Brown Peter: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Brown Peter: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11363] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I start by thanking Deborah Coddington for the warning. She spoke briefly about New Zealand First going into coalition with Labour and then immediately spoke about courses on self-defence. I say to the honourable member that I have taken it on board—we will not get any closer than we are right now. 
There is one unique clause in this bill—probably several clauses—and it is a bit unusual. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has increased the fines for the carriage of dangerous goods and I think that some comment must be made on that because usually select committees are prone to reducing fines. Fundamentally there are two types of passengers who carry dangerous goods. One is the person who innocently takes on cans of paint or swimming-pool chlorine or something. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: Or a swimming pool! 
PETER BROWN 
: Well chlorine can be used for a number of purposes and I say to the honourable member that the select committee was shown a series of videos about some very innocuous substances that when blended together give quite horrific results. So there is the type of passenger who innocently takes on some dangerous substance not knowing that it is a dangerous substance. Then there is the second type of passenger—who I think the select committee termed “the travelling salesman”—who specialises in carting dangerous goods from one part of the country to another and deliberately flouts the law. This bill hugely increases the fines for both types of passenger and I think that that is worth recording. 
One submitter in particular made the select committee sit up and take notice. I think he was from Qantas and I think he had flown from Singapore that day to talk to the select committee for half an hour. He explained some real concerns about dangerous and unruly passengers. He told us quite informatively in quite some detail about Qantas’ move—I hope he was from Qantas; I am either giving it a lot of credit or I should be referring to another airline but let us say he was from Qantas. 
Simon Power 
: Just say “an airline”. 
PETER BROWN 
: He was from an airline. He flew from Singapore. 
Deborah Coddington 
: A big one. 
PETER BROWN 
: It was a big one. He spoke about the training of air marshals. I know that the Minister takes safety very seriously but that submitter encouraged the select committee—and I regret not having it put in the commentary on the bill—to recommend that New Zealand get involved in the training of air marshals. That would give us the long-term choice about whether to go down that track. He recommended—quite strongly as I recall—that New Zealand have about 100 air marshals at its disposal. They could come from the army I think— 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: The army. 
PETER BROWN 
: —yes—or the police. It is worth considering and I regret that I did not endeavour to have that recommendation included in the report. One tends to think that those guys are just policemen or soldiers carrying guns discreetly but there is quite a lot to it. I will not go into the details but I was very impressed with the sincerity and the detail that that airline spokesperson gave us at the select committee. When one comes across an unruly passenger it is quite disconcerting. I have said this several times in the debate on this bill. I sympathise though with Keith Locke who cannot take his knitting needles on to a plane and knit away—probably making a hat for Nandor Tanczos or something like that. I have to say to Keith Locke that he just has to leave them at the terminal. He should give them to the security guards and buy another pair when he gets to Wellington or vice versa. Or he could have a pair in his desk here because sometimes the Speaker allows us to knit in Parliament. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Disgraceful. 
PETER BROWN 
: Disgraceful? 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: You lose all the stitches. 
PETER BROWN 
: I could not understand what the Minister said but I am sure that Hansard will record it and I will read it with interest afterwards. This is a good bill and New Zealand First will support it. 
Progress reported.