Connell Brian: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Connell Brian: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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BRIAN CONNELL (National—Rakaia) 
: 
 Like my colleague I think this debate needs to be fully canvassed before it is brought to a conclusion. I want to remind the Committee about the critical elements of the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill. Essentially it amends the Civil Aviation Act and sets the framework that will enable the legislation among other things to enforce temporary stop notices and introduce penalties for behaviour that is unbecoming. In my last speech I spoke about the appropriateness of the fines regime that this bill calls for. In particular I spoke about the fines for individuals ranging from $2000 up to $10000 and for corporations where the fines range up to $100000. For individuals the fines regime canvasses a range of offences including smoking not wearing seatbelts when instructed to and offensive language etc. Part 5A deals with that issue. 
I may be old-fashioned but I for one think it is about time that we had the teeth to deal with that type of behaviour. Drunken behaviour on aeroplanes is a safety issue and it is something that I do not think is very becoming. Having said that I do not share the view of the ACT member who took a call and talked about shooting people between the eyes. I do not want to be associated with that type of behaviour which I think is pretty extreme. In fact I think it is very extreme because I am not sure that that member could shoot people between the eyes at 25 paces anyway without putting the whole plane down. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Try me. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: I do not want to try her—that is my point. One thing I can assure the Committee about is that I will not reach for a drink when that member is on the plane with me! 
In new Part 1A that is to be inserted into the principal Act new section 11H deals with temporary stop notices and I want to talk about that issue in a little more detail. Essentially the bill empowers the New Zealand Director of Civil Aviation to issue a temporary stop notice if he or she considers that there is a serious risk to civil aviation safety. The Minister in the chair the Hon Harry Duynhoven may also recall that a few years ago the Australian equivalent of the New Zealand Director of Civil Aviation grounded the entire Ansett Australia jet fleet on the basis that the company could not demonstrate that its safety record was up to scratch. As someone who flies a lot—and all members fly a lot—I would hate to think that we would get on an airline that could not readily demonstrate that its safety standards were up to date. I will not say that that action by the director of civil aviation in Australia brought the Ansett airline down but it certainly dented public confidence in it very significantly. The Ansett executives I believe thought that they would get a huge amount of public sympathy for their position because by grounding the fleet just on the Easter break large numbers of the travelling public were disadvantaged or had their travel plans disrupted. But essentially the travelling public said that no their safety was more important than the disruption to their travel. 
I believe that the essence of what the temporary stop notice provision is trying to achieve is extremely important. That type of authority does work. Of course I understand the need for profitability in any business but it is more important I say that profitability should not come at the expense of the travelling public. National strongly supports the initiative for this component of the Act. I might also have said in a previous call that I thought the contribution made by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee in working together to frame this legislation was first-class. I commend its members.