Kedgley Sue: Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6767] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is very pleased to support the Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill and congratulates Darren Hughes on this simple but important bill and on having it selected. The bill is common sense but it is also really important that we should seek to retain the ownership of key strategic transport assets like airports. I mean what a lunatic idea it was to sell off an airport and what short-term thinking that was. Nathan Guy said the airport was sold off “quite justifiably” in the 1990s because it was not making money. What an extraordinary comment that was! By the same logic should we sell off every road every part of the rail network and everything in the country that is not immediately making money? And then when we need an airport at some point in the future and there is no land available for it I wonder what Nathan Guy would suggest that we do then. It is the ultimate in tragic short-term thinking. 
It is almost bizarre to think that Paraparaumu Airport was sold to a private owner 10 years ago for $1.6 million and then the private owner promptly sold enough of it to build 12 houses for $800000. I mean what a joke that was! Well it is not actually a joke; it is terrible. How could we have let that happen? It was the ultimate in short-term thinking. At some time down the track suddenly we will turn around and say we really need an airport at Paraparaumu or wherever else it may be needed and there will not be any land left. It is quite extraordinary not only that the last National Government allowed that key strategic asset to be sold for $1.6 million—for peanuts—but also that National members still support that short-sighted policy. Surely the National Party would recognise that there are such things as key transport assets and that airports would be amongst them. Surely if we are talking about strategic assets we have to think long term and not think short term about whether we could sell a bit of land for 12 houses today and have no land for a key transport asset in another decade. That sort of short-term thinking has created most of the problems that we are confronting today from climate change downwards. It is a short-term let-us-sell-everything mentality that would sell off the family silver for a few thousand dollars in this case. 
So I thank God that Darren Hughes has had the good sense to come up with this simple but important bill which seeks to keep airport land for aviation purposes. The bill will require airport companies that wish to sell land to first offer that land back to the Crown. We congratulate him on doing this and we congratulate the Labour Government on having the good sense to consider airports to be key long-term strategic assets. I can remember being on the Wellington City Council when it tried to flog off Wellington Airport—to sell our ownership in the airport. Of course Infratil and other companies are dying to buy our airports because not only are they key transport strategic assets but also they are highly profitable ones. All around the world companies are dying to buy up airports and maximise their shareholder return. But surely it is more important that we consider the long-term interests of New Zealand and of our transport infrastructure and that we seek to retain assets like airports in public ownership. Thank you.