Locke Keith: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Locke Keith: Civil Aviation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11360] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 It is a very difficult legal area to determine where the jurisdiction of New Zealand ends and the authority of the pilot begins particularly in dealing with unruly passengers. I think we can illustrate that with the recent case of the Sri Lankan girl who was deported. She clearly arrived at the airport in a very distressed state from all reports—television reports and others—and she was allowed on to the plane. Who was responsible for the offence of allowing that person who could according to a certain definition be described as unruly—in that she was definitely making a lot of noise—to get on to that plane? Under this provision here in this bill under the infringement procedure the pilot of the aircraft is supposed to inform the police about an unruly passenger. Well in this case the police were accompanying the unruly passenger and let that passenger on to the plane in an unruly state. The passenger’s state was such that I understand she was sedated. Under New Zealand law one cannot sedate someone against his or her will so who committed an offence there? 
Simon Power 
: Was she sedated before she got on the plane or on the plane? 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I understand it happened on the plane but that is something that perhaps could be investigated. Possibly the investigation that is under way could be expanded to cover that particular point. That case raises a problem and I think it shows that we have to have some consistency. If we had slightly more humanitarian immigration and asylum-seeker policies we may not end up with that sort of situation of pushing people on planes when they are in an unruly state of coming up against the contradictions in this legislation and of putting undue pressure on pilots to make those sorts of decisions about how to protect the interests of other passengers. 
I want to get on to another question. I do not quite agree with Deborah Coddington. In fact I do not agree at all that we should take on to planes items of self-defence and form posses etc. But I do spring to the defence of knitters. I have had a lot of complaints from knitters who go on planes. Some people are compulsive knitters. The situation is bad enough for smokers with the provision—and I support this provision—stopping passengers from smoking but I do not think we need to go further down the track against knitters. There are particularly compulsive knitters who do not have anyone to talk to who are on their own in a seat and who do not have a book to read. Those people want to knit and their knitting needles are stolen—and that is the only word I can use—as they get on to the plane. I think that we are really extending things if we think that the terrorist threat in the world today comes from a lot of people who look very harmless. Some of them are quite aged; some of them are in their 70s and 80s. But that does not matter—they get their knitting needles stolen from them. 
There has been a moderation in the seizure of items from people getting on to planes. When the measures first came in after September 11 I lost a couple of pairs of nail scissors. The law was then moderated a little and people had to have nail scissors over a certain length. My nail scissors get past the screening procedures now so that is a progressive step. I also understand with regard to knitting needles that there has been a certain relaxation for people with plastic rather than steel knitting needles. Sometimes people can creep by with plastic knitting needles. I do not know whether there is a minimum or a maximum length but I did hear—and perhaps I should not report this—that a friend of mine with steel knitting needles was let through the other day. So perhaps informally the situation is loosening up. I hear supportive comments from different parties in this House. If we got together and had a push on the question of knitting needles we may get an exception for them. We could even put forward an amendment to this legislation. I do not have the drafting skills to immediately construct an amendment but I would support such a change.