Railways Bill

Mine will not be a long contribution. I accept that the Minister has stood and clarified why clause 51(a) has been inserted in the bill, but I draw his attention to new clause 48 on the same Supplementary Order Paper

💬 Hon Harry Duynhoven: Which clause?

Clause 48. It is a modification of the existing clause 48, but I think it gives the Minister all the powers he needs to do everything that he just outlined to us. I cannot find any need for clause 51(a) to be reinserted into the bill. Having said that, New Zealand First is quite happy with this bill. As I said in the second reading speech, we believe that the railway needs a safety regime that is more practical and a little bit more comprehensive than the current regime. We are very supportive of this bill. If the Minister wants to put in clause 51(a), we have no real beef with that. We can understand it, but we do not think it is necessary. We accept the Minister’s explanation but we think the issue is well covered.

I conclude by saying once again that a lot of work was put into this by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and by officials. I would like to compliment the officials. They went back three or four times to various rail participants.

💬 Hon Maurice Williamson: We were quite hard on them.

I think we bullied them a little bit, if the truth is told. But they came back and delivered the goods and I think they have a pretty good bill. I am a little disappointed that the Government did not see fit to alert us to this Supplementary Order Paper. The Government had a lot of cooperation from the Opposition parties and we would appreciate a little—

💬 Hon Maurice Williamson: It was nearly a case of all bets are off, I tell you.

It got close to that. It touched on our sensitivities. But I think the Minister has taken the point on board. When the Government gets cooperation, as it has on this bill, it would be nice if it would say: “Look, we just want to amend it a little bit. Would you guys like to give it some sort of consideration?”. But the Government is the Government, and one gets consideration from the Government only by insulting one’s own colleagues and calling them goodness knows what. Then one gets considered by the Prime Minister, and one gets cuddles. But by cooperating with the Government one gets nothing except treated with a degree of contempt. I conclude by saying that New Zealand First will be supporting this legislation.

I thank members for their support of this bill. It is a very sensible bill. In answer to Mr Peter Brown, the purpose of clause 48 is to line the bill up better with the new land transport legislation—simply to reflect better the wording of the two pieces of legislation and to make them work better together. I think we should proceed with the voting.

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 353 in the name of the Hon Pete Hodgson to Parts 2 to 4 and the schedules be agreed to.

Amendments agreed to, and Parts 2 to 4 and schedules as amended agreed to.

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2 agreed to.

Bill reported with amendment.

Report adopted.

Third Reading