Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill

As I was saying before the lunch break, the bill also amends several other Acts to ensure that the special insolvency regime provided for in the Aircraft Protocol prevails over any inconsistent domestic processes.

The bill also makes changes to the Civil Aviation Act to streamline the civil aviation rule-making process. Transport legislation, including the Act, contains provisions authorising the Minister of Transport to make ordinary transport rules. These include requirements relating to public notification of, and consultation on, intended rules, and a mandatory 28-day rule between the gazetting of a rule and when it comes into force. These, together with the subsequent addition of a Cabinet process, have resulted in a complex and lengthier rule-making process.

In 2008 the previous Government decided that the rules system should remain, but should be more flexible. This Government agrees with that approach and has moved more aggressively to streamline the rule-making process and reduce overall costs. This bill therefore amends the Civil Aviation Act of 1990 to enable civil aviation rules to be made by Order in Council, to repeal mandatory notification requirements and replace them with a requirement for notification as considered appropriate by the Minister of Transport, and to repeal the mandatory 28-day rule. It will also align the Act with the Land Transport Act of 1998 in relation to incorporation by reference of standards into rules, and the power of the director to determine—

💬 Hon Steve Chadwick: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. With respect to the Minister—oh, the microphones have come on. We could not hear the Minister because of the noise in the House.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker): The member is quite right. There was noise on both sides of the House, and I was waving and gesticulating to people for them to calm down, rather than interrupt the Minister’s speech—and now we have interrupted it. Could I just make the point that there is a lot of extraneous noise in the Chamber, and could people give the appropriate courtesy to Nathan Guy.

I thank the member for that. As I was saying, it will also align the Act with the Land Transport Act of 1998 in relation to incorporation by reference of standards into rules, and the power of the director to determine technical matters under these rules.

The Government would like the potential financial savings to our aviation industry to become quickly available this year. A 3-month time lag before accession to the convention and protocols is effective means that for accession to be in force by 1 October this year the bill would need to progress through all stages by 24 June. Subject to Royal assent occurring by 29 June, the instruments of accession could then be lodged by 30 June, and accession be in force for New Zealand 3 months later. I commend this bill to the House.

I rise to speak in support of the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I congratulate my local MP, Nathan Guy, on how well his reading is coming on. He read that speech beautifully. Maybe the national standards will help some people, after all. In that respect, he brought energy to legislation that the House finds itself in urgency to consider today.

💬 Hon Member: Where did you get your suit?

The question is where he got his suit from. I bet it is a foreign suit. I bet it is an import. I can guarantee that it will not have been made locally.

This bill, as the Associate Minister of Transport explained, is highly technical in nature; I think his speech made that pretty clear. It brings New Zealand into line with one convention that presumably, we hope, will have quite a practical impact for a number of countries, including New Zealand, in respect of the way in which international financing is handled for assets such as aircraft and aircraft engines.

Labour will be supporting this bill. It is unusual for Labour to support legislation that is introduced under urgency, not referred to a select committee for public consideration, and not given the chance for reflection, but I am aware that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has conducted quite an extensive and, I am advised, exciting inquiry into the Cape Town convention. The committee has left no stone unturned when it comes to the various clauses that make up that convention. Therefore, the legislation that flows from the inquiry that the committee has undertaken will probably on this occasion suffice as enough for the ratification of that convention by Parliament, through the legislation.

I want to speak about only a couple of issues at the first reading. I know that my colleagues who have sat through the inquiry will want to make more fulsome comments on some of the other matters. I know that my colleague Darien Fenton will have some issues around civil aviation safety, which I know she is keen to explore with the House as this bill goes through.

It seems to me that one of the best things about this convention is that it takes an activity that is, by definition, multinational, although there are strong domestic aviation markets. When we think of long-distance air travel, it occurs between countries. Therefore, it involves many, many Governments in many, many jurisdictions and different environments where alternative legal operations take place. In an industry where the capital costs of these assets, like aircraft and aircraft engines, are so significant and, therefore, the leasing of them is not a cheap action, the way these arrangements are arrived at becomes critical for a competitive aviation market, for the ability of air travel to take place without the steep costs of compliance because of the concern of creditors for the location of their assets.

