opposed this. In fact all the submitters who are actually involved in the maritime sector had reservations specifically about mandatory random drug and alcohol testing. Now nothing in this bill prevents drug and alcohol management plans with random drug and alcohol testing but this was going to make it mandatory. So where it's appropriate it will be done. Where it's not appropriate we will have another set of rules and we will have a clear mandate for the Director of Maritime New Zealand to undertake testing when there are concerns about risks. There are other amendments that have been made by this Government—again responding to what we heard in submissions—and one of those is around the opening up of shipping for vessels that are foreign-flag vessels to the Chatham Islands and other offshore islands. All of the submissions on that particular provision in the legislation were opposed and so we've quite simply removed that. So what this Government has agreed to do and I'd say all three parties are very much in agreement is to achieve the safety objectives where still—and I think one of the most important aspects of this bill is the provisions around oil pollution compensation. So finally we'll be increasing the compensation that's available for pollution damage from a tanker spill from a paltry $394 million to $1.457 billion at current exchange rates. That's in Part 2 of the bill. That remains unamended. I am extremely proud to be the Minister in the chair speaking to our first bill where we're able to make substantive positive changes to the bill which will not only achieve the safety and environmental outcomes that we want but won't impose costs unnecessarily on small businesses for no additional gain.