Ross Jami-LeeParts 1 to 3 schedules 1 and 2 and clauses 1 to 3JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany): Thank you very much Mr Chair.Chris Bishop: This will be good!JAMI-LEE ROSS: No it won't be good Mr Bishop. We are getting down to the weeds of the night. We've come to the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I see we have the Minister Julie Anne Genter in the chair who has submitted a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) on this bill. I see that the Green Party Minister is enacting effectively the minority report that the Green Party and the Labour Party put in with the select committee when they were considering this at the select committee. The National Party does support the bill. We won't be supporting the Minister's SOP however. We are of the view that continuing with a drug and alcohol management plan process whereby there is mandatory drug-testing of workers carried out on a random basis is important and should be continued with. We don't believe in the arguments that have been put forward for removing that section from the bill. I see that effectively the Minister's SOP takes the bill as it stands with its amendments and removes the drug and alcohol management plan and the random testing of workers from that.I accept the bill still does have the ability for director testing and that is in place but I think when it comes to an issue such as the operation of ships in this particular industry the arguments that were previously put forward by the department by a number of submitters still hold: that there should be the ability and the requirement for an operator to put in place a drug and alcohol management plan system where there is random testing. I do note that there was quite a lot of support for the drug and alcohol testing amendments that were in place in the original bill from the likes of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission. The Privacy Commissioner even went as far as to say that he considers that the proposed changes are a valid and proportionate response to … the Bill's risk management and public safety objectives". The Law Society and the Federation of Commercial Fishermen were supportive is my understanding.The groups that were opposed were effectively the unions. So what we're seeing here is an amendment to the law in the bill by way of an SOP that was asked for by the unions. Granted the Labour Party and the Green Party have the right to support the union position if they want but I'd suggest that this House and this committee should come down on the side of safety. And when it comes to safety of these ships when it comes to safety in the maritime industry when it comes to the safety that those operators are responsible for there should be in place the higher standard than what the Minister is proposing so that the higher standard around drug and alcohol where these people—let's just remember they are operating some very large vessels operating sometimes in some difficult circumstances whereby there may be situations where as the previous Minister and the ministry put forward there is some risk there that needs to be mitigated and this was one way of doing it.The Minister is essentially gutting some important risk management and gutting some important safety mechanisms within this bill and we reject that. We believe that the committee should vote down this SOP and ensure that the original position of having drug and alcohol management plans should prevail. What I also ask and really want to know the answer to not from the Minister actually but from some of her colleagues: in the committee's consideration of this bill there was a minority report put forward by the Labour Party and the Green Party. The New Zealand First Party members on the select committee supported the Government at the time the National Government. So what we have here is an SOP that was put forward on behalf of the Minister advocating the union position to remove safety elements from the bill—safety elements that the New Zealand First Party supported in the select committee. So is the New Zealand First Party today going to come down on the side of safety and are they going to come down on the side of the maritime operators? Are they going to come down on the side of those people that wish to see greater safety mechanisms in the maritime industry or are they going to go with the Minister's SOP which guts the safety mechanisms from the bill?So we don't support the SOP. We do support the wider objectives and principles of having greater safety and management and greater ability for operators to ensure that their crafts and their vessels are conducted and operated in a safe manner. We don't agree with gutting the safety elements from the bill and we won't be supporting the SOP."