One of the things the convention is doing that is very good is it is recognising the whole point of air travel, which is contact. We have economic contact through trade. New Zealand is a small country that exports significantly some our freshest products, which need to arrive at market in a fresh condition, and of course air freight is very important. There is also people to people contact, as people travel as passengers in civil aviation.

The convention will allow creditors to file directly with an international registry by computer. They will be able to do that electronically, thereby cutting enormously the amount of time it would take if this had to be done by another form of civil aviation, such as pigeon post or carrier mail. They will be able to do that from wherever they are in the world. Wherever there may be a dispute or a concern about an asset, that action will be able to take place.

I notice that the Irish Government has volunteered to host matters where there is litigation or where there is the requirement of the intervention of a court. From what I have read, that seems to have been welcomed by most of the players who take an interest in this area as a way of Ireland’s efficient legal system effectively exporting its skills, and the location of Dublin is where any disputes will take place. This will reduce risk and uncertainty, and of course that has to be good for New Zealand.

But this is an international convention, and we should not focus only on the benefits for this country. By signing this convention, it is hoped that developing countries will be able to take advantage of the lower costs to them by having such a regime take place. Often in those countries, where there are fledging markets, those costs can be very high barriers for people wanting to enter into international aviation. So our hope would be that not only is this measure good for New Zealand, because of our geography, isolation, and strong dependence on exporting, but also it will bring some assistance to other countries around the world—particularly the developing countries, where achieving these sorts of arrangements in civil aviation could make quite a difference to those countries.

Despite its complexity, I do not think that the bill will find itself the subject of huge attention this afternoon. Its moment in the spotlight might be more brief than the work that has been done to bring it to this point, but that should in no way take away from the fact that it is quite a practical resolution of an issue that every year different companies and countries find themselves dealing with. The Labour Opposition is very pleased to support the first reading of the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, and we will be supporting it as it passes through the House this afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity.

In following on from previous speakers in respect of the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, I say that everybody will be pretty much in unanimous agreement that when it comes to our transport sector—especially aviation, which is such an international part of the transport sector—we want to have uniform rules that are consistent with other countries, so that those who provide those services know they have some security. This bill will give security to those who hold financial security interests in the cross-border transactions involving planes and suchlike. It is an important thing for our international competitiveness, for our international connections, and for our international transport linkages.

The fine Transport and Industrial Relations Committee, with members from both sides of the House, will take an active interest in this bill and make sure that everything is well advanced through this House. We want this process to be successful for all parties involved and for the country so we get those transport issues sorted in order to give security to everybody who will be needing it in the future for their investments. Thank you.

It is an absolute privilege to take a call on the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2010. I have been waiting with bated breath and great anticipation to take a call on this bill, because it is such a riveting and exciting bill! But, you know, I do not want to belittle the bill, because I know it is important. As other members have said, the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee examined the treaty and reported back to the House 4 or 5 weeks ago. I want to thank very much the officials who took us through this convention. It was a very interesting experience, and I think the officials did their very, very best to try to make it interesting for the members of the committee, and I genuinely thank them for that.

The national interest analysis that is attached to the report from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee on the treaty examination is very, very thorough, and perhaps, if I have the chance later on in the Committee stage, I may talk about some of the advantages. But there are also some disadvantages, as explained to us by the officials, that I think are worth considering.

Labour is supporting the bill, because it is pretty uncontroversial. It amends domestic legislation so that New Zealand can be party to an international convention on aircraft ownership. I cannot help myself with this legislation, because here we are with a convention. I am aware that New Zealand tries to be a good global citizen by participating in global agreements and playing a leadership role in that. So the question comes up again for me as to why we support this convention but not one on fundamental rights for domestic workers, which our Government voted against at the International Labour Organization 2 weeks ago. It voted alongside countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Kuwait, to prevent an international standard that would provide protection to domestic workers throughout the world but also in New Zealand. We have not received an explanation for why our country voted in opposition to countries like the USA, Australia, the UK, and the Philippines, and I think it is very damaging to our reputation.

