Auchinvole Chris: Marine Legislation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAuchinvole Chris: Marine Legislation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13616. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS AUCHINVOLE (National): Not that I wish to be critical of Mr Iain Lees-Galloway—and congratulations to him on his new position—and far be it from me to be critical but I thought that his speech on the Marine Legislation Bill was losing just alittle momentum and was getting a bit sort of personalised. This I think is a strong and sensible piece of legislation that will work well. It will work well. It was I must say one of the more interesting bills that we have had through the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. It is a substantial piece of legislation in its scope and reach and being an omnibus bill it embraces a whole range of legislative detail.The submissions that came forward especially those affecting Part 1 of the bill were from a blend of local authorities and mercantile marine interests all of whom I think are to be complimented on the sincerity and the depth of knowledge that they displayed in their submissions. They are experts in their subjects and they put forward a lot of practical information from a user point of view that was useful to the committee’s consideration especially I might say on this business of alcohol consumption. These are people who know their stuff. It is not that Mr Lees-Galloway does not know his stuff but these were the guys who made the submissions and I found them to be very substantial.The significance of the bill is one of economic and environmental importance. These two elements go hand in hand in a successful society albeit that the Greens would like to chop them apart. I think that this Government can be justifiably proud of the progress New Zealand is making through its reforms. The reforms that are included in this bill provide enhanced environmental effects management—we will come to that in Part 2—greater certainty and reduced compliance costs for industry increased efficiency from avoiding the duplication of processes and the opportunity for improved public and iwi participation. This highlights the National Government’s commitment to build a more competitive and productive economy.In terms of Part 1 there are a number of key achievements in the maritime transport sector that this bill brings about. It addresses gaps in the current legislation it aligns regional and national interests and it sets penalties for offences within its scope that are consistent with other comparable offending. This includes penalties for overloading ships failing to comply with internationally recognised alcohol limits and knowingly breaching requirements for the carriage of dangerous goods. This bill has provided for conducting a value-for-money review with Maritime New Zealand to improve the services and reduce the cost.This is not something that has just been dreamt up; it is a tested well-discussed series of changes. It has developed the qualifications and operational limits framework ensuring the safety of vessels their crew passengers and cargo. One has only to dwell briefly on some of the tragedies that we read about rust buckets being used in overseas countries that do not have this sort of legislation and the dreadful deaths that result from that. Published port productivity data will improve the flow of exports through our ports—and may I just mention at this point how nice it is to hear that Lyttelton Port has had a tremendous acceleration in exports over the last year. This bill has made changes to the maritime rules around fishing boats which will improve safety lift compliance and better meet the needs of the industry. I would like to commend this bill to the Committee.