Fenton Darien: Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12022. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 It is great to take a call in the second reading of the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. As my colleague Darren Hughes said we continue to support this bill. We are supporting it at its second reading. We will see how it goes in the Committee stage but so far so good. One of the things that I forgot to do when I was talking earlier on about the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee was to send my best wishes to the Hon Tau Henare. We wish him a speedy recovery. He plays an important if somewhat belligerent role in the select committee— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Nothing to what he plays in the lobbies. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: —no—and he also played a very key part in the examination of this treaty. I know that he asked some very insightful questions and he will be deeply deeply disappointed that he is unable to be here today to see this bill pass through its stages and go through to its third reading. But as I said we all wish him well. 
As we have all outlined this is not a controversial bill. We are supporting it. It amends domestic legislation so that New Zealand can be a party to an international convention on aircraft ownership. That will be beneficial for developing countries as well as our own country because of the high interest rates that airlines often have to pay. New Zealand by the nature of our geography and isolation has a long and proud aviation history. We have long been part of the international aviation community so it is very sensible for us to be part of this convention. 
I take the opportunity to congratulate Air New Zealand our national airline on its very high standards and on its many awards including the prestigious  
Air Transport World 
 Airline of the Year award for 2010 which is apparently widely regarded as being the Oscars of the airline industry. To the men and women the workers and the management of Air New Zealand I offer my congratulations on that award. I think it is great. I am sure that all members in this Parliament support our national airline. I hope that we all support it by flying with Air New Zealand whenever we can. 
It would also be remiss of me not to remind the House that a Labour Government had to rescue our national airline after the previous National Government wrecked it. I have been a bit concerned over the last couple of weeks that this Government is heading into a whole new era of privatisation of our precious assets. Its half-hearted support of rail speaks volumes about its commitment to the strategic transport assets that are owned by New Zealanders—and proudly owned by New Zealanders. After all if the Government is prepared to flog off Kiwibank who knows whether the national airline will be next? 
Going back to matters of civil aviation I cannot resist the urge to talk about one of the ridiculous situations that has arisen in our own country because of interference by the Civil Aviation Authority. I am talking about the rest and meal breaks dispute between the air traffic controllers and the airports. They reached a sensible agreement about sole air traffic controllers; let us understand that there are only a small number of these. We are not talking about every airport in the country; there are only a small number of them. They have peaks and troughs so there are times when aircraft are coming in and there are times when they are not. The agreement they came to was that they could take their breaks when there was no air traffic. That would work out perfectly well and would fit in with the very flexible and sensible legislation. In fact the current Minister of Labour called it in 2008 common-sense legislation when it was passed by the National Government. However the Civil Aviation Authority said that this was nonsense and that we could not have a flexible agreement where workers who worked 9½-hour shifts with no breaks could have a break when the aircraft were not coming in. It said that they had to have their breaks all at the same time across the country—quite ridiculous. 
Unfortunately the Government used that dispute as an excuse to rush in some very poorly drafted legislation that will essentially allow employers to require workers to work for nothing during unpaid break time including air traffic controllers and I assume pilots. I think that is called slavery; I am deeply concerned about that. What is more the proposed legislation is so crazy that it will enable an employer to take away all breaks and compensate employees with a muffin a cracker or a glass of wine. It is quite ridiculous. 
Carol Beaumont 
: Or a muffin. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: I said a muffin. 
Carol Beaumont 
: Muffin break. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is right. 
Returning to the bill the airline industry is an important part of our economy. We have a fantastic national airline. We have good support from the Civil Aviation Authority even though it makes some mistakes from time to time and is desperately underfunded. There are real advantages to us signing up to this convention and that is why Labour continues to support this bill at its second reading.