Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. Firstly I just want to acknowledge all the hard work that went on in the Transport and Infrastructure Committee and from officials and from all those submitters who came to share their aspirations for New Zealand's aviation future. I also want to acknowledge the impassioned plea of my parliamentary colleague Chlöe Swarbrick who advocated for the people of Waiheke and other places around the Hauraki Gulf who feel that aircraft operations impinge on their quality of life and on the quality of the environment. But what I would also offer to that MP is once you get to fly around in helicopters a lot you never ever want to stop. In New Zealand aviation the way we use aviation in New Zealand whether it's small fixed-wing aircraft to get to places like Milford Sound and land on the Milford aerodrome or whether it's to use helicopters to get up into the bush and carry out pest control pest eradication operations whether it's on private land or in the conservation estate general aviation small aircraft are integral to the way that we enjoy New Zealand. Now ACT is really interested in a more efficient and effective operation of Government regulations and the Civil Aviation Bill goes a long way towards meeting ACT's aspirations. But it is a very very very large piece of legislation. It's nearly 500 pages once you include the Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) tabled by Minister Kiritapu Allan this evening and ACT is concerned that while it is aspirational there is potentially some real risks in its implementation. That was acknowledged tonight by the Minister with the SOP that sought to extend the time frame for implementation of the bill the time for commencement by an additional six months—so to give the Civil Aviation Authority two years from the time of Royal assent to give effect to the provisions of this bill. Given how long it's taken to bring this bill to the House and to pass it through various stages it does seem unfortunate that we must wait two more years for the efficiency measures in this bill to be given effect to. I just want to recap some of the things that this bill does and that ACT supports. It does provide for a much simpler operating environment for remotely piloted aircraft—unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs are going to be a very important part of the way we manage New Zealand's environment and our infrastructure in the future. In New Zealand it's still very very difficult to get permission to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle out of line of sight. That means if you want to do a survey of your infrastructure—whether it's transmission lines pylons hydroelectric dams—and you want to fly a UAV out of line of sight it's very difficult to get permission to do that. In fact the permitting regime for UAVs whether they're operated as aerial spray drones or for geospatial survey for infrastructure survey the current permitting system is clunky. There are operators waiting months sometimes over a year to get permission. So it's great that this bill provides a more streamlined approach but waiting two years for it to come into effect some operators commercial operators of autonomous aircraft might decide it's not worth operating in New Zealand. Damien Smith: Go to Canada.SIMON COURT: They might go to Canada as my colleague Damien Smith said or certainly Australia.ACT has concerns about the operation of the Aviation Security Service (AVSEC). AVSEC was given a mandate after September 11 2001 the attacks on the World Trade Center which were carried out by terrorists who hijacked the aircraft. It was given a mandate internationally to actually screen passengers identify risk identify things that shouldn't be taken on an aircraft and make sure that for people travelling the aircrafts and the airports were safe places to operate. But unfortunately it appears that over the years as more and more expectations have been put on AVSEC the way they process passengers and the issues that that causes in airports have actually slowed down and reduced the enjoyment of the travelling public. It takes a lot longer to get through security than it should.One of the problems that this bill has identified and the Minister acknowledged is that there is a conflict of interest between the Director of Civil Aviation and AVSEC in that the director is responsible for monitoring aviation security but also responsible for its operation. What ACT proposes—well we'd actually get an independent auditor the Auditor-General or a similar independent officer to have a look at AVSEC on a regular basis and to confirm that they were in fact operating efficiently and meeting all the obligations that they have under the Civil Aviation Act and this bill that we'll pass. But the Minister while acknowledging there is an actual conflict of interest has declined to take ACT up on that offer. Even though if you were a business operating in the aviation space whether you're running an airport or running an airline of course you would have independent operators looking at your performance whether it's health and safety or financial. ACT believes that Government departments should be subject to at least the same level of independent audit as businesses do operating in this area. What was heartening during the submission phase was the recognition by officials that the need for a just culture be made explicit in the bill. For those watching at home wondering what just culture" is it's that concept that if you have a near miss or you identify a safety issue with an aircraft or airspace with aeroplanes coming too close together for example you can tell somebody and even though you might have made a mistake you won't be blamed and prosecuted and have put your flying career or your business at risk because what a just culture approach tells us is that it's more important to investigate the cause of a potential incident or accident than it is to punish people for having made a mistake. That's the approach that general aviation civil aviation commercial aviation and military aviation have taken for almost a hundred years. That is why even though thousands and thousands of aircraft you know weighing hundreds of tonnes in many cases carrying millions of passengers a year have very few accidents and incidents that cause harm—and that's because of the just culture approach. So it's wonderful that that's actually been included in the text of this bill in its subsequent amendments in what we're passing tonight as well as being referred to in the explanatory notes. I also just want to touch on the issue of an independent review of the director's decisions. It has been canvassed but I just want to remind people listening at home that there are many people passionate about civil aviation about flying and at some point during some pilots' careers or some operators' careers something happens whether it's something in the family—they have a motor vehicle accident they have a physical accident and they have to get assessed for either medical or psychological fitness to continue to operate aircraft to operate in the aviation space. Their applications once having identified that they're not fit to fly when they come back and want to prove their fitness again their applications have sat languishing some for years without decisions being taken. It is a great concern to ACT that despite there being now a provision for independent review there is no time frame for that independent review. So people who would like to fly again and whose doctors have said they're fit and who have all of the necessary references to get back into the air or back into an aircraft have no certainty about when a decision about the potential to get airborne again will be made. That is very very unfortunate and seems to be very very unfair. But on balance one thing the ACT Party observed is that the difference between this bill and the Labour Party is that this bill will land tonight unlike the Labour Party whose plane appears to be disappearing off Kiwis' radar screens. I commend this bill to the House. ACT will be voting for it. We look forward to delivering more good quality legislation in a future Parliament. Thank you Madam Speaker."