As I said, although I am pleased that we are supporting this bill across the House, I am still very, very concerned about our position, especially as a former National Party MP, Marilyn Waring, has offered an apology to the women of the Commonwealth for New Zealand’s vote against the proposed ILO convention. She said that New Zealanders are “ashamed, saddened and outraged that the principles which we hold dear, and try to live by, have been abrogated by the government of New Zealand.” Despite what the Minister says, this is a convention that would have affected New Zealand workers. There are around 20,000 home-based care workers in New Zealand, and thousands more throughout the world. So we talk in this debate about developing countries and how this convention will help them, but we do not care about the thousands of domestic workers throughout the world who have no rights. The overwhelming majority of New Zealand domestic workers are very poorly paid, and they are excluded from the discrimination provisions of the Human Rights Act.

Although we support this convention, the following question came to my attention when I was thinking about this: how can we agree on this across the House, when we have this situation at the ILO? New Zealand has had a good reputation, particularly under the previous Government, and that is slowly being eroded.

As other members have mentioned, this bill also contains amendments to the Civil Aviation Act. The amendments are designed to introduce more flexibility into civil aviation rule-making. I want to make a couple of comments about air safety. The Minister is not here, but perhaps later I can ask him some questions. The Civil Aviation Authority does a good job, given its paucity of funding and the challenges of regulating aircraft operation in New Zealand, commercial and recreational, which is a very wide-ranging operation. An issue that came up recently concerned Queenstown Airport. We wrote to the Civil Aviation Authority asking about safety issues at Queenstown Airport. It is a difficult airport and there have been media reports about a lack of experience in the control tower and an increasing number of safety incidents. The Associate Minister of Transport, Nathan Guy, will be pleased to know that Airways Corporation of New Zealand wrote back to us on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority with assurances that staffing and training levels are more than adequate for this particular airport.

That is all well and good, but what happened last week? Two pilots apparently used their airside security passes to sneak on to the Queenstown Airport runway in the middle of the night to race a car. The boy-racer legislation did not apply to them, obviously. Needless to say, those pilots put the lives of others at risk, and they ended up being banned from all airport land for 2 years. OK, that is the right outcome. So the authority that Mr Guy is responsible for has provided us with perfectly reasonable answers to our valid concerns, but I have to say that these perfectly reasonable answers have not prevented a couple of cowboy pilots from drag racing on the airstrip at Queenstown. I encourage the Minister to be more vigilant about these sorts of things. We cannot have these sorts of security concerns happening at our airports.

I want to raise another issue in respect of civil aviation. The Associate Minister recently made an announcement about the monitoring of commercial pilots for drug and alcohol issues. There are two things. The Civil Aviation Authority will work with the Ministry of Justice to introduce random checks on commercial pilots for any criminal convictions that have not been declared, and, secondly, it will introduce an electronic database that will enable them to more effectively gather information and monitor any trends. Labour supports these initiatives, and I really want to say that Labour members do not believe there is any room for drug and alcohol use among pilots. I do have to reflect, though, that Air New Zealand has had monitoring systems in place for many years, and it was quite aggrieved at the suggestion that it had not. In actual fact, the problem is with small aircraft and small commercial airlines.

It seemed as though Mr Guy was being pretty proactive in terms of his press release of 1 April. But what it did not say was that the Civil Aviation Authority had repeatedly been asking for more powers to identify pilots with drinking problems, but unfortunately the Minister had been sitting on his hands. The Christchurch Press obtained a briefing to the Minister under the Official Information Act. It was written just a month earlier and states that the existing system is heavily dependent on individuals acting responsibly and self disclosing information relating to their drug and alcohol use. But it also shows that the Civil Aviation Authority had proposed a series of measures, including limits for drug and alcohol use, but that nothing had been done.

As members will see, although Labour supports this convention there are some concerns. If I had more time I would mention many more, but perhaps I will get to those during the second and the third readings. We have many concerns around civil aviation, the things we need to be doing in New Zealand to ensure the safety of people who fly in New Zealand, and, of course, meeting our international obligations, thereby making it easier for our airline industry to operate internationally and to meet our obligations to other countries. Thank you.

Kia ora, Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. It is a great honour to be here today to talk about the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. We could hear the passion in the Minister’s voice when he was talking before. As I have been tweeting over the last couple of days about the House being in urgency, I have been asked by lots of people in tweets, blogs, and Facebook messages why the House is in urgency. They are asking about the most important thing that we will be debating and which regional council we are sacking this time. I have been telling them what I will be debating, which is the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. This is an important bill. The Green Party will be supporting it, given that we have 4,431 aircraft, including microlights and balloons, in New Zealand, and they flew 214 million kilometres in the last year. It is an important bill, and the Green Party will be supporting it. But I want to outline a few parts of the bill and a few of our concerns as we go into this debate.

