Swain Paul: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Swain Paul: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7395] 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I move  
That the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I will move that the bill be referred to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that the committee finally report on the bill by 13 November 2003 and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during questions for oral answer and during any evening on a day in which there has been a sitting of the House and to meet on Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 193 and 196(1)(b) and (c). 
The bill proposes that amendments be made to the provisions of the Civil Aviation Act without altering the basic policy that underpins the Act. The bill also provides a number of changes to support the Government’s objective of assisting economic development safety and personal security. The provisions will remove regulatory barriers for Australia and New Zealand airlines taking up opportunities to operate within and between each country. It will provide improvements in aviation safety and security and it will ensure aviation safety law is clear effective and relevant. 
A memorandum of understanding on open skies was signed on 20 November 2000 by the New Zealand and Australian Ministers of Transport. This reaffirmed the commitment of New Zealand and Australia to adopt mutual recognition of aviation-related safety certification by December 2003. Part 2 makes the legislative changes required to implement this Government-to-Government commitment. Similar legislation was introduced in the Australian Parliament on 25 June 2003. The mutual recognition regime proposed in this legislation will improve the ability of New Zealand airlines to enter the Australian market by enabling eligible air operators certified in New Zealand to operate domestic services in Australia on the sole basis of New Zealand certification. Complementary measures in Australia will enable Australian airlines operating in New Zealand to operate in New Zealand on a similar basis. 
At present airlines wishing to operate domestic services in both countries must obtain and hold an air operator certificate issued by each country. In New Zealand the issue of an air operator certificate requires among other things that the airline has a head office and operational base as well as a chief executive and other relevant personnel based in the country issuing the air operator certificate. The mutual recognition amendment will remove the need for duplicate certification and therefore many of the costs associated with obtaining and maintaining separate certification in Australia and New Zealand. Upon mutual recognition arrangements mean the certification is issued in one country on the basis of certification issued in the other country. However Australia and New Zealand are breaking new ground by implementing a mutual recognition regime whereby each country will simply accept the safety certification issued by the other as authorisation for operations in both countries. Individual differences in safety standards can be accommodated because each country accepts that the other has a safety regulatory regime that delivers an equivalent level of public safety to its own. 
A feature of the mutual recognition arrangements is that the safety oversight of a New Zealand airline operating in Australia will still be undertaken by the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority and vice versa. This already applies in respect of New Zealand international airlines operating in other parts of the world but is unique in terms of domestic operations. Under mutual recognition any safety concerns that might be held by one authority about the other country’s airline will be resolved through direct communication between the Civil Aviation Authority and the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority. However in the unlikely event of an unacceptable departure from safety standards requiring urgent action the host authority will be able to issue a temporary stop notice. This means the visiting operator will cease operations and the home authority must deal with the solution or the situation under the home regulatory system. 
In recent years there have been a number of high-profile incidents of unruly passenger behaviour on board aircraft ranging from those involving offensive language and behaviour to those raising serious safety concerns such as tampering with smoke detectors. Obviously such incidents can be distressing and frightening for those on board. If an unruly passenger incident occurs in New Zealand the present law is not always adequate to ensure firm and effective enforcement action because the particular incident may not fall within the description of an existing offence. In addition if an incident of unruly behaviour occurs outside New Zealand it cannot be addressed under current legislation at all unless the behaviour involves a serious criminal offence. In such cases the consent of the Attorney-General and if a foreign aircraft is involved of the relevant foreign Government is required before proceedings can be brought. However most unruly passenger incidents do not involve serious criminal offences. Consequently New Zealand cannot usually take enforcement action if they occur beyond its borders. This is inconsistent with emerging international practice and the expectations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Accordingly this bill proposes a coherent regime of offences and penalties that will have an extraterritorial effect thus enabling New Zealand to prosecute passengers committing offences on aircraft flying outside New Zealand where New Zealand is the next port of call after the occurrence takes place. To ensure the new regime of offences and penalties is workable the bill contains an accelerated infringement offence procedure to ensure that as much as possible visitors on short-term stay in New Zealand do not escape the enforcement of the law. 
I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the previous Minister of Transport the Hon Mark Gosche for his work in developing this initiative. The bill also makes a number of minor amendments to civil aviation legislation to further enhance civil aviation safety and personal security. Firstly the bill amends the functions and duties of the Aviation Security Service to enable it to provide security support services outside of aviation at the request of the Commissioner of Police. This may include screening of people and baggage or the use of the Aviation Security Service such as the explosive detector dog capability. The Aviation Security Service would provide an off-airport service to the police only if it did not compromise its core airport services. 
The bill also proposes amending the maximum fines for various offences against the Act to ensure the Act is an effective deterrent. The fines need to be amended to take account of inflation since 1990 and to bring them into line with the penalties of similar offences created subsequently. The final package of changes proposed responds to a need to update consolidate and ensure consistency across different pieces of legislation. 
Two main sets of provisions relate to domestic air carrier liability: the carrying over of the existing regime in respect of damages for passenger delay and the repeal of personal injury regime. Both are currently contained in the outdated Carriage by Air Act. It is proposed that the provisions imposing liability for delay in domestic flights be carried over to the Civil Aviation Act. These provide that unless delay is caused by factors beyond the airline’s control such as weather conditions or is due to reasons of safety airlines are liable for damages to the value of ten times the price of the passenger’s tickets or the actual cost of his or her delay whichever is the lesser. 
The bill also proposes to repeal the provisions of the Carriage by Air Act imposing liability on airlines for aviation-related personal injury. These apply only to non-physical mental injury such as may be caused by witnessing the death of another passenger. The changes will enable common law claims to be brought against airlines for mental injury. This would mean that the burden of proving the airline was responsible would lie with the passenger just as it would if the injury were suffered in any other mode of transport. However it would also remove the statutory limit on the level of damages that may be obtained. Airlines are also currently required to maintain adequate insurance for such mental injury claims. In the 36 years since the Carriage by Air Act was passed no completed cases have been heard before the courts on the issue. It is proposed to dispense with this requirement thus further ensuring a uniform approach to mental injury claims across all modes of transport. 
Finally the bill proposes a variety of minor and consequential amendments. These include a minor amendment to the definition of dangerous goods to align more closely with the Chicago convention. The bill makes provision for the application of the Privacy Act to ensure that requests by individuals for information held about them must be dealt with under information privacy principle 6 of the Privacy Act. The bill also makes a minor procedural amendment to recognise the director’s new power to impose permanent conditions on an aviation document. This will ensure a streamlined process if the director proposes to exercise the power where the document has already been suspended. Other minor amendments have been inserted into the bill to rectify omissions from previous amendments and to ensure consistency with other provisions in the Act. 
This bill ensures our civil aviation is safe and workable and it offers New Zealand’s aviation community the opportunity to benefit from a closer working relationship with our Australian neighbours. I commend the bill to the House.