Duynhoven Harry: Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Duynhoven Harry: Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6770] 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN (Minister for Transport Safety) 
: 
 It is a privilege to speak in this debate. History is a wonderful thing is it not—especially when one looks back? I think that was a landmark speech from the National member. It is one that we will take great delight in digging out from the  
Hansard 
 in years to come to quote back to him. 
I say to the member who was not in Parliament at the time that I was approached by my very good friend and colleague Judy Keall MP who was very concerned about the proposed sale of Paraparaumu Airport. I think that was in 1995 although it may have been in 1994. Roger Sowry was the National MP in the area at the time and the Hon Maurice Williamson was the then Minister of Transport responsible for the ownership of Government-owned airports such as the one at Paraparaumu. I have not flown into Paraparaumu very often only once or twice on diversions in bad weather. The airport was largely used for training purposes and private aviation. It had a huge training workload. 
The aeroclub was based at the airport. I remember three of the people involved quite distinctly. Mr Kevin Henderson Mr Ross Sutherland and Dr Chris Sutcliffe who were all very active members of the aeroclub. They came to see me with regard to what they saw as the development of an absolutely unfair situation. In the then National Government’s ideology of the time—with privatisation being the sole reason for being I think—it was decided that the airport should be privatised. It had been discovered that a prospectus had been quietly issued advertising huge profits for the investors and I was told by the aeroclub people of proposals with quotes that up to $40 million of land would be made available. That land was to be sold on the basis that the airport which at that time had a full cross-runway and a main runway was able to have its aviation area reduced. The proposal to make money out of this sale was to shorten dramatically the cross-runway and to allow the non-use for aviation purposes of a whole lot of land associated with it which of course because it was in a very desirable area could be subdivided and built on. 
That prospectus equally quietly disappeared. Raj Thompson who was either a reporter for or the editor of a newspaper called the  
Horowhenua-Kapiti Chronicle 
 based I think in Paraparaumu interviewed me and others several times about this issue. At that time we could not find a rationale as to why the National Government of the day was selling the airport and why it had made the decision to sell land valued at $8 million for only $1.6 million—an absolute bargain to the buyer. Of course if one is the owner of an airport and one decides not to maintain the cross-runway so that it falls into disrepair and cannot be used and one does not maintain for example the runway landing lights then obviously the Civil Aviation Authority will eventually say the airport is unsafe for use. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. A basic rule of the Standings Orders is that the debate has to be relevant. This is a first reading speech on the Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill and we cannot have a general excursus on civil aviation and the Minister’s experience of it. We really have to focus on the purpose of the bill and the mechanisms it contains for the particular purposes advanced by the member for Otaki. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I will rule on the point of order. The member was addressing the bill. 
Hon HARRY DUYNHOVEN 
: If I can help the member I say it is useful to provide some background for the benefit of new members so that they actually understand what happened in the period leading up to this bill. The Airports Authorities Amendment Act of 1996 was designed exactly in order to prevent this sort of nonsense from going ahead again. Ever since we have had fights about whether an airport is an essential piece of infrastructure and about whether the land held for aviation purposes at this particular airport should have been allowed to shrink so as to liberate a whole lot of land for residential development. 
The bill itself says it is absolutely clear that a number of deficiencies were not addressed. The land for Paraparaumu Airport was originally taken under the Public Works Act. It was not offered back to its original owners who were highly aggrieved about the sale process. The local council was influenced to change its designation over industrial land in order to free it up for real estate purposes which made an enormous amount of extra money for the investors in the airport. The investors in the airport according to Mr Williamson’s actual requirements for sale had to have aviation interests. We later found that one of the aviation interests was a baker who kept bread in a hangar at the airport. Another of the aviation interests of the investors was a helicopter based at Lindale Tourist and Agricultural Centre that was sometimes refuelled at the airport—not a close connection. Yet the aeroclub which was actually able to demonstrate a quite clear aviation interest was ruled out of the bidding process. Worse than that the successful bidders put in a bid at that stage saying they would bid up to $100000 above the next-highest bidder. In other words it was an open tender up to a certain amount with a premium of $100000. What sort of a shonky process was that? 
I commend the member for the bill and recommend it to the House.