The bill, the convention, and the protocol are private legal agreements that will significantly improve the financial security for investors in cross-border trades of things like aircraft, railway rolling stock, and other large and expensive equipment. The convention enables creditors to access a registry. I wonder whether the status quo actually works all right. We have a register in New Zealand for our aircraft companies. It will be considerably more expensive to register through the new Irish registry under this bill. But I guess the airline companies and other parties who will be using the provisions of this legislation will point to the fact that it will help them with finance when they are purchasing new heavy equipment such as aircraft, and that some of the financial benefits could be in the order of $18 million to $325 million.

We have to question whether we even need this treaty. It is interesting that the House is in urgency to look at this bill. Perhaps we needed urgency to get this done, when we consider that the treaty was signed in Cape Town in 2001 and came into force in 2006, that the Ministry of Transport began looking at it in 2004, and that the previous Government agreed in principle to support it in 2005. We are 9 years on from the signing of the treaty, so I guess we needed urgency in order to give it a push along.

My final point, and something that I look forward to picking up in my second reading speech, is that on the one hand this bill is not controversial. It is logical to establish an international rule-based framework to look at the issue of default. We support having greater international cooperation and reducing the risks for Kiwi and foreign corporates. But on the other hand do we actually want to see a growth in airline emissions? In my second reading speech I will look at some of the environmental and climatic impacts of the worldwide aviation industry, and I think an important question is whether we in New Zealand want to support and subsidise the pollution from our aircraft industry, when we know that the world is burning and we do not have a “Planet B”. I look forward to addressing that issue in my second reading speech, but I say the Green Party will be supporting this bill.

I am pleased to support the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, and I will begin with a couple of remarks.

Firstly, I welcome the support that the Opposition parties are giving to this bill in the House, and I express my regret that the Opposition does not find its way clear to support other significant bills that this Government has brought to the House. In particular, the significant tax cuts that this Government is to deliver to New Zealanders on 1 October this year come to mind.

The second observation I make is that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee was well briefed by officials on the significance of this bill. If memory serves me right, I think that I was—

💬 Hon Darren Hughes: It doesn’t.

My memory serves me very, very well—I am sorry, I have forgotten the member’s name.

💬 Chris Tremain: It’s Hughes.

I apologise to Mr Hughes. My memory serves me very, very well sometimes. However, I am not very good on the names of Labour Party politicians. As I was saying, from my recollection I was the only member of the select committee who asked the officials for explanations. I was particularly interested—[Interruption] I ask the chair of the committee whether I am wrong.

💬 David Bennett: No, I don’t think so.

Indeed, I think I am right. I was particularly interested in knowing whether this bill, when it becomes law, will reduce the need for lawyers to become involved in this sort of thing and for litigation to occur. I am pleased to report to the House that I was assured that there would be considerably less need for lawyers and less need for litigation. That was a good enough reason for me to support this bill.

💬 Charles Chauvel: You don’t hear me bashing teachers!

From listening to the interjections that are coming from a corner opposite, I am almost inclined to take the view that we could do with having fewer lawyers in this House, as well. After all, our job is to make the law, not pontificate about it, and there is a big difference between the two in relation to the member.

This convention is about the financing of mobile equipment, and by “mobile equipment” we mean things like aircraft, railway rolling stock, and even space assets. That is what the bill is all about. The bill is designed to make raising and repaying the finance needed in order to purchase mobile equipment like aircraft much easier. At the moment, if there is a dispute over, for example, payment for release, it can involve more than one jurisdiction, a whole pile of other laws, and far too many lawyers. This bill is designed to simplify the process and to give much greater certainty around it, not just to those who lend the money but also to those who borrow it. There will be greater certainty. The ultimate objective, of course, is to ensure that those who lend the money no longer require a premium charge, to account for the risk that they have to take. By reducing the risk, the raising of funding to finance the purchase of mobile equipment like aircraft should become simpler, and it should be cheaper. Of course, for a country like New Zealand, which depends on aircraft more than many other countries do, anything that makes that dependence cheaper is to be applauded. I commend the bill to the House.

