Kanongata'a-Suisuiki AnahilaANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Malo 'aupito. Thank you. It is a privilege to take a call on the committee stage of the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for their due diligence in hearing and taking action on the views of the public and in receiving advice from non-Government and Government officials.Furthermore I'd like to acknowledge the submitters who duly voiced their knowledge skills and expertise. To some this may seem insignificant but to those in the shipping industry this is indeed significant.I'm honoured also to be a member of a Labour-led coalition Government where we support having a safe sustainable effective and efficient transport system. Effectively what this bill seeks to amend is the Maritime Transport Act of 1994 to improve the efficiency effectiveness and safety of the maritime transport system.So there is a list of aims that this bill attempts to achieve. I'll begin with managing the risk of drug and alcohol impairment. Effectively the aim is to manage the risks associated with drug and alcohol use in the commercial maritime sector by requiring maritime operators to have a drug and alcohol management plan. So it is at this point that I wish to acknowledge the 11 people who lost their lives on 7 January 2012 in the hot-air balloon incident in Carterton where it was found that the operator was impaired by drug use. Sadly at the time of this incident there were no rules in place that allowed random drug and alcohol testing in this area.This bill not only states that the operators must have a drug and alcohol management plan but it also has the intelligence to introduce a new Part 4B in terms of random testing. So the bill provides that a drug and alcohol management plan must ensure that the random testing of safety-sensitive workers is carried out only if the worker consents to be tested. The consequences of refusing must be explained to the worker where the director of Maritime New Zealand is also given power to administer random testing with the consent of the worker. The term random testing" is defined as the "drug or alcohol testing of a safety-sensitive worker by a [drug and alcohol management plan operator] … where the worker—(a) is selected for testing in a way that is non-discriminatory;".One of the aims is about oil pollution and this is where—I like this bit because the aim for me is fair is fair OK; compensation for damage caused by oil spillage. This bill increases the level of compensation available to meet claims or for oil pollution damage by a spill from an oil tanker in New Zealand waters. Like the previous speakers before me I was outraged when I was watching—of course most of the information that we saw about the Rena disaster was on the media and one of the questions that I was outraged about was that most of the costs for cleaning up the mess as a result of the Rena disaster was actually met by the New Zealand taxpayer.So this bill will enable New Zealand to accede to the protocol of 2003 of the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage 1992. What the protocol does is that it establishes an additional tier of compensation that we can call upon in major events in New Zealand waters.I know that my time is running out but I would like to conclude that what this bill basically does is that this bill will protect people it will protect the crews and people and then it will protect our coastline and our taonga and effectively have the intelligence to not have the taxpayer foot the bill but there is an avenue to do that. So I therefore commend the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill to the House in committee. Malo."