Baldock Larry: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Baldock Larry: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16900] 
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to speak on Part 1 of the Transport Legislation Bill. I think it is a bit of a long bow to draw to say that this bill is only about environmental sustainability. It is about— 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I didn’t say that. 
LARRY BALDOCK 
: No it was not the speaker before me who said that; it was an earlier speaker. This bill is about safety but it is not only about safety; it is also about the restructuring of the Land Transport Safety Authority and Transfund which we will discuss a bit later on. It is certainly about the coordination of our search and rescue operations which I think all of us in this Parliament who spend so much of our time in the air travelling around New Zealand welcome. If something were ever to go wrong in the safety aspects of our civil aviation network we would of course want to know that well-established coordinated search and rescue services would then come to our aid. It is regrettable that in the past those services have not been as coordinated as they could have been so we welcome this amendment to bring about better coordination.  
We certainly want to have as much safety as we can and we welcome the comments the Minister made earlier. Some are saying there is too much safety and others are saying there is not enough but we will take as much as we can get. All of us when we travel around this country want to be as safe as possible. There will always be some debate about the cost of that safety and whether it is money well spent. I guess that the whole purpose of the submission process on this bill was to hear the various opinions. I personally think that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has arrived at a reasonable conclusion and result in respect of those submissions.  
I refer to clause 7 and to the amendment that was mentioned earlier to paragraph (e) of section 33(2) of the principal Act. The words “maintain and improve” in relation to aviation safety and security are an improvement on the previous word “assist” and strengthen the bill. I will be glad to see that change supported in the vote soon to take place on Part 1 and I trust that the words “maintain and improve” will occur throughout the bill. Also the wording in paragraph (f) has been changed to read: “whether the proposed rule—(i) assists economic development:”. I think it is fairly clear that that test—that it assists economic development—has to be placed in the proposed rule. The converse of that would of course have to be understood as well. If it did not assist—if it inhibited economic development—then the rule would have to be thrown out. I think that gives some security and assurance to those who have been concerned about the removal of “safety at reasonable cost.”  
Further on we come to paragraph (fa): “the costs of implementing measures for which the rule is being proposed:”. That is another test that has to be passed—that the costs of implementing the measures are not as onerous as the benefits coming from the rule. So although we can understand the concern of some to leave the wording that has perhaps served well in the past I believe that the context of “safety at reasonable cost” is still maintained within the legislation through the wording that has been recommended to us by the select committee. This matter is not only in The Civil Aviation Act; it will also be covered in the Land Transport Act.  
I believe it is important to strengthen safety in land transport. We in New Zealand lose far too many lives through road accidents and far too many people are crippled by the head injuries that occur on our roads—injuries that are avoidable yet so debilitating. So we in United Future certainly welcome the strengthening of the need to consider safety in this part. We accept the amendments that have been proposed by the select committee and will be giving our support to this part of the legislation.