Beaumont Carol: 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 
Beaumont Carol: 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:12029. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 It is with great pleasure I rise again to speak on the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2010. I have focused primarily to date on the actual Cape Town Convention and its associated protocol. I will talk now about the provisions in the bill that provide more flexibility in civil aviation rule-making. Like my colleagues Darren Hughes and Darien Fenton I will also ask the Minister some questions. 
The reason for the changes in Part 1 are to do with making sure that ordinary rules and the making of ordinary rules are expressed in a more straightforward way. New section 28(5) substituted by clause 5 rules that an ordinary rule may allow “a matter to be determined … by the Authority the Director or any other person; or … empower the Authority the Director or any other person to impose requirements or conditions …”. Amendments are also made in clause 6 to provisions relating to “Matters to be taken into account in making rules”. 
The consultation requirements in section 34(1) which must be observed before ordinary rules are made are amended by clause 7(1) to require the Minister to “(a) publish a notice of his or her intention to make the rule;” and to consult certain persons. I will talk a little more about that provision. It is primarily outlined in clause 5 which amends section 28 the “Power of Minister to make ordinary rules”. I am very interested to know in relation to the consultation requirements—and I know that the Hon Darren Hughes has already asked some questions on this—what the Minister of Transport’s view is on what “consultation” really means and how robust I suppose he believes the consultation process needs to be in the civil aviation area. 
When I look at the annual report of the Civil Aviation Authority I see that the authority needs to deal with some very important matters. As I noted earlier the authority is part of an international system. Civil aviation by its very nature is an international system. The role of the Civil Aviation Authority is to provide policy advice and civil aviation rules development; to certify and license aviation participants; to monitor the compliance to civil aviation and security standards by participants; to educate about and promote aviation rules advisory circulars and other safety and security-related information; to investigate aviation incidents and analyse safety trends; to enforce civil aviation legislation and rules; to publish aeronautical information; and to oversee the administration of the Health and Safety in Employment Act and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 in the aviation sector. That is a fairly significant range of responsibilities that the Civil Aviation Authority has. They are quite critical: the safety of people who are flying the safety of people who work in civil aviation and making sure that we comply with important legislation. 
I am interested in how the new consultation requirements outlined in clause 5 of this bill the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill will work and in how robust the consultation processes are that the Minister is envisaging in relation to the development of rules in civil aviation. We all know that consultation can mean different things to different people. Unfortunately I have had the experience in my working life where consultation has meant that an employer for example might tell a group of workers something and put it in a notice and that was seen as consultation. I am hoping that consultation in this regard will be more robust and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response to that question. Thank you.