Gallagher Martin: Aviation Crimes Amendment Bill Civil Aviation Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Gallagher Martin: Aviation Crimes Amendment Bill Civil Aviation Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Volume:642;Page:11968] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I want to compliment my colleague Darien Fenton on a very excellent speech. I think her last sentence summed it up—this legislation is somewhat unpalatable but sadly very necessary. Unlike the speaker prior to her Hone Harawira who talked about his trip on Jetstar to Alice Springs I will give a brief analogy of when I discovered air marshals on an Air France flight to an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference I was attending in Ouagadougou in 2001. Doug Kidd and the then deputy leader of the ACT Party Ken Shirley and I were the New Zealand delegates. The irony is not lost because of course that was when the twin towers were hit and we were watching it on the television screens. Yet going from Paris to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso I discovered for the first time that there were guys on the plane who were air marshals. They were on the plane because those routes were considered problematic. Of course the thing to reflect on is the professionalism by which people do these jobs. 
As I am sure previous speakers probably acknowledged earlier on in this debate I think it is timely to acknowledge the professionalism of security staff and how we are blessed with I think some really excellent security staff at our own airports in this country. The security staff by and large—not in all cases but mostly—treat the travelling public with absolute politeness and decorum. Their jobs are quite onerous and I want to compliment the men and women who do that job. Obviously passengers have their different personalities and sometimes can be quite harassed and stressed when going through customs but my own experience has been that security staff have treated passengers with remarkable politeness doing what is sadly a very necessary job in this current age. It seems to me that in point of fact the travelling public has by and large adapted well to these sad necessities. People obviously get into a routine do it and life basically goes on. But in saying that life goes on we should not underestimate the importance of this legislation. 
I also pay a big compliment to the Hon Harry Duynhoven on his contribution in his role as the Minister for Transport Safety and his officials on their work in making sure that we come up to a par with other countries. There is no doubt the bottom line is that if New Zealand is seen not to be conforming to best efficient international practice it will compromise our airline. It will also compromise flights coming to and from New Zealand and that is something that we just cannot countenance. As a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization New Zealand is obliged to comply with its security standards and again as I have just mentioned—and I am sure the Minister and other speakers have mentioned—failure to do so could damage New Zealand’s reputation and question the integrity of our aviation security. 
I guess in the end it is a matter of getting a balance keeping a perspective and obviously trying to do what is necessary and important but never dare I say it to use the typical Kiwi phrase to get slack because slackness could in the end potentially cost lives. I use the Ouagadougou experience purely because that was a conference of parliamentarians and I thought that would be the target of some sort of terrorist hit. The irony for us watching from this conference of high security was that it did not happen there; it happened to innocent office workers thousands of miles away in New York. Of course those terrible events have shaped events since then. 
I think it was particularly pertinent that Darien Fenton talked about the Lockerbie disaster and tragedy. As I understand it that involved baggage with a bomb being checked in by parties at one European city and then being transited through London. Then the people who were attached to the baggage as I understand it left on an onward flight. That of course was an awful terrible tragedy affecting people who were totally and absolutely innocent and subjected to that terrible heinous crime. The sad reality of it is that the whole point of all these aviation security measures is not an expression of some sort of authoritarian totalitarian State. The point of these measures is very pure and simple and that is to protect innocent lives so that our normal civil life can continue. That is just the sad reality of the situation that we now find ourselves in. This legislation is indeed important and I note the main elements of the bill again: to provide aviation security officers with the power to search for and seize items that are prohibited or restricted on aircraft; and to enable the screening and searching of airport workers. 
I think Darien Fenton very relevantly and in a very important way said that we have to in terms of some of that searching and screening have checks and balances to make sure that people are not falsely accused of things they did not do. I noted through the select committee reports very relevant things mentioned about members of our Sikh community who have experienced problems. We need to make sure that members of such communities in no way are disadvantaged in terms of basic human rights and notions of common decency and citizenship from doing work in airports and aviation precincts. We should make sure that those security measures allow for peoples’ dress codes and religious practices so that some of those searches and questions happen in an appropriate and sensitive manner. 
The bill also provides a power for aviation security officers to search passengers’ outer garments and undertake pat-down searches. As I said that has to be done in an appropriate professional manner. Mostly from what I have observed—as we all do going through airports to Brisbane Sydney or wherever—airport people do that very efficiently. It is now even done on our so-called main trunk routes. This legislation basically gives our aviation security the tools to do this. 
I join with the Minister and other members of the select committee to congratulate all the people working in aviation security in this country who I think do a very very fine job. I have always found they are really polite and a good team. I am not going to do a John Carter who spent time in previous debates telling us all about his mum. Actually I will. I was travelling with my 81-year-old mother and she had some sort of fluid or some sort of cosmetic and what really impressed me with the security guy in Auckland was that he was so polite. I am going to say it—it is something about being a New Zealander; there is something about our personality and who we are. I take my hat off to the politeness of people who do that job day in and day out. 
The serious point of this bill—and I think it was quite a good contribution from the member who told us about his trip to Alice Springs—is as Darien Fenton and others have said a sad necessity but I think the bill gives the tools to do this important work and to make sure we are safe. I want to close by acknowledging the wonderful wonderful work done by our aviation security people in this country who in my view do this necessary work with such professionalism and politeness. We are very indebted to them. 
Bills read a third time.