Smith Murray: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Smith Murray: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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MURRAY SMITH (United Future) 
: 
 United Future is pleased to also support the third reading of the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill. Civil aviation is one of the few areas of our lives in New Zealand where there is an importance for international consistency and cooperation by virtue of the fact that a lot of what happens in the civil aviation area happens in the skies between the countries people are travelling to and from. Therefore in the whole area of civil aviation it is important that New Zealand is in step with what is happening worldwide. 
United Future is very pleased that the bill brings New Zealand’s aviation security laws into line with those of Australia Canada and Britain in particular and eliminates certain sovereignty-related complications that in the past have made prosecuting foreigners for offences outside New Zealand territory difficult. I notice that there are really two aspects to the bill in terms of international obligations. One is the general international concerns about security and the other is the trans-Tasman aspect—in particular the increasing cooperation between Australia and New Zealand that this bill evidences. We are very pleased to see the progress that has been made in getting Australian and New Zealand mutual recognition agreements in train and in particular the certification and safety oversights that we will respect from each other’s countries. We look forward to the Australians moving hopefully with speed to pass their legislation so that this legislation can be brought into force. 
The bill does provide a win-win situation for both operators and consumers in so far as the reduction in regulatory barriers to aviation activity will cut operating costs for New Zealand and Australian airlines hopefully leading to air travellers having to pay even less for fares because the costs are reduced as well. That is to be welcomed particularly with the level of communication we have between New Zealand and Australia through air traffic. 
The prosecution of passengers who offend on aircrafts is also an important consideration. Again the civil aviation industry is very unusual in that respect because those offences occur in the air where the police are not readily available and in a situation that is extremely vulnerable and where any breach of the skin of the aircraft can put many lives in peril. The offences also occur where disturbances cannot readily be quelled because a crowd of people are stuck in a confined space for hours. If any disturbances cannot be restrained then that can have an impact on passengers on the flight for several hours before they can be dealt with by policing authorities. Therefore it is important in this bill that the restrictions we would normally leave to the police are extended firstly to the pilot in terms of his ability to give commands that people must obey—it is an offence if they do not—and secondly to aviation security officials. United Future is very happy with the increase in penalties that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has suggested and that are now in the bill because of the factors that make civil aviation quite different in terms of its protection needs. 
We also think that the streamlining of procedures with regard to the liability for a delay in a domestic air service is a welcome move. We note the concerns airlines had about that issue. However they need to recognise that in effect the limitation of liability they have been given is quite restricted. In particular with the age of cheap fares they could well be looking at less than $1000 in terms of maximum liability. When several carriers and missed connections are involved that could pale into insignificance in terms of a person’s loss or of damages incurred through loss of connecting flights. Therefore they ought to be quite appreciative that such a restriction is included and they do not have an open-ended liability. 
I certainly endorse the comments made by my colleague Brent Catchpole about the need for airlines to take responsibility for their actions. Some penalty provisions also preclude them from carrying out what would be unethical if not illegal behaviour in terms of over-stacking of flights and that sort of thing. United Future is pleased to support this bill. We are pleased to see it go through.