Fenton Darien: Marine Legislation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Marine Legislation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13609. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DARIEN FENTON (Labour): Here we are debating the Committee stage of the Marine Legislation Bill. This is a bill that has taken the Government so long a bill that should have been passed more than 3 years ago and a bill that if it had been in place we would not now have taxpayers picking up the burden of the disgracefulRena tragedy. But even then—look we were ready to go with this way back in 2008. Who was in Government then? Oh it was the Labour Government. What it had done was a national interest analysis relating to the Protocol Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Pollution by Substances other than Oil which is known as the intervention protocol and it had done the national interest analysis on the basis that the Labour Government wished to introduce legislation to have that convention in New Zealand law. That was back in 2008.Then we had theRena crisis and of course we know that that has cost this country millions and millions of dollars more—$11.3 million of clean-up costs for the Crown and over $50 million—due to this sloppy hopeless Government’s failure to ratify the international conventions when all the work had already been done. All the work was in place. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which I was a part of which David Bennett was a part of and which Kate Wilkinson was a part of had already done the work on this. It was ready to go. Finally—finally—the Government got around to doing something about it last year more than a year after theRena disaster.The bill was referred to the committee on 11 September after its first reading. It was all a big rush then. We supported the Marine Legislation Bill then because we knew that we had to do something urgently because this Government had completely failed to do so. We had an urgent period of hearing submissions. The submission period was just 4 weeks—4 weeks to enable people to make submissions on what then became quite a substantive bill not only dealing with the conventions but also dealing with a wholerange of other issues in the Marine Legislation Bill. We heard 21 submissions. It was referred back and rushed through that great committee. All the Labour members on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee cooperated so that we could get this bill back into the House. It finally got around 6 months later—6 months after it was referred back from the select committee—to having its second reading. What was the date of that? That was 20 March 2013. So it has just dragged on and on.It is interesting that one of the things that has been changed in the commencement clause is the commencement date. It was supposed to start on 13 April. It was supposed to start on 13 April. What is the date today?Dr Megan Woods: Which year?DARIEN FENTON: Well it was this year. What is the date today? It is nearly October is it not? It is 24 September so nearly 6 months later here we are in the Committee of the whole House stage debating this bill which should have been done by the National Government when it became the Government in 2009. So we struggle to understand why it has taken the Government so long. It is an utter shambles. It shows how hopeless this Government is in prioritising things that matter. As I said this was all in place and ready to go in 2008 and it has cost us money—it has cost us money. The purpose of the legislation is so that we will not have to pick up the tab we will not have to leave it to taxpayers to pay for polluters in the future but with theRena of course which is already sunk and being ripped apart it is just too late.There are quite a lot of things in Part 1 that bear consideration and I want to start with new Part 4A “Regulation of alcohol consumption by seafarers” new section 40A and onwards in clause 11.Iain Lees-Galloway: But I was going to talk about it.DARIEN FENTON: I am very sorry Mr Lees-Galloway but I am sure you can talk just as eloquently as I can and there is plenty more in Part 1 for us to dwell on. This is a very interesting part because what it does is regulate alcohol consumption by seafarers which is fine and we support that. There is a very very long new part in this bill with clause after clause page after page about regulating alcohol consumption by seafarers. But the interesting thing for us and the thing that has had this side of the Chamber fascinated is that we can pass this legislation albeit somewhat belatedly which has the regulation of alcohol consumption by seafarers but we cannot pass regulation or legislation that regulates alcohol consumption by motor vehicle drivers.The Government has mucked around with that as well because again some time ago that issue of reducing the blood-alcohol content was discussed and was brought to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. It was discussed there. It is some time now—I believe it is something like 3 years—since the Government told us that it needed to do research and that it could not reduce the blood-alcohol level because it needed to do research on it. We were told then that it would take 2 years. Where is the research? Where is the research? No answer. Do not know. Interesting.Sue Moroney: There is none.DARIEN FENTON: Oh there is none. It has kicked it for touch. It is not bothering with that. But here the Government can in this legislation regulate in a very very comprehensive way the proportion of alcohol in a seafarer’s breath have evidential breath tests and make sure it does not exceed 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. I know that my colleague Iain Lees-Galloway will have a lot to say about this because I believe that he took over a member’s bill on this very issue in relation to people driving on our roads. It is still—Iain Lees-Galloway: Still in the ballot.DARIEN FENTON: —in the ballot. It is still waiting for the Government to wake up and realise that this is a very very easy thing for it to do. It would save lives on theroad if the Government supported Iain Lees-Galloway’s member’s bill to reduce the blood-alcohol limit for people driving cars.As I said there is a lot in this part Mr Chairperson and I know that you will be very indulgent in allowing us to pursue this. I just wanted to touch on one issue that was of great interest to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which heard from regional councils. That was the issue of harbour masters. Harbour masters may be appointed by regional councils but harbour masters are very hard to find. They have a very very highly skilled job. The powers in this bill under new section 33F inserted by clause 6 are extensive.Harbour masters have to be highly qualified. They have to be highly qualified to be able to: “enter and remain on any ship in waters within the region: (b) enter and remain on any maritime facility or on any land or property of a port company or a port operator within the region: (c) give directions regarding—(i) the time and manner in which ships may enter into depart from lie in or navigate waters within the region; (ii) the position mooring unmooring placing removing securing orunsecuring of ships: (iii) the manner in which ships may take in or discharge cargo; (iv) the manner in which cargo is secured or handled on a ship if there is a risk of cargo falling overboard or becoming a hazard to navigation: (d) direct the master of any ship to—(i) weigh anchor; or (ii) moor unmoor anchor secureunsecure place or move the ship: (e) cause a ship to be moored unmoored anchored secured unsecured … (f) cause any floating submerged or stranded object that the harbourmaster considers to be a hazard …” and on and on it goes. It also includes requiring “… any person appearing to be in charge of any ship or seaplane”—or seaplane so they have got authority over seaplanes—“to stop and to give his or her name and address:”. So they have extensive powers and I am hoping that I will get quite a lot more time to talk about that.