Calder Cam: Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCalder Cam: Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18429. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr CAM CALDER (National): I moveThat the Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. It is a great pleasure to take a call on the second reading of my bill. It has had a long gestation period being the latest in a number of ideas that I have had for members’ bills. Other proposals pitched include changes to the right-hand rule that were adopted by the Government measures to deal with low-ball share offers that were rolled into Government financial legislation and a strategy to increase small and medium scale renewable electricity generation a proposal that has not been adopted. However three out of four is not bad.I have great pleasure to be a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee the chairman of which David Bennett is right beside me here. He did an excellent job of chairing that committee which has examined this bill and recommended unanimously that it be passed. I am very grateful for the support that we received on the select committee from across the House. The select committee recommended that it be passed with amendments.The bill seeks to amend the Summary Offences Act 1981 to make it an offence for a person to possess a handheld laser in a public place without reasonable excuse. If I could just hold this up this is a handheld laser. It can sit in the pocket very readily but it can cause enormous—enormous—damage to people’s eyesight and equally it can blind people who are driving motorcars but more important is the damage it can do to the night vision of pilots.The committee recommended changing the name of the bill to refer more accurately to the type of laser that it seeks to control. The committee felt that an amendment toretitle the bill as the “Summary Offences (Possession of High-power Laser Pointers) Amendment Bill” would better reflect our recommended change to the definition of the devices that the bill covered. The definition now provides that a “high-power laser pointer means a device that—(a) in the Director-General of Health’s opinion is of the kind commonly known as a laser pointer; and (b) is battery operated; and”—as you can see this one I am holding has no power cable—“(c) is designed or intended to be operated while held in the hand; and (d) produces a coherent beam of optical radiation of low divergence;”—namely a laser beam—“and”—crucially—“(e) has a power output of greater than 1milliwatt.”The definition of high-power laser pointers is that used in the two new controls that came into effect from 1 March to help manage the health and safety risk to the public of the use or misuse of high-power laser pointers. I refer of course to these new controls that the Government has brought in to cover the importation supply and acquisition of high-power laser pointers. The Customs Important Prohibition (High-power Laser Pointers) Order 2013 restricts the importation of high-power laser pointers unless a person has consent to do so. Anyone who commits an offence under that regulation is liable to a fine of up to $5000. Similarly a body corporate is liable to a fine of up to $10000. The Health (High-power Laser Pointers) Regulations 2013 restrict the supply or acquisition of high-power laser pointers unless a person has obtained permission to do so. Anyone who commits an offence under that regulation is liable upon conviction to a fine of up to $500.The committee felt that it was important that there was consistency between the Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill’s definition of a high-power laser pointer and the definition in the other legislation. Hence it recommended that it applies to laser pointers with power outputs greater than 1milliwatt.In my original bill the legislation would have empowered the police to seize and retain any laser found on a person in a public place. The committee recommended omitting the seizure provision as seizure powers are now available to the police under the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 which came into effect after my bill was originally drafted.The committee also recommended amending the start date so that the legislation would come into force 28 days after the date upon which it received the Royal assent. This would it was felt provide the public with reasonable notice of the law change.This bill has been a long time in getting to its second reading. I have my office in the vibrant and diverse community of Manurewa as indeed does Louisa Wall the member for Manurewa who is sitting opposite me at this point in time. I think we both take pleasure from the fact that our community in Manurewa will be rendered safer by the passage of this bill. From my time in the electorate since 2008 I have been very much aware of the many planes flying over our Manurewa community. In fact Auckland International Airport receives over 140000 flights a year—140000 flights a year. I became aware of the increasing attempts to interfere with these flights particularly on take-off and landing.This was happening not just around Auckland Airport but around many of the airports of New Zealand. Since the first draft of this bill the number of laser pointer attacks on New Zealand aircraft has been steadily increasing. In 2011 the Civil Aviation Authority received 100 laser strike reports. In 2012 there were slightly more at 102. In 2013 there were 119 reported and already this year more and more are being reported.In a recent instance just a few months ago a laser pointer was aimed at a Nelson-Marlborough rescue helicopter on its way back from a late-night rescue mission. A few weeks ago a man appeared in the Auckland District Court charged with pointing a particularly powerful blue laser at the police Eagle helicopter. This particular individual was on the balcony of his home on Karangahape Road and he engaged the helicopter as it was taking off from the police helicopter pad at Mechanics Bay. For those who are unaware of Auckland geography this is a distance of some 4 kilometres—4 kilometres. As the police stated at the time the incident had the potential to be fatal given the power of this laser and the potential for things to go wrong. It was incredibly dangerous and incredibly silly especially over a populated area. It should be noted that as this offender was apprehended actually using a laser pointer he was—not surprisingly given that he was doing it to the police Eagle helicopter—prosecuted under section 270 of the Crimes Act. The Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill is designed to have a preventive aspect to remove the potential for these random acts of mischief from miscreants out and about with laser pointers such as this one in their possession.I am extremely pleased that this House is in the process of considering this legislation which we know will decrease the chances of these lasers being misused. They are potentially exceedingly dangerous weapons. Just last year a simple internet search revealed that it was possible to purchase high-power lasers of up to 800milliwatts relatively inexpensively on the internet. They were advertised as 532 nanometre lasers “to impress even the serious professional.”Dr Megan Woods: Like a Jedi.Dr CAM CALDER: These lasers “can burst balloon’s melt plastic light matches and have a range of up to 60 miles!”—yes up to 60 miles. These devices can be readily carried—I can see you blanching Mr Deputy Speaker. You are blanching with fear at the damage that these devices could cause if misused.Last week I checked the internet again—and this brings me to a comment made by Dr Megan Woods my colleague from across the House because in that internet search just last week there was advertised a laser of 2000milliwatts in power costing under $300 with quotes such as: “A real lifelightsaber” from CNN “The perfect gift for thesupervillain.” from theWall Street Journal and “A seriouslybaddass laser device.” fromWired magazine. These user reviews underline just how dangerous these devices are.I could go on and I shall in the later stages when we are considering this but for now I will say that this is a very simple bill. It is a perfectly formed bill. There is nothing complicated about this bill. I understand that it is widely supported across the House. This bill will make New Zealand a safer place. I commend it to the House.