It is with great pleasure that I too rise to discuss the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I too am a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and have been briefed on this convention. Labour supports this bill, as others have said. It is uncontroversial. It has a couple of purposes, one of which is to amend the domestic legislation, including both the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and the Personal Property Securities Act 1999, so that New Zealand can become a party to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, which Mr Peachey just described to us. I will not go into a lot of detail about that, but I will reinforce the key points. This convention will standardise transactions involving movable property, particularly aircraft and aircraft engines, and will set down international standards for the registration of ownership. The second part, which I will come back to, clarifies some rather convoluted legalese in the Civil Aviation Act relating to the making of rules and who can apply them.

The Cape Town Convention and its associated Aircraft Protocol were originally negotiated under the auspices of a United Nations agency. I concur with the comments made by my colleague Darien Fenton about the importance of international conventions and of New Zealand playing a lead role in them and making sure that we are at the forefront of compliance with international best practice in every regard, including in employment-related matters and transport-related matters, which we are currently discussing. Essentially, this convention aims to establish a balance between enhancing creditor rights, which will, as Mr Peachey said, help to reduce aircraft financing costs, while also improving debtor protections. It is designed to be flexible, and it can be applied to any type of high-value mobile equipment.

The Aircraft Protocol that I mentioned earlier, the Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment, applies to aircraft, airframes, aircraft engines, and helicopters above a minimum size or threshold. I thought that the House might be interested in getting a little more detail on that, because it is fascinating. Let me tell members that it applies to aircraft that can carry at least eight people or 2,750 kilograms of cargo, aircraft engines with a thrust exceeding 1,750 pounds of force or 550 horsepower, and helicopters that can carry five or more passengers.

As the name of the treaty probably gives away, the treaty resulted from a diplomatic conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2001. I am sure that members really want to know about the mechanics of the convention! The mechanics of the convention centre on the recognition of international interests in mobile equipment and the creation of an international registry in which creditors will file these interests. As has already been mentioned, that registry will be maintained in Ireland. The international interests are secured interests in a uniquely identifiable object. Once those international interests have been filed by a creditor, they become searchable in the international registry held in Ireland. The creditor’s interest will have priority over all subsequent registered interests and unregistered interests. The underlying premise is simple: if we can reduce some of the risk to financiers in extending credit, we can reduce the financing costs for the debtor and to the industry as a whole.

Currently the problem is that financiers have to rely on differing national laws to protect their interests. Clearly, those laws would be quite variable around the globe. In many countries the risk factors are significant, because the local laws are not very useful in protecting lenders in the event of default or bankruptcy, or because they are highly unpredictable. Of course, as we would expect with regard to aircraft, this uncertainty is compounded by the fact that aircraft can move readily between countries. It can be very difficult for a financier to know where an aircraft will be on the date of default or bankruptcy. That uncertainty drives up the cost of aircraft financing, which is then reflected in the interest rates that the financier charges the debtor. As I have said, the convention will reduce that uncertainty and will provide financiers with a number of key rights in respect of any aircraft. Those rights are, should there be a default, to deregister the aircraft and procure its export, to take possession or control of the aircraft, to sell or grant a lease for the aircraft, and to collect or receive income or profits arising from the management or use of the aircraft.

The extent to which the rights that I have just outlined will be a function of the declaration that we in New Zealand make will be seen at the time that we formally ratify this convention. Obviously the international registry based in Ireland, as we can expect in the modern age, will be able to be directly accessed by computer from anywhere in the world. That will be very useful.

I will go on to talk about a couple of other matters. The first of these concerns the flexibility of civil aviation rule-making, which is the other major part of this bill. The present provisions relating to the making of ordinary rules are not very straightforwardly expressed. The bill specifies that an ordinary rule allows a matter to be determined by the authority, the director, or other persons. It empowers the authority, the director, or any other person to impose requirements or conditions. There are consultation requirements there, which I am very pleased to see; I am a great believer in consultation. During my short time in Parliament so far I have been disappointed by a number of the consultation provisions that we have seen, and particularly the consultation regarding the Auckland super-city. That has been a sham. The legislation that has reduced local democracy and corporatised local government in Auckland has been rammed through by the Government with a mere nod in the general direction of consultation. So I can only hope that in relation to the important matter of the civil aviation rules, the consultation requirement will be more robust.

