Sio Hon Aupito WilliamAUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I feel like we need to be saying something like we have taken this giant leap forward. When you look at the purpose clause of this bill clause 3 the first purpose is to (a) facilitate the development of space industry and provide for its safe and secure operation:". What a wonderful fresh idea it is for New Zealand. It is an idea that we need to get behind and support. And I do acknowledge that this is not something that has suddenly arrived at our doorstep overnight; this is something that has happened over the years—from 2007 right up till now—and we really should be celebrating it. We have punched that skyline. We are now competing with the rest of the world in terms of this new space industry. What do they say in Star Trek movies? We are going to go where no man has ever gone before and literally this company is the first of its kind. So facilitating the development of a space industry—Fletcher Tabuteau: No "person" now—"person". Where no "person" has gone before.AUPITO WILLIAM SIO —that is right—is something we need to celebrate. It also sends a very clear message about the changing work environment we will have because in developing the space industry we will have astronauts. Little kids from Mangere can start dreaming about becoming astronauts—New Zealand or Kiwi astronauts. We can now start talking about young people in South Auckland becoming scientists to help develop this industry. We can talk about a whole range of new jobs and industries relating to the development of the space industry and we can get our young people to start dreaming and visualising in terms of going forward into the future.The second paragraph of the purpose clause implements "certain international obligations of New Zealand relating to space activities and space technology:". I note that this is a partnership between New Zealand and the USA. I have my concerns about this because yes we do have obligations in terms of the international arena but I wonder why the partnership with the USA. All that has occurred in terms of the relationship between New Zealand and the USA—how we differ in terms of our antinuclear stance the GCSB and all the spying that is taking place of recent times—causes me some concern. I do not know how deep we are in in terms of ensuring that everybody is quite clear about what those obligations are and what that means not just presently but in terms of going forward into the future.The purpose clause then goes on about implementing the obligations in the Outer Space Treaty. I did not realise that there was an Outer Space Treaty but it makes sense that there needs to be one because the fact of the matter is that if we are shooting skyrockets up in the sky and those rockets are releasing debris and whatnot where do they end up? Sure some of it will burn before it reaches our atmosphere if it has gone up high enough. But if they just put it up above here somewhere where does it fall? How do we know that it will fall into the ocean? How do we know that it will not fall into a space where it is going to fall on a cow or a few sheep or real people? That is a concern and I am not sure whether this legislation in fact gives confidence to the rest of the country about what we are doing here.It goes on to say: "establish military bases installations or fortifications on celestial bodies:". What does that mean? What celestial bodies are we talking about? Are we talking about angels? Are we arming the angels to become military bases? Look it may be funny but the reality is that this is the first time that New Zealand is embarking on developing a space station. We are beginning to send skyrockets into the wide wide space and accurate information will help people understand and get around it.I understand that the local communities where this space station is based are very supportive of it. I can see those local communities setting up little tourism platforms and saying: "Come in and watch space. Give us $50 or something and stand for an hour." and it may be a week before the next rocket goes up. But the point I am making is this is new space that we are entering into. This is new ground that we are going to cover and it works perfectly with what the Labour Party has been talking about in terms of the work environment changing and the potential for this kind of industry to start bringing forward some of the career pathways that many of our young people can be involved with.I see that "test any type of weapons" is mentioned next in the clause. That concerns me. What sort of weapons are we doing? We do not have the kind of military base that the States has. That concerns me. Are we being used by the USA to be sort of a secondary military base? Is that what its intention is? Because from where I stand it is certainly not the intention of New Zealand nor should it be to use this space station for the purposes of creating weapons that can land and kill somebody. The intent I would think is to develop an industry that can explore find new life and promote an industry where we can learn about how to protect this world which we and other major countries in many ways are polluting.This purpose is also to "manage any potential or actual liability that may arise from the space industry:" Good question—what potential conflicts are we liable for in setting up this space station? I do not envision any but surely our ministry officials would be able to table that at some stage. Maybe the Minister would like to answer that. What potential conflicts? I mean you put that in a clause for a purpose. What are we anticipating that we would end up getting ourselves into?This bill seeks to "preserve New Zealand's national security and national interests."—great purpose great purpose. That would mean that we need to have full control of our space station. We are partnering with the USA—good on them—and NASA is supposed to have a wonderful reputation but notwithstanding that we need to have full control. That means that this Government and future Governments need to be investing in supporting innovation in this kind of industry. My point is that from where I stand this sort of investment this innovation is about creating new jobs that our young people can aspire to. Like I said I feel like we should be saying something like we are going to punch the sky and reach new horizons. Fresh ideas are what is required. I am glad that the Government has come albeit at a later stage to fund and support this but I want to give kudos to those have been responsible for this and have believed in it going back to 2007 and to those Ministers of the Labour Government who supported it and provided that moral encouragement because that is what is needed to get new innovation.In terms of the purpose clause there are wonderful things but there are questions that I would hope the Minister would take the time to respond to."