SpeechHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): I just want to say a big thankyou to all the previous speakers on both sides of the House. To my colleague here to my left Tim Macindoe you may not have had a member's bill but good things do take time and you're like a good fine wine.Hon Tim Macindoe: I'm like a Clutha-Southland cheese.HAMISH WALKER: Ha ha! I just want to address a few of the previous comments from the Government members. We heard from the Hon Clare Curran who said that the work hasn't been done and then she went on to reference UK examples. Well if you look at the UK examples the fines over there are $5000; all I'm trying to do here is increase it from $2000 to $4000. In 2014 a man was convicted and sent to jail for five months for shining a laser at a rescue helicopter. This is what this bill does—this bill is about making New Zealand safer. Put yourself in an aeroplane hundreds of passengers on board you've got highly trained pilots coming in to land what do you think it would be like having some idiot on the ground point a laser at you? We know from listening to pilots that it can cause temporary blindness—some have reported having to lie down in the cockpit. We've heard from eye surgeons that it can burn people's eyes. We heard from more pilots that it can cause headaches; some have had to coming into land abort to take off again. This is a very serious matter and it just goes to show how out of touch this Government is with New Zealanders. They're saying penalties and fines don't work. Well basic Psychology 101: you need to have consequences attached to an action. This Government is soft on crime they don't want penalties and they don't want people being sent to prison for putting hundreds of lives at risk. What do they want? What are they focused on? Giving prisoners the right to vote. They would prefer to focus on giving prisoners the right to vote as opposed to putting the safety of New Zealanders in front of politics. They are now playing politics over the safety of Kiwis and I think that is absolutely disgraceful. Do you think a Kiwi wants someone who points a laser—a reckless stupid act—to be punished? I'd say most New Zealanders would agree that they don't want to be in an aeroplane when someone on the ground points a laser at a pilot. This bill tries to deter those idiots from doing that. That's what this bill is about. It just goes to show how out of touch this Government is by preferring to give prisoners the right to vote as opposed to putting safety and putting people before politics. Where is the kind caring and compassionate Prime Minister when she doesn't want to deter people from putting these pilots' lives at risk?If we look at the overseas examples like a few of the members have referred to there is complete prohibition in many of those countries. We're lagging almost at the bottom of the chain because of this soft-on-crime Government.Let's see what different stakeholder groups say about this bill. The New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association they totally support it—New Zealand Police eye surgeons different medical practitioners—because they know just how bloody dangerous it is having a laser pointed in the eye. There is potential for serious crashes.So my question to the Government is: if an accident does occur will you all be carrying on over there like you are the moment like singing seals? They are soft on crime. They would prefer to give criminals the vote as opposed to actually backing the police who support this bill and the Air Line Pilots' Association who are heavily behind this bill—and they know it. They're all up in arms because they know they would prefer to focus on giving prisoners the right to vote—and that's a total disgrace.