Fenton Darien: Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13740. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DARIEN FENTON (Labour): Well it is a pleasure to take a call on the Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill. In my introductory comments I do want to congratulate Dr Cam Calder for bringing the bill to the House. I will be remaining on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. What is more I am going to be flying the flag for Labour in the transport portfolio which is fantastic. I am very excited about it. I am sure we will get round to talking about the Hamilton expressway at some stage Mr Bennett.I want to start first of all by acknowledging the pilots of these aircraft—you know the wonderful pilots who work for our wonderful national carrier Air New Zealand. But they must be not only worrying about lasers at the moment; they would probably also be dreadfully worried about the Government’s plans to partially privatise or further privatise Air New Zealand. That is probably a far greater risk to their sense of job security and safety than anything that some larrikins may do with lasers. So as I say I want to acknowledge them and acknowledge all the people such as the flight crew who fly on Air New Zealand who are feeling some uncertainty at this stage as this Government progresses its crazy asset sales programme.Although I have congratulated Dr Cam Calder it is tempting to say that I have to wonder why we are doing this on a members’ day—I do. I really have to. I have gone back—and in one of my previous portfolios I was the transport safety spokesperson—and this is not something that is new. In 2010 someone said: “Larrikins shining lasers into the cockpits of aircraft might need to experience the full penalties of the law to remind them of the seriousness of their [actions].” That was me. In 2010 I was calling on the Government to do something about it.In February 2012 someone else said: “The unlawful targeting of aircraft by reckless laser users is endangering the safety of both pilots and travellers”. Who said that? That was Iain Lees-Galloway. It was in 2012 he was saying that. That is 2 years after I started this crusade about lasers with genuine concern so I am really pleased that Dr Cam Calder has followed the lead of the Labour members on this side who have been calling for something to be done about this.We are very pleased to support the bill although as I have said I believe it should be a Government bill. The Government really needs to not waste members’ days on things it could do itself. It could easily easily put this into a transport bill—easily—or an omnibus bill. It could easily do that and instead we could be dealing with some issues in this House that actually need to be addressed by members—particularly those members on this side of the House who do not get the opportunity to put forward Government bills.Having made those comments congratulated the member and said he has done a good job in doing this we all know this is a growing problem and it has been growing since 2010 at least—at least. We know it is a growing problem and it does need to be dealt with. We are talking about people’s lives. It is a highly dangerous situation. I do feel very concerned however that the Minister of Transport has fobbed this off to a backbencher. He has fobbed it off to a backbencher to use up a members’ day. David Bennett is now threatening me with a laser. He is now threatening me with a laser—forgive my croaky voice but I have got the lurgy.We do accept this is a serious issue. I am looking forward to discussing this in the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and seeing more demonstrations—seeing some more demonstrations. I am sure Dr Cam Calder as I know the member really well will have done his research and will have a variety of lasers to demonstrate to the select committee.I am also looking forward to hearing from the pilots and other members of the public because it is a serious issue. It is highly dangerous. It is madness actually to be shining lasers in the eyes of pilots who are bringing aircraft in to land or who are just flying over and above. It does put people’s lives at risk so we will support the bill. I look forward to some interesting discussion in the select committee. I just wish that the Government was doing this rather than the member but however good on him for doing this.