Smith Nick; Tolley AnneHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): The contribution that we just heard from Greg O'Connor may well have been started with the words We don't take aviation safety seriously." because every single day tens of thousands of New Zealanders get on an aircraft and put their life in the hands of the skilled pilot and flight crew to keep them safe. It's actually been an incredible story in the way in which aviation safety has improved over the last 30 years and I just did not get any sense from the Government as to how little things in the aviation sector can make a massive difference to life. I'd just ask members opposite who have said they're going to oppose this bill: do they really believe that the current law where a person with a laser beam can bring down an aircraft with many hundreds of people—that the penalties that currently exist on our law books are fair and appropriate? I congratulate my colleague Hamish Walker for having the audacity and the good sense to introduce this bill to the House and make plain on the law books of New Zealand that messing around with the safety of aircraft carrying hundreds of people is totally inappropriate and deserves the sorts of penalties that are proposed in this bill. I was surprised to read of the number of incidents that have involved pilots suffering from attacks from such laser beams. They number in their thousands internationally. There are reports of pilots being blinded for 45 minutes as a consequence of a laser pointer. What member of Parliament in this House wants to be in an aircraft where the pilot has been blinded for 45 minutes? That is playing with death and the Parliament needs to treat it with that sort of seriousness as does my parliamentary colleague. It's also interesting to note what the other jurisdictions do. If we look at Australia if we look at the United States if we look at Canada if we look at the UK—every one of those jurisdictions has tougher penalties because of this new risk. And yet we have a Government over there that says "Oh we know better. We think this is a minor safety issue." This week I was flying from Nelson to Wellington. I was invited very politely by the captain and co-pilot to sit up front in the aircraft and that was a privilege to do so. You get the opportunity to talk to them about the issues facing our pilots in New Zealand and while the Government members may think this is a bit of a joke actually the pilots who sit at the front of our aircraft every single day and take the safety of the travelling public so seriously do want this bill.I also want to reflect on the broader view where this Government's out of touch—and that is that this is a Government that is fundamentally soft on crime.Darroch Ball: Oh get lost.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: They are soft on crime and are soft on gangs and I invite the member that's interjected to look at what's going on in places like Hawke's Bay and look at what's going on in Tauranga. Even in my own community I'm seeing the impacts of the Government's policy of not holding people to account for when they do bad or dumb stuff. I just say it's flawed. I say the view that you heard from Greg O'Connor represents Government policy and that is "Actually we don't think that fines or penalties on people work." We've even got this Government saying that people that commit offences have got to have the freedom to vote and I'm going to debate a bill on that.Well I say to the Labour Government and their coalition parties they are out of touch with New Zealanders. They want a Government that will hold people to account for doing reckless stupid things and pointing a laser at an aircraft is a stupid reckless thing which this Parliament should take seriously and should impose the penalties that are appropriate.Darroch Ball: You don't know what this bill is about do you? You're not even talking about the bill.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I say to the member from New Zealand First I'm absolutely talking about the bill. It is about the penalties for people—DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member's time has expired."