Calder Cam: Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCalder Cam: Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 25 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18902. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr CAM CALDER (National):I have been asked a couple of questions during the course of this debate that I would like to take the opportunity to answer and one of them was from the honourable Minister to my right Paula Bennett who queried the distance that one of these laser pointers can reach.Hon Paula Bennett: They’re high-powered.Dr CAM CALDER: Yes well let us just start with low power lasers—and I thought the honourable member Richard Prosser may address it—but even those of 1 milliwatt or less which are by definition low-powered laser pointers can actually go several hundred metres. I remember going to a market in a country from whence many of these laser pointers both low and high-powered come. Some of those laser pointers were low-powered some were high-powered but the majority it has to be said were of the nature of those that you would find on the end of a key ring so they were not large and they were not more than 1 milliwatt. They were extending beams across the night sky that were several hundred metres in length. That is why I was initially concerned by the fact that even these were in the public domain and were able to be used. But as we have alluded to many perceptive and erudite members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee on both sides of the Chamber have reflected upon the in-depth discussion that took place within the select committee walls to try to deal with it. I see that through doing that we have the support of the Greens. It has to be said that that support—Hon Amy Adams: That’s rare.Dr CAM CALDER: —is quite rare but it is very much appreciated. In fact I think I am right in assuming that we have support across the Committee on this particular bill. Let us face it: this bill—what will be titled the Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill—actually makes all of us safer. It probably makes our wives girlfriends grandparents and children significantly happier to think that the planes that we are travelling in as we all have to do to come to this House are not going to be assailed by—or are less likely to be assailed by it has to be said because no legislation stops anything happening—the dangers of having a pilot blinded by these devices.I would like to come back to a point that the honourable Minister Paula Bennett further asked. She asked how far some of these high-powered laser pointers can extend. It is absolutely staggering that you can go on the internet at the moment and you can purchase for under US$300—and given our exchange rate that is not a lot of money—high-powered laser pointers of over 2000 milliwatts of power which have a range of how far?David Bennett: Twenty kilometres.Dr CAM CALDER: Twenty kilometres?Hon Amy Adams: Fifty?Dr CAM CALDER: Fifty kilometres? They have a range of 60 miles. It is staggering—it is staggering. These are the devices that under this bill when you are walking along the road you are not allowed to have in your pocket because—why the hell would you need it? Nobody has got any reason—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I say this for the third time—when we are on clauses we must relate the debate to the clause. We are on the title clause. I ask the member to come back to the title clause.Dr CAM CALDER: Thank you Mr Chairman. The point I was making is that that is one mother of a high-power laser pointer—a high-power laser pointer which is in the proposed amended title of this bill.Just to recap this bill is not just standing alone. The Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Act will be part of a basket or cable of measures to reduce the chances of these devices being misused. I mentioned Jo Goodhew who is an excellent Minister. The honourable Associate Minister of Health brought in the Customs Import Prohibition (High-power Laser Pointers) Order 2013 which restricts the importation of these high-power laser pointers. This is an extraordinarily useful regulation because it means that one can import high-power laser pointers—which is in the title of this bill—only if a person has consent to do so. Anyone who commits an offence under this regulation is liable to be fined. How much do you think that fine is?Carol Beaumont: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I ask whether under Standing Order 108 “Relevancy” the issue to do with where the member in the chair is now going is relevant to this bill—and also Standing Order 108(2) about repetition.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I thank the member. Three times I have mentioned that when we are on clauses you must relate the subject of the debate to the clause. This is not a peroration of what is in the total bill; this is specifically about the clause. I ask the member to come back to clause 1 which is the title.Dr CAM CALDER: Thank you Mr Chairman. The title of this bill has been altered as we have heard by the select committee and that was done for very good reason. I am actually trying to keep right on the topic of this because I think it is very important that we make this point and please tell me Mr Chairman if I am straying. But I mean what we see with the possession of high-power laser pointers as in the title of the bill is how necessary the bill is and I was bringing this point up. When you go on the net the fearsome nature of these high-power laser pointers becomes immediately obvious. Not only are they available but they are inexpensive. You could imagine a paper boy saving his money to purchase one of these things—one of these high-power laser pointers—which is in the title of this excellent bill that we are debating in the Chamber at the moment.May I mention a quote about these high-power laser pointers in this debate because what one can read on the internet is that one could purchase the Arctic which is a model of high-power laser pointer that is outlined and is covered by the title of this bill. “A real life lightsaber” was the quote from CNN and another one was “The perfect gift for the supervillain”—we are talking about these high-power laser pointers. This is the type of device that this bill as its title denotes is designed to make it extraordinarily difficult for anybody in our country in New Zealand to purchase over the internet.These are high-power laser pointers and as a result of the select committee’s work on the bill it now covers these particular devices. I think it is extraordinarily important that we do that because until now anybody could have brought them into the country. With the work that has been done by the Minister as I said in the supporting legislation about importation and sales and acquisition this will be an extraordinarily useful addition to our legislative armamentarium to keep New Zealanders safer. They will be safer from the high-power laser pointers which hitherto have been so readily available by this legislation’s passage. It will make that fact that you cannot walk down the road the boardwalk the sidewalk or the beach with one of these stuffed down your boardshorts. Why would you want to do that? I do not know. I do not know myself but the high-power laser pointer amendment bill will stop that from happening without reasonable excuse.It is possible that some people will be able to have a reason to have one. University lecturers have been mentioned in this debate. So presumably if a university lecturer wanted to stuff one down his boardshorts and go to a lecture he could but only with permission. Without permission—without reasonable excuse—the title of this bill the Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Lasers Pointers) Amendment Bill would make it impossible for anybody without reasonable excuse to walk down the road with one. They might be going out in their dressing gown at night and they might have it in the pocket of their dressing gown but they cannot do that under this bill. The high-power laser pointer amendment bill means that you cannot walk around in a public place whether you are in your boardshorts or in your dressing gown with a high-power laser pointer in your possession without reasonable excuse.