12. Question No. 12—TransportHon ALFRED NGARO (National) to the Associate Minister of TransportQuestion No. 12—Transport12. Hon ALFRED NGARO (National) to the Associate Minister of Transport: How many children in the past year drowned as a result of not wearing lifejackets and what actions will she take so that more children wear lifejackets this summer?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Associate Minister of Transport): In answer to the first part of the question Maritime New Zealand advises me that no children under the age of 18 drowned as a result of not wearing lifejackets in recreational boating incidents. Over the summer Maritime New Zealand will spend $450000 to fund safe boating education to over 5000 children and provide 4000 new lifejackets. I am pleased that Maritime New Zealand reports very high rates of children wearing lifejackets on small recreational boats.Hon Alfred Ngaro: Will the Minister support my legislation to make lifejackets compulsory for children on vessels less than six metres? When Drowning Prevention Auckland have noted 105 drownings with nine children who have drowned and when the Coastguard and the sea scouts too and those throughout the sector have indicated that there is a need for wearing lifejackets will the Minister support my legislation to make lifejackets compulsory for children?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: I believe that the report that the member is referring to does not establish that the drownings would be avoided by lifejackets. Of the drownings under the age of 15 over half of them were in home pools and there's no data in the report that establishes that the drownings were on recreational vessels. In fact the best data we have from Maritime New Zealand—and this is a very comprehensive table which I'd be happy to table; it's a detailed table of recreational fatalities from 1 January 2016 to 18 September—shows that there have been zero fatalities for recreational boaters under the age of 18. Of the other fatalities for recreational boaters all of them have been adults and a certain percentage of them could be avoided through wearing lifejackets. So it is unclear from the data that a single death would be prevented by the member's bill.Hon Alfred Ngaro: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I move that the Lifejackets for Children and Young Persons Bill a member's bill in my name be set down as a members' order of the day—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member can't move a motion like that. He knows that. He's been around for a long time. Has the member finished his questions?Hon Alfred Ngaro: Supplementary?SPEAKER: I'm very tempted not to continue with the supplementaries. I know it's a very important issue and I will allow it. But if members are deliberately disorderly in the way that that member was then they are tempting me to use the powers given to me by the House not to continue supplementaries on an issue. Because this is an important issue and because the member is generally well behaved I will let him continue.Hon Alfred Ngaro: Sorry Mr Speaker. My wording was incorrect. I do take a point of order. I seek leave of the House to correct and to—SPEAKER: Well I'm prepared to put the leave to the House. Is there any objection? Yes there is. [Interruption] No I had called Mr Ngaro for a supplementary question before he took his point of order.Hon Alfred Ngaro: In light of the Minister turning down my legislation and my request what is her plan to reduce the drownings in New Zealand for those children not wearing lifejackets when at the AGM it was—SPEAKER: Order! Order! I'm going to get the member to start his question again in a way which is within the Standing Orders and does not start with something which in my understanding of listening to the answer—because I did—included something which the Minister didn't say.Hon Alfred Ngaro: If the House won't accept the legislation that I put in my member's bill will the Minister then accept the request from those in the sector who have repeatedly endorsed and advocated for the mandatory wearing of lifejackets for all children under the age of 15 so that it is mandatory and clear right throughout the whole of New Zealand?SPEAKER: OK. So it is a hypothetical question. The member can address it if she wants to.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Thank you Mr Speaker. I'll reiterate for the benefit of that member that no recreational boater under 18 has died in 2016 2017 or 2018. In 2015 one child died from traumatic injuries from a collision between two craft and one child on a stand-up paddleboard fell and was pulled under a yacht despite wearing a lifejacket. In 2013 one child and adult when a kayak capsized died but the child was wearing an adult lifejacket. So if the member is serious about addressing preventable deaths he might want to focus the legislation on the group that's actually most at risk which is adult males over the age of 40.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Supplementary question.SPEAKER: No before we do that I just want to indicate to the Minister that she should refer to the member and not me.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Just to get it clear is it the fact that the Government is not proposing to legislate to make it compulsory for children to wear lifejackets in swimming pools as the question suggested?SPEAKER: Order! Order! The Minister can answer the first part of the question which was really the only question that was there. The additional fact the additional assertion is not her responsibility.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Sorry Mr Speaker. Could the member repeat the question.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Just to make it clear is the Government proposing to legislate for children to be required to wear lifejackets in swimming pools—yes or no?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: No it is not.Hon Alfred Ngaro: Will the Minister then commit here today in front of the House and in front of the New Zealand public at home to ask the Minister of Transport to raise an Order in Council in Cabinet to make wearing of lifejackets on boats compulsory for children across New Zealand as has been advocated by a number in the sector because of the fact that even one life of a child drowned is one life too many?SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member finished his question in about two phrases.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Thank you Mr Speaker. I agree with the member that it's very important that we have safety that we prevent deaths out on the water and I note that if the National Party was really serious about doing this then former Minister of Transport Simon Bridges or previous Minister of Transport Gerry Brownlee could have accelerated this legislation.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Before you conclude what was that last remark that brought my name into the debate?SPEAKER: I know that focus had been lost somewhat by a number of members but what the Associate Minister indicated was that if it was a matter of importance then it could have been taken up and advanced by previous Ministers of Transport including that member and one of his colleagues.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Speaking to the point of order.SPEAKER: Well it's the member's own point of order. It's probably a new one.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Well no it's not. It's the same one because if you look at the Standing Orders that is a clear inference which sits outside of the Standing Orders for how questions should be answered. In any event there is any number of things that the current Government perhaps should not be doing because the previous Government had previously done them. Where do we stop and start in all this stuff? That was a straight out gratuitous political flick and there should be some cost to the Green Party for it.SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. That was I think a not outrageous answer to a question which in itself if I'd been more vigilant and done what the member recommended that I do on Tuesday and be much tighter on questions and answers I would have ruled out.