Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central): E te Māngai tēnā koe; tēnā koutou e te Whare. I rise on behalf of the Greens perhaps unfortunately to break the consensus that appears to be breaking out celebratoriously across the House on the civil aviation update to the regime in the form of the Civil Aviation Bill and the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill. The Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) as voted down at the committee of the whole House stage may give some insight into why that occurred but let me step everybody who may have the unfortunate pleasure of listening to the House late at night tonight as to why we hold that position.So of course as others have traversed in their speeches it of course is important that we do have these long overdue contemporary updates to our civil aviation law. None the less what we are looking at here is a piece of legislation that really misses a trick when—Matt Doocey—we don't have a lot of runway left. We don't have a lot of runway left in the form of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report as released last week which told us that we have to not only think ahead but we have to act now in terms of the climate crises—which we in Tāmaki-makau-rau and much of the North Island experienced very literally on our doorstep at the beginning of 2023.So to that effect we are missing here massive opportunities to contemplate the impact of civil aviation and particularly the proliferation of private civil aviation on our own backyard in denser areas such as the city centre in Auckland Central but also actually on our conservation estate. This also impacts the Hauraki islands another amazing part of the electorate of Auckland Central. But it also—as outlined in the Supplementary Order Paper as just voted down in the committee of the whole House from my colleague Ricardo Menéndez March—misses a bit of a trick on the opportunity to provide necessary consumer protections that I note that Consumer NZ has made quite a lot of noise about.So the bill interestingly enough actually as put forward by the member Simeon Brown for the National Party focuses quite a lot on commerciality. It focuses a lot on the so-called economic impacts here—thinking a lot about the impacts of airports in particular. It thinks a lot about How do we enable civil aviation and the commercial operation of civil aviation?" but it doesn't so much think about what happens outside of those commercial operations—that is the whole ecosystem - kind of approach.To give you a really explicit example of this—to kind of zoom in to what's been happening in my own backyard on the Hauraki islands in particular on Waiheke and Aotea Great Barrier Island—we have this really interesting intersection where you have the process of resource consenting for private helipads obviously facilitated by the Resource Management Act which the Auckland Unitary Plan is built on top of which facilitates the consenting of these helicopter pads. But as soon as those helicopters are up in the sky what we're looking at is the remit of the Civil Aviation Authority. I've had a lot of engagement interestingly enough with the Civil Aviation Authority over the past two years about the potential to implement what's called a "special use air space" under the pre-existing legislation. A special use air space can be implemented for sake of contemplating adverse effects on the environment or the communities or otherwise.But what we've seen in those engagements with the Civil Aviation Authority is that they are pretty up front about the fact that they're simply not resourced to contemplate impacts on the environment on conservation on our communities but that they think that that should sit with Auckland Council. And therein lies the problem: what this bill continues to contemplate and continues to work on is the commerciality and the enabling of that commercial operation of civil aviation particularly pertaining to our airports. But it misses that trick when it comes to climate when it comes to conservation and when it comes to our communities.To this effect we've seen that more than 50 private helipads have been consented on Waiheke Island over the past wee while which has led to what my Waiheke Local Board chair Cath Handley calls not so much a "controlled airspace" but an "out-of-control airspace". Again this is where this bill falls down and where we as the Greens put forward a number of SOPs to try and make some changes. I note that the Minister in her contributions before spoke to how there are of course the opportunities for the Minister to potentially—or "may"—have consideration of these things in making these rules.But as I impressed upon the former Minister—and I'd like to acknowledge him the Hon Kieran McAnulty for engaging with me quite seriously on these issues—we still very strongly hold the view and reserve the reservation that if the Minister and any potential Minister only "may" have contemplation for the environment or the community or conservation or otherwise that it's not a requirement to do so. As we see time and again in the face of crises or whatever else is the top issue of the day climate communities and conservation continue to fall down the agenda.So just to reflect on some of those SOPs we had obviously No. 239 from myself around requirements for noise abatement purposes. We had the SOP from the Hon Julie Anne Genter considering climate. We had one—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Can I just remind the member that the third reading is not the time to rehash SOPs particularly which have not been successful. So can I ask the member: a passing comment yes but please just come back to the third reading.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Thank you Madam Speaker. The point for me—and for the Greens—remains that there has been a trick missed when it comes to consideration of or baking in of protections for consumers for the climate and of course for conservation. This is reflected in the select committee submissions from the Federated Mountain Clubs so too from Quiet Sky Waiheke Quiet Sky Waitematā also from Waiheke Local Board. I'd like to acknowledge the Transport and Infrastructure Committee for their willingness in being able to and open to accepting those submissions a little bit later than usual. But in a nutshell what we've seen is that with that engagement—and with the willingness of successive Ministers to engage on those concerns of the Greens that are reflected in clause 52 at present—there is the insertion of clause 52(1)(ba) where the Minister may make rules "regulating the effect or potential effect of civil aviation on people activities and things." Again our concern remains that this stays as a "may" not a "must".Secondly at clause 58 around rules for abatement purposes—those who are really interested in the specificity of the legislation as presently drafted—notes that those rules "include" the vicinity of aerodromes which if you're reading closely and tightly would mean that it expands beyond those vicinities of aerodromes.So I guess I'd like to put on the record tonight and for the sake of Hansard and for the sake of future political debates that the former Minister—the Hon Kieran McAnulty—made the commitment to a certain extent to me that he would be interested in engaging in and I hope that this is something that the Hon Kiritapu Allan can continue with; that they would be willing to engage in making these rules and regulations under these clauses which don't require them to because of that rejection of the Greens' SOPs but that they have the opportunity to if we can prove that there is an issue. To that effect we will be making those cases to the Minister. So they can expect those cases to be made as soon as this bill is passed and we'll have them on their desk. But in its current form this bill as I've just said updates things so that it is of a more contemporary framework but really misses a trick when there is no runway left when it comes to ensuring that we have consideration—but not only consideration protection—of our climate conservation and our communities especially when we're looking down the barrel of further proliferation of private aircraft and vehicles in the next 10 to 20 years. Thank you Madam Speaker."