Woods MeganDr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a call on this bill as well and to reiterate that Labour supports this bill. We also extend our congratulations—which my colleague the Hon David Parker outlined in his earlier contribution in this debate—to Rocket Lab and Peter Beck on what is a significant advance for New Zealand. New Zealand joins a list of only a few countries—10 in fact—around the world that have reached into space. This is not something that is insignificant and it is something that we need to celebrate.We have heard rightly a number of celebrations and politicians are jumping on the bandwagon or the rocket-wagon in order to try to achieve some of the fame associated with New Zealand's launch into the far reaches of space. We have had Minister Steven Joyce who has been a key proponent of this and is purported to be New Zealand's and the New Zealand Parliament's own rocket man. But I would like to pay homage where indeed it needs to lie and that is to go back to the last Labour-led Government and the Minister for Economic Development in that Government the Hon Trevor Mallard who was one of the Ministers who had the great foresight to back this project at the very beginning. I think as Labour's science and innovation research and development spokesperson it is important to underscore here the need to be investing in the type of science that is going to take this long to see fruition. It was back in 2007 when the Hon Trevor Mallard attended Rocket Lab's launch and said it would enhance New Zealand's emerging reputation as a developer of first-rate technology and components. That is the kind of time-scale that we are looking at in terms of the commercialisation of some of this research. Actually in many ways this is a very short time-scale for commercialisation such as this and we always need to bear that in mind and make sure that we are doing as the last Labour Government did—have the foresight to invest in research and development where we are going to see the long-term gains for the country because good things take time. So now that we have got the congratulations in order it is important to look at what this bill does.This bill is in many ways a very open piece of legislation that sets up a framework around which this activity in New Zealand can be regulated. It facilitates the development of a space industry and its safe and secure operation. It implements certain international obligations that New Zealand has relating to space activities and space technology and I think one of the interesting things about this legislation is that it puts into our legislative books in a very clear way international obligations that go back to 1968. The bill puts into legislation obligations that New Zealand picked up from its ratification in 1968 of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies—the Outer Space Treaty. That goes back to just after the time that humans first set foot on the moon and how long and how far we have come under that.One of the issues that has of course arisen since the ratification of that treaty and where we are here in 2017 is what uses humans are going to put outer space to. That is something that the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee did hear when it heard the submissions on this legislation: for what purposes were people being put into space? There was a submission that it should be explicitly contained in the legislation that this was to be only for peaceful purposes but some of those international treaties that we signed right back then really did put in place the fact that that was the purpose. The advice that the committee received was that that did not need to be explicitly outlined in this legislation because it was inherent in our international obligations.So if we have a look at the Outer Space Treaty the nations that did sign that treaty agreed not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction store such weapons on celestial bodies or station such weapons in outer space establish military bases installations of fortifications on celestial bodies or test any weapons or to conduct manoeuvres on celestial bodies. These are important things and we need to understand why it is that we are putting in place this regime.The other thing that the legislation had to consider carefully was managing New Zealand's liability that arises from its obligation as a launching State as actually launching things through airspace to the levels that reach the outer space limits that are defined in this legislation or allowed for in this legislation—I will return to some of the definitions when we get to the Committee stage of this legislation—does carry with it risks. We have had discussions about airspace risks at a much lower level. We have talked about how we are going to regulate the use of drones in this country and likewise how we are going to exercise control for safety purposes in those upper limits. We do this around airspace in terms of our aviation levels but what are the safeguards that need to be put in place when we come to outer space as well? The bill goes on to talk about the need to establish a system to control certain high-altitude activities that take place from New Zealand and then also to preserve New Zealand's national security and national interests.So these are things that needed to be put into place but this is the very dry part of what the bill does. What the bill also speaks to is the kind of country that we can be—the kind of country that does invest in research and development; the kind of country that does believe in innovation—and that is the kind of Government that Labour Governments have always been. We saw that with Labour backing this project right in the beginning right back in the early 2000s and we are seeing the fruition now. We are going to see it again in future decades through the fact that we also need to be planning for a workforce and an economy that are ready for this kind of high-tech future and we need to be making sure that New Zealanders have the skills that can take advantage of the economic development opportunities that can arise from this.We have already seen some very nimble organisations in New Zealand taking advantage of the Awarua space station down by Invercargill. We saw Venture Southland approach the European Space Agency when it needed a southern launch zone and it pitched our part of the world. We have obvious strategic advantages in terms of being on the other side of the globe and in what we can offer. But we also have niche opportunities in the value chain that exists around space exploration and this legislation does set up a licensing and permitting regime that will control those activities.But all that will count for nothing if we cannot give young New Zealanders—who were rightly excited at watching New Zealand become one of 10 countries that have launched a rocket—the kinds of skills and education that they need to be equipped for the future. We do not know exactly what that future is going to look like. When we look at the treaty that we entered into in 1968 that talks about setting up military bases on celestial bodies we see that that is not what we are grappling with in this legislation.So what we have to do is make sure that we are building an education system a training and a skills system that does equip people for that future and that is exactly the kind of fresh thinking that Labour has been doing through its Future of Work Commission. We know that of the new entrants entering primary school now 65 percent are going to undertake a job that does not exist today and some of those jobs could well be in these kinds of industries. So as well as putting in place these kinds of regimes to control and regulate and make sure we are operating safely in our space industry we have to be thinking more broadly about how we as a country prepare for this future. Thank you.