Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. Ngā mema katoa tēnā tātou katoa. Happy to take a call on the High-power Laser Pointer Offences and Penalties Bill. Despite Labour opposing this bill can I accord my acknowledgment to the bill's sponsor Mr Hamish Walker member of Parliament for Clutha-Southland. We share a common I guess acquaintance: a nephew of mine by the name of Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri who when I came into this Parliament told me to make sure that I said hello to his friend across the House Mr Walker. So Mr Walker with that in part let's turn to the bill.My colleague the Hon Clare Curran talked about the—I guess not enough depth into this bill. I really want to address my comments into increased penalties which is what this bill is doing. It doesn't necessarily mean that it will be applied. If we just look at the New Zealand context New Zealand Police reported only one warning—one warning—and no prosecutions for possession of high-powered laser pointers in 2019.The other point I want to raise in the House is that most of the people that use high-beam laser pointers are generally children. There is some legislation—and I reference the House to the Customs Import Prohibition (High-power Laser Pointers) Order—which means that the Ministry of Health—you must obtain a consent to import those. So we have currently with our legislation protections around the very issue I believe Mr Walker is trying to raise in this House: keeping New Zealand safe. We have some legislation around that. But we also have both the Sentencing Act the Summary Offences Act and of course the Health Act which this bill is attempting to amend.The other reason why—and I had to look at the use of lasers I guess—is not all high-power laser equipment is for the purposes that the previous speaker spoke about. Of course we would all speak against the use of those lasers if they cause harm but we also have lasers in this country for finding faults on fibre optic cables. I mean they obviously provide a really good use in large-scale sound and light shows construction surveying measuring. So we do have them currently in our society but the point I believe Mr Walker is saying is in relation—and he says it in his bill—in terms of aircraft crew to perform their duties.And one of the other questions that I had with this bill was: what about trains? What about buses? What about other forms of transportation that the public are in and someone shows a laser at them and inadvertently has a crash? What happens to those movements? And so that's why I think the bill in supporting my colleague the Hon Clare Curran in something as simple as describing what this bill covers is quite limited in that it's only covering the transportation of aircraft.So I do add my words of support despite acknowledging that this member has not had one member's bill—and thank you the Hon Tim Macindoe for acknowledging that he's had two and you're still waiting. But it still doesn't address the fact that the bill falls well short on providing some evidence. And one thing in the Justice Committee I've learnt: unless you can provide the evidence of where there is real harm that this is causing in the country even referencing overseas and we've got some stats around the UK—only 1.4 perpetrators or three or four cases of 279 are prosecuted. So there's a stat from overseas that shows that it's not as bad an issue in the UK. But again I welcome the member to address the issue of evidence—evidence that requires this legislation; evidence internationally that we always accord ourselves with be it Australia be it Canada be it the UK and unfortunately that hasn't come forward. And yet he will have his right of reply to this bill but as it stands it won't be supported by Labour for the reasons that I've outlined. There's not enough work that's been put in it and it's not a deterrent to stop the actions that it's purporting to do.