Reti ShaneOUTER SPACE AND HIGH-ALTITUDE ACTIVITIES BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 1 June.Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei): It is a pleasure to speak to this the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill in its second reading and of course from the first reading to now we have had the launch of the 18-metre Electron rocket on 25 May from Māhia Peninsula. Congratulations to Peter Beck and his team.As this bill progressed through the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee we recommended several changes. There was general agreement on a lot of items but we recommended several changes and I want to especially comment on issues of payloads and launches from New Zealand for peaceful purposes. This was raised with us by Venture Southland which was looking to insert a peaceful purposes statement. We looked at this very closely and officials made three points to us as to why this was going to be problematic with that specific terminology. The first point was that it is difficult to define and deploy payloads that may have a dual purpose. For example initially GPS had a military purpose and of course now it has got more of a civilian purpose. So it is very hard to tell what might actually go up in a payload and have a range of different purposes. Secondly the proposed wording was not consistent with our international treaties. Australia Canada the US and the UK do not use that particular terminology so that was a challenge as well. Thirdly the case made to us was that there are safeguards in place already with our international treaties including the Outer Space Treaty article IV which requires peaceful purposes.What we were able to do was to insert a sort of statement of intent if you like. It is not quite an avoidance of doubt but a statement of intent and I think it very fairly conveys the committee's recommendation. Everyone around the committee was in agreement but it was just a question of how we did it. The committee recommendation reads as follows: We recommend inserting clause 3(ba) to list the main obligations in the Outer Space Treaty about not: placing any objects carrying nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction anywhere in outer space; establishing military bases installations or fortifications on celestial bodies (natural bodies located outside of the Earth's atmosphere for example the sun moon and planets); testing any type of weapons or conduct manoeuvres on celestial bodies."So I think that fairly conveyed the intent of most people in the select committee for what we were looking to do—that is we were very clear that payloads from New Zealand are not to be used for military purposes. It is for peaceful purposes. So I think that was very good.There were a few other things that changed in the select committee. We decided some definition of "high altitude" was going to be important and a few other things. But I would have to say there was very much general agreement which is a good thing because you know this is projected as a $600 million to $1.2 billion enterprise over the next 20 years and this is New Zealand's innovative high-tech reputation overseas. This is what we carry forward it is what we do better than anything else and I think it is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to wrap policy around it as policy makers to make this a successful venture. So with that I commend this bill to the House."