The second issue that I will also talk to members about relates to helicopters, because helicopters are covered by this convention. Those that are certified to transport at least five persons, including the crew, are included in the Cape Town Convention. A situation has arisen in New Zealand regarding helicopters, and it is important to talk about it. A requirement by the Civil Aviation Authority is causing some concern in relation to the work of rescue helicopters. They now apparently have to be twin engined, because we cannot afford to take the risk of a machine crashing into a hospital. I note that no rescue helicopter has yet crashed into a hospital in New Zealand. But just to be certain that it will not happen, that requirement is apparently now being put in place. The effect of that requirement can be quite troublesome for all of the fine people involved in operating rescue helicopters in New Zealand—something that we are all proud of, and reliant upon.

The upshot is that in quite a few instances single-engine machines now have to operate away from their dedicated helipads. That will require patients to be potentially carried by stretchers, for example, or ferried by an ambulance at a critical time. We all know about the golden hour—I hope we all do. I hope we have all had our first-aid training and that we understand the importance of the first critical hour after an accident, and the need to get medical attention. Any barriers to helicopters getting patients to hospitals are very worrying given that golden hour, which is essential in saving the lives of critically injured people. So we are concerned about the directive relating to helicopters, helipads, and hospitals. We do not think that it is a necessary requirement in terms of safety. We are certainly worried about the implications for a patient’s health. There are, of course, also implications for all of the good people who raise funds from the community to get the machines that the rescue trusts operate, which are so important to us in a country that is not highly populated and where people can be a long way from the nearest hospital. So we question why the Minister, Steven Joyce, or his Associate Minister, Nathan Guy, did not step in to show some leadership over this issue of helicopters. These are our rescue helicopters, as I have been saying. Perhaps somebody would like to deal with that question in the course of this debate.

I will leave the bill at this point for now. I do have a couple more speeches, members will be pleased to know, to give on this matter.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tātou katoa e te Whare. Apparently, this bill, the Civil Aviation (Cape Town Convention and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, is about establishing procedures to protect investments in aviation and to cover the financing, purchasing, and leasing of aircraft, but it also gives the Minister of Transport extra powers in the making of civil aviation rules. That raises a couple of points that I would like to speak to.

The first is the Manukau claim. When the Waitangi Tribunal first heard this claim in the 1980s, it brought to the table the Auckland Regional Authority and the civil aviation division of the Ministry of Transport in order to question them about the site that they had chosen and the site that they used. It was noted back then that when Cabinet made the land available in 1955, there had been no acknowledgment of either Māori land title or the need to protect Māori land interests. Auckland Airport sits on 1,300 hectares, including reclaimed land that had once been a local iwi fishing bank and that was the basis of the Manukau claim. Expanding airport operations have led to even greater restrictions on other fishing banks and creeks traditionally fished by local Māori, and they have also led to the release of excessive levels of pollution from stormwater discharge, aviation fuel spills, and industrial chemicals and fluids.

In summing up the Manukau claim, the Waitangi Tribunal had some harsh words for the Crown regarding the pollution of the harbour and the loss of tangata whenua lands: “… underlying this claim is an enormous sense of grievance, injustice and outrage that continues to haunt the Manukau Maori and bedevil the prospect of harmony in greater Auckland.” Yet for all the laying down of rules of engagement between Māori and the Crown in that case, the exact same problem occurred when a local marae raised its own longstanding claim to land and airspace around Rotorua airport. Back in the 1960s, local authorities in Rotorua had decided to bulldoze the whare tūpuna of the Ngāti Uenukukōpako people, because it was in the flight path. The iwi, of course, refused. Fifty years on, the airport authority builds a new $24 million extension to the runway, and, again, nobody is surprised that there is no regard whatsoever for the impact on the marae, the kōhanga reo, or the iwi itself.

The Māori Party will be supporting all stages of this bill, but the examples I have cited here raise the question again as to when it is appropriate to amend legislation to take into account the circumstances of iwi. It gives us the opportunity to remind the House again of the importance of recognising Māori interests in policy planning and legislation. Kia ora tātou.

Bill read a first time.

Second Reading