Hughes Gareth: Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hughes Gareth: Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12035. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 I was not going to take a call on the third reading of the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill but given that Minister Joyce is here I thought I would take the opportunity to do so. 
First of all I would like to send my best wishes to Tau Henare who is a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. I thank the officials who have worked on this bill for all the hard work that has gone into it. I would also like to thank Darien Fenton for her contribution to this debate. There are other conventions that we probably should be discussing and it would probably be more fitting to be discussing them under urgency rather than this bill. 
I am glad I am supporting this bill and I am glad that the Greens are in this House and are able to raise the environmental issues. It is a pity the Minister of Transport was not here for my second reading speech but I am sure he will eagerly look it up in  
Hansard 
 to find out about the climatic and environmental impacts of our airline industry. 
I heard the Minister pick up on the figure that we could be saving—up to $325 million. That is not a figure to sneeze at but I guess it is in the context of other wasteful spending by this Government including the “Puhoi to Wellsford Holiday Highway” which has a benefit-cost ratio of 0.8 meaning we will not see any extra benefit economically from this one project. I would like to see more prioritising from this Government on where it is putting its transport focus and where it is spending its scarce transport dollars. 
I talked a little bit about the environmental cost but what I would like to touch on now is the opportunity cost of this bill. I would have preferred it if we were discussing the sustainability issues around the aircraft industry because there are things—and I addressed them in my second reading speech—that we could be doing right now to lessen the greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental impacts of aircraft industries on the planet on the climate and also on the communities that are impacted by both noise pollution and particulate soup pollution. 
I think we could have been debating the Sustainable Biofuel Bill which is still on the Order Paper. It was introduced by my colleague and predecessor Jeanette Fitzsimons. Air New Zealand has been using atrophy in its air fleets as a biofuel alternative to kerosene. I think this is something that needs more investigation to make sure for people and the planet that the sustainability of the fuel is ensured. 
I would have liked to be speaking about our rail lines in New Zealand. I would have liked to be talking about a Hamilton to Auckland rail link for example which could help to reduce the demand for air services and be more efficient more cost-efficient and more economically sane than what we are seeing. This is what we are seeing overseas. Governments and private companies are putting more focus on fast and more efficient rail links than on expanding a greenhouse gas - causing aircraft industry. Once again I lament the use of urgency. I feel it is pointless especially in relation to this bill. It did not need to go through under urgency. 
Lastly I challenge other members of this House to be like the Green Party and maybe consider offsetting their flights. It is a privilege as a member to use domestic air travel in New Zealand. We all know that the impact of one flight to the UK is more than a Swedish citizen will emit in an entire year—just one flight. We are spending hundreds of tonnes of carbon on our budgets. I challenge all members to take up the Landcare challenge and think about offsetting their own flights from their own personal budgets and pressuring the Speaker to see whether the House can do it for us. Kia ora.