Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe otirā e ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. Well Madam Assistant Speaker you can't have it both ways. I've heard comments made on that side that this side isn't bringing enough bills through to the House and then when we do take a bill that was introduced by that side of the House and improve it we still can't get any sense from that side.Can I say that I'm pleased to speak in support of the third reading of the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill and want to commend Minister Genter for bringing it to the House. As she said there are three parts to this bill and I want to make this opening comment to say that all commercial maritime operators that travel in our waters should not only operate legally but should also operate without risk of drug and alcohol impairment. This is what this bill is doing. So I do want to acknowledge that we need legislation that is going to enable it.Like the Minister said there are three parts to this bill. The first part obviously covers the drug and alcohol testing and I will come back and make some comments around that; also the oil pollution and limitation of liability part of the bill; and of course the last part is Miscellaneous Amendments". This bill just to remind us is to manage the risk associated with drug and alcohol use in the commercial maritime sector by requiring maritime operators to have drug and alcohol management plans or in other words DAMPs.The bill also aims to increase the amount of compensation available to meet the costs of major spills from oil tankers in New Zealand waters and we only have to look at our recent Rena disaster on may I say Mōtītī Island which I fortunately have the ministerial delegations for as part of my associate local government delegations in that respect.Then the bill also aims to allow New Zealand to exercise its right as a party of the 1996 Protocol to the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims to make reservations that exclude limitation of liability for claims relating to wreck removal cargo removal and damage caused by hazardous and noxious substances. The bill also aims to allow foreign registered ships to carry freight to non-mainland ports including the Chatham Islands. It also aims to add flexibility to the Minister of Transport's maritime rule-making powers to make minor amendments to the Act in relation to local regulation of maritime activity and the availability of documents incorporated in maritime and marine protection rules. Finally the bill aims to clarify the Act's definition and words.There have been many comments in this debate in the committee stage around how we make the drug testing mandatory. I'm pleased to say that the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP)—again introduced by the Minister—removes that. There is a really good reason why we're doing that. If you look at the regulatory impact statement of the officials who supported the introduction of this bill they could not find any evidence. In fact what they said was "This regulatory impact statement has made a number of assumptions. This is because we do not know the true extent of any problem with alcohol and drug impairment in the aviation maritime or rail sectors." So their own officials were saying that there wasn't any research to justify compulsory drug and alcohol. So unfortunately under the former Government they didn't do their homework well enough and that's been exposed by Minister Genter in terms of the SOP.So I do want to acknowledge that the reading and research in this particular part of the drug and alcohol testing is the practical logistics side of many smaller cargo operators throughout New Zealand. The concern that I believe was expressed at the select committee was around logistically for the smaller maritime operators actually allowing them to have the ability to drug and alcohol test their own operators. The assertion here was that it was just practically logistically untenable for some of the smaller operators.Just for the House's information most of our maritime operators in New Zealand are quite small. They're not large companies. They're small and often self-owners in this space. So to put extra cost on some of our smaller operators I think would lead to a whole lot of financial hardship. So in terms of Part 1 around the drug and alcohol testing I think we've got it just right in this bill. In terms of the oil pollution and limitation of liability as the Minister said the intention behind the bill is around introducing the supplementary fund protocol. She mentioned the additional tier of compensation raising the compensation potential in the event of tanker spills from $411 million to $1.54 billion dollars. Again goodness help us that we never have a Rena disaster in this country but that lifting of compensation will allow true compensation for the damage that may occur going forward. So I do want to support that particular part of the bill.In terms of the third part of the bill where we talk about the miscellaneous amendments I'm not going to read them all. The Minister did canvass them in her contribution but I do want to pick up on one particular point in the miscellaneous amendments of this Bill and that's the miscellaneous measures that include the amendments to section 33M "Navigation bylaws" to facilitate space launch activities. This part will enable launches over water to be carried out safely from a maritime standpoint. The amendment will allow regional councils to make navigation by-laws to control the use of ships in the areas affected by space activities and was prompted by the submission on the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill.The reason why I raise that is in my electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti we've got a place called Rocket Launch which is on the Māhia Peninsula just north of Wairoa. We see that as an economic opportunity but this bill ensures that those around that are also practising in a safe and lawful manner. So I wanted to raise that acknowledgment to Rocket Launch and the economic benefits that the regions like Wairoa and South Gisborne are going to gain from that particular initiative that's happened in my electorate.In the last couple of minutes I do want to acknowledge the work of the select committee. I myself was not on the select committee but I want to acknowledge the membership of it. It almost reads like a National Party departure list the list is so long in terms of those that have contributed to the bill. I do want to acknowledge the many submitters that came. The bill was referred to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee on 16 November last year and the submissions were held in February 2017. There were 25 submitters and oral evidence from 11 submitters. So I want to acknowledge the work of the select committee in its thorough investigation of this particular bill. I want to acknowledge the Minister for bringing the bill and for the SOP that she's introduced to ensure that the self-regulation of the maritime operators is acknowledged and that we eliminate any undue logistical burdens on the small operators throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. I commend the bill to the house."