Brown Peter: Commerce Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Brown Peter: Commerce Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18322. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I intend to take only a short call because New Zealand First was not on the Commerce Committee and reading this bill is awfully technical. I listened to Simon Power and I can imagine that anybody on the select committee would need extensive briefings to be up to speed with the legislation. I see that both National and Labour are supporting this bill and that pleases New Zealand First no end. 
The area about which I am particularly concerned and particularly delighted is that of airports because the first bill I handled when I came to this House was the Airport Authorities Amendment Bill. I was brand new to politics— 
Simon Power 
: I remember that. 
PETER BROWN 
: I think it was before your time. 
Simon Power 
: No. 2. 
PETER BROWN 
: Oh the member remembers No. 2; this was No. 1 in 1996 or 1997. When I read that bill I thought “This is not good enough.” New Zealand First was in coalition with the National Party. It wanted to have no regulation whatsoever but there I was brand new saying “This is not good enough.” I do not think it is being unkind to say that the bill was of low priority. Even my own colleagues thought “Will you please get on with it and settle it.” but there I was saying “It is not good enough.” I was hauled up to Jenny Shipley who was Minister of Transport at the time and she said how important it was to have a deregulated environment. But I sensed the danger of monopolies having worked for quite some years in seaports. Then I got hauled up to Bill Birch. He had an army of young up-and-coming Treasury officials with him and they gave me the lecture on how one does this with no deregulation whatever. In the end Winston Peters and I sat down one night and worked out the best compromise we could sell to our coalition partner a compromise that was based on consultation. But we know now that it has not worked.  
So we are delighted—and I am particularly delighted because of that personal experience—that both National and Labour have come together and said that airports need some form of control. The control is modest—it comes under an information disclosure regime and monitoring—but it is a significant step forward. The control probably does not go as far as the airlines would like it to go but that is not a bad thing and it goes probably a little bit further than the airports want to go which is a good thing. So I think the select committee has reached a reasonable compromise. 
I understand that an international aviation consultancy Jacobs Consultancy has measured the performance of 50 international airports around the world. Auckland Airport came out on top for aeronautical revenue as a percentage of total costs it came out on top for operating profit as a percentage of revenue and it came out on top for operating profit per passenger. That should tell us all that something has to be done. Those are the areas where one does not really want to be top of the pops. 
New Zealand First will be supporting this bill probably all the way through. We and I on a personal basis are absolutely delighted that we are finally doing something about airports. I congratulate the National Party on going down the road to Damascus and having an enlightening experience.