van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm happy to rise and take a call on the Civil Aviation Bill—quite a chunky piece of legislation here—as reported back from the Transport and Infrastructure Committee finally coming through to now its second reading. It's been some 9-odd years in the making since this piece of reform work began under the last National Government ultimately looking to try and streamline to improve engagement amongst stakeholders to better define a system that enables the participants to work within that framework in a manner that maximises their freedom and their flexibility whilst also ensuring of course we have a robust system to minimise any risks within our civil aviation sector. Ultimately I mean the clear purpose here is a safe and secure civil aviation system in New Zealand. That being said of course we need to acknowledge that there are significant advances—particularly over the last few years—around the technological change in this space some of the different systems that are coming in around unmanned aerial vehicles the UAVs—or drones or autonomous vehicles or whatever label people want to put on them. Effectively we are seeing a significant change in the civil aviation landscape and therefore we need to ensure that we are providing a legislative framework that still caters for the variability that we are seeing and indeed the potential that we still yet haven't discovered. And part of the challenge with any piece of legislation of course is providing that prescriptive framework but also enabling an industry to innovate to take up new technologies and to drive productivity within their businesses; so having the flexibility within the framework that enables that. I think—for me—that is one of the biggest challenges when we look at the broader productivity within New Zealand. It is declining and that is a worrying trend. As a country we have so much opportunity to be driving massive productivity gains and becoming well more successful economically off the back of our innovation and the amazing thinking and development and work that's going on here in the 597000-odd amazing businesses we have around New Zealand. And so we really need to ensure that this sort of legislation does cater for that type of innovation. Alongside that of course we need to make sure that we are meeting our international obligations. And that's one of the key aspects of this bill as well in terms of security requirements internationally but also around emissions. So we had the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation legislation come through—in January 2021 I believe that came into effect. And now part of this legislation is ensuring that we are complying or meeting our obligations under that requirement as well. But as I say those international security challenges unfortunately continue to evolve and we see ongoing threats around the globe in the aviation sector. Whether it be terrorism or other acts that could be potentially undertaken in different jurisdictions we have to try and provide a framework where of course we allow for normal operations but significantly minimise the risk of anything untoward happening and impacting those participants within the civil aviation sectors in whichever country they may be. But ultimately here what we are achieving is a better integration with other stakeholders and I would really like to thank the submitters that gave their feedback on how that can better be facilitated because ultimately again anything we can do to streamline helps to improve the opportunity and reduce that red tape compliance and bureaucracy. One of my pet projects is getting rid of that as much as possible to enable business to get on and do what they need to do to take on those opportunities to take investment risks to try something new to develop a new project—whatever it may be that they are in business for. They're not in business for red tape and compliance. That has a place in terms of establishing those frameworks but ultimately reducing that is really important. And so some aspects of this bill where there's better integration around the spatial-planning considerations for example and engagement with other stakeholders—locally but also regionally and nationally—are important ways I think to help streamline the overall system and ensure that we are getting effective results. Of course alongside that as well are the safety aspects that I've touched on. We had the terrible tragedy with the Carterton balloon disaster back in 2012 some 10 years ago already—amazing. And so part of this bill is looking to address some of the risks around health and safety or drug and alcohol abuse within the civil aviation sector as well—so looking again to improve the experience or reduce the risk for those participants. And so on that basis we support those considerations as well.But for me it really comes back to that basis of how do we get a fit for purpose piece of legislation that provides the safeguards we expect but also enables the freedom of operation as much as possible within that environment for those participants. And I think it's of particular importance in the civil aviation sector given that we have seen such an explosion of growth within the technology space in particular over the last 10 years. And I'm confident that will continue. As part of my role as spokesperson for defence I've met with a number of different drone or unmanned vehicle companies who are looking at doing some incredibly innovative stuff—some already operating in New Zealand and some still in the start-up phase—and it's inspirational; there's some incredible work going on out there and we just need to make sure that we're providing a framework that enables them to take on those growth opportunities and that they're not being overly burdened with compliance and red tape particularly around getting into markets getting their product launched and being able to conduct those flight plans with drones in particular. That's an area where there are some real challenges because as I say we want to enable that business but alongside that we do actually need to be mindful of potential impacts on civilians everyday people going about their daily function—their expectations and rights to privacy and of course any potential environmental impacts that may come from a significant uptake of different technologies whatever that may be in the civil aviation sector. So there is a balancing act there but ultimately less regulation is typically a better outcome. What we've got here proposes a raft of changes that will I think streamline that. And so on that basis the National Party has supported it and we look forward to seeing this bill continue to progress through the House. Thank you Madam Speaker.