Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. Look the ACT Party supports this bill. It's an opportunity to reform a clunky and out-of-date regulatory framework and improve it bringing civil aviation operations and the regulation of safety and activities into the 21st century.But one of the things that we heard from Aviation New Zealand and other submitters on behalf of general aviation—which is your small aircraft your tourism operators your helicopter operators agricultural contractors as well as the commercial operators—is that it's not just a regulatory change that's needed. It's actually a cultural change in the way that an organisation like the Civil Aviation Authority manages the sector and manages risk and the way that they treat people who operate in the sector who've got skin in the game who've invested in aircraft who've invested in people and training and safe systems of work. That requires a behavioural change to develop a culture of mutual respect between the regulator and the industry and that's something that many in the aviation sector pointed to and said that they would like to see an improvement in the culture as well as the regulations.So we hope that the Minister of Transport and his delegates focus very much on improving the workplace culture the organisational culture so that it respects the investments that individuals and businesses have made in aviation and plant and equipment as well as the improvement in safe and efficient operations. Now this bill avoids that terrible compromise that so many other bills bought to the House by this Government make where they aim to reform some regulatory process to make it easier to operate and then they add all of these crazy different things to the mix—like saving us from climate change or some other social engineering concept. Well fortunately those in the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority were able to resist the woke climate dogma advocated by the current Minister of Transport and stick to their knitting—which is to improve the safe and efficient operation of our aviation sector. Imagine if that same philosophy was adopted to our roading network! Safe and efficient operation instead of wheeling out climate fairies; climate alarmism every time we try to invest in infrastructure and get ahead in New Zealand.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Can the member come back to the bill? In the second reading—come back to the bill thank you.SIMON COURT: Certainly. So we need to consider aviation as a wealth-generating activity that promotes tourism promotes commerce and promotes lifestyles that can be improved and enhanced through general aviation commercial aviation and new technology like unmanned aerial vehicles—commonly known as drones. So we hope the new regulatory framework enables that. But of course the Green Party showed how much they loathe success and envy wealth with their proposal to target helicopter movements and operators delivering people to places like Waiheke Island. The Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick brought up the concern she has with helicopter operations above dense housing areas—helicopter operations above dense housing areas. Well perhaps that member of Parliament lives in an area without crime. I live in West Auckland and helicopter operations above dense urban areas are something that we're entirely familiar with in places like Te Atatū Peninsula where we regularly have one of the three Police Eagle helicopters operating over our suburb in an attempt to detect control and apprehend people committing crime—which has gone up enormously under this Government.Now ACT's concerns about this bill have always been to express the concerns of those who operate in the aviation sector who've made investments in plant and equipment in aircraft in operations in training—because they are passionate about the aviation sector. Whether it's about flying whether it's about aviation electronics engineers people who maintain and service aircraft—or those people who are involved in using newer technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles who want to employ that equipment for agriculture for surveying things like infrastructure assets like transmission lines which extend across the backbone of New Zealand which is a country with a geography like Chile: mountainous forested. Hardly anyone lives in New Zealand and yet it's almost impossible to stand up a case for drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—to operate out of sight of the controller. Now what this means is that instead of helicopters flying the transmission lines or going to survey assets like dams around New Zealand out of sight of the person controlling the drone—you can programme them to follow a route and actually inspect assets collect data collect information about how close trees are getting to the powerlines for example. Now what we've heard from organisations that operate in the unmanned aerial vehicle or drone sector is that they are waiting sometimes for months and months and months to even get an acknowledgment for their application to use drones for the most basic activities currently operated by helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. They point out that these vehicles are unmanned—much safer. Most of them are electric; they have low or zero emissions. And if it turns out that you could use these aircraft to say monitor what the Russians are doing in Ukraine then of course you'd expect to be able to use them to monitor what's happening to our assets like powerlines and dams in New Zealand. So ACT hopes that not just the regulatory environment changes but the culture and behaviour of the people working at civil aviation—who are tasked with reviewing applications from unmanned aerial vehicle operators—also changes; that they update their attitude and culture and behaviour along with the update in regulation. Because it's those kinds of activities that are going to unlock wealth and opportunity all around New Zealand.Then there's the just culture". We heard at select committee that many involved in the aviation sector were concerned by the concept of a just culture where you can report safety concerns; maybe even a breach of the rules maybe something you saw that wasn't right—but without fear of being prosecuted by WorkSafe; without fear it would be used against you that it might affect your job your career. So what we understand is that changes have been made to the original legislation that was proposed which reflect how important a just culture that rewards reporting safety breaches incidents near misses—rewards that behaviour instead of punishes it.We also heard from the aviation sector how concerned they were that there was no capacity in the original bill that was tabled at select committee for an independent review of the Director of Civil Aviation's decisions. ACT is proud that we've advocated for an independent review process to be incorporated in this amended bill and it has been. So we hope that the aviation sector now has access to a fairer process if they have concerns.Then we come to the efficient operation of aviation security services in New Zealand. Now ACT has heard that there are many many agencies—and we heard this at committee from airport operators—many agencies such as Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Customs Police and of course Aviation Security who operated airports and who these airport operators are required to give space to. But MPI Customs and Police all have their own independent reviewers that report back to Parliament on their performance. Aviation Security is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority and only reports through to the director. The Director of Civil Aviation is the only person or organisation that monitors Aviation Security's performance. So what ACT is proposing is an independent review just like all those others who operated airports which could be by the Office of the Auditor General or a similar Officer of Parliament.So overall ACT supports the bill—we support the intention of the bill. What we now expect is that the Minister and his delegates will instruct the Civil Aviation Authority and those administering the bill to update their culture their behaviours and the way that they deliver services to the industry. Thank you Madam Speaker."