Duynhoven Harry: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Duynhoven Harry: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11355] 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN (Associate Minister of Transport) 
: 
 Perhaps I can help my learned friend Dr Wayne Mapp who I believe has some legal training. If he looks at the Supplementary Order Paper that I have just tabled this evening the dates that he refers to as having been scandalously not changed earlier etc. are two dates inside the bill—one is buried in the schedules and one is on page 54—that were inadvertently missed during the drafting and the earlier Supplementary Order Paper that changes the dates. I want to check with Dr Mapp that he has a copy of the bill in front of him and that he has realised that it goes right out to the fifties in page numbers. I think it is pretty important that he does look at it thoroughly. Can I just tell the member and other members who may be interested—and I think Mr Connell was going to speak at length on this issue as I was told by his colleague—that there are different commencement dates for different purposes. One of the reasons that we had different dates— 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: I am talking about retrospective— 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN 
: No no not at all. This bill is not retrospective. The reason for an earlier start date originally being printed on the bill was that the Australian Government proposed to have its bill introduced and passed a lot earlier last year. Our bill was to follow. The Australian Government delayed its bill; it has not yet passed it. That is why its mutual recognition legislation and ours have to be kept relatively in step. 
Simon Power 
: Why cannot we pass ours until they pass theirs? 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN 
: That is exactly the point I am coming to. Most of the provisions of this bill come into force at the royal assent but the provisions with regard to the mutual recognition bit come into force at a date yet to be determined and to be in concert with the Australians so that we are not out of step with them. Dr Mapp asked me why I did not put that bit of paper on the Table weeks ago. Because the drafter told me only yesterday that he had inadvertently missed those two dates buried in the bill— 
Simon Power 
: Blame the officials. 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN 
: Not at all I am not blaming the officials. I think they have done a cracker job in sorting this bill which has a number of provisions that are widely supported. 
I want to come to the comments on the issue of unruly passengers because I think it is one of the most important parts of this bill. In addition to enabling Australian airlines to operate in New Zealand under Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority oversight it complementarily allows New Zealand operators to operate in Australia under the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority oversight. So that is the major feature of the bill. But the bill also deals with the security of passengers and crew on international and domestic flights in addressing the issue of unruly passengers regardless of whose airline they are on. The provisions relating to civil liability for delay I think referred to earlier from the old Carriage By Air Act continue. That was a matter of some controversy and the purpose of that is to give people redress if they are delayed in an avoidable way other than because of things like safety or weather issues. The provisions of the bill also bring the law in that area into conformity particularly with the accident compensation scheme and transfer various provisions from that Act to this Act. Also the  
New Zealand Transport Strategy 
 is a very important document put out by the Government in terms of our future in transport. Provisions of this bill contribute to aspects of the New Zealand Transport Strategy. I will leave it at that for now because I am sure members would like to ask a whole bunch of questions. I would recommend that they read the commentary from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which did a very good job in terms of the processing of this bill.