Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill

I move, That the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill be now read a third time. The bill establishes a new law to govern space activities conducted from New Zealand and by New Zealand nationals offshore. It covers the launch of space objects such as rockets and satellites into outer space and regulates space launch facilities. It also establishes a regime to govern certain high-altitude activities such as high-altitude balloons.

People rely on space for everyday services like telecommunications, high-speed internet, navigation and place-based information, climate monitoring, and emergency management. The rapid evolution of space technology is creating new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, recognising the potential for significant economic and innovation benefits. The purpose of the bill is to facilitate the development of a space industry while providing the necessary protections to manage the risks associated with space activities, and to meet our international obligations.

When I listened to the speeches during the Committee stage a consistent theme was that this bill is a very significant and exciting piece of legislation. It creates opportunities for New Zealand to be part of a global space economy that will generate real economic benefits for New Zealanders. The bill captured the imagination of members of Parliament. We heard about the possibilities that a New Zealand - based space industry will create, such as high-value jobs, exciting career paths, and a more diversified economy.

I was elated, like so many New Zealanders, when I saw Rocket Lab’s recent successful test launch from the world’s first private launch facility on the Māhia Peninsula. It epitomised what this bill is about, and that is enabling New Zealand to bring its talents, skills, and technology to the world stage.

This bill provides a regulatory framework for the space industry. It allows companies to operate safely, while encouraging innovation and industry development. The bill puts in place a number of controls on who may participate in space activities. These controls include ensuring the applicant has the necessary technical capability, can demonstrate that they will manage public safety throughout the operation, and is a fit and proper person to hold a licence to undertake the activity.

The bill also enables the responsible Minister to decline an application if he or she is not satisfied that the operation would be in the national interest. The ethos of this bill is to take a flexible and proportionate approach to managing risk. Overseas experience has shown that imposing onerous requirements generally on all industry participants is the surest way to stifle an emerging industry. One of the tools that the bill uses to avoid this is by enabling licence conditions to be tailored as appropriate to manage a particular activity. The bill also seeks to minimise compliance costs for operators by, for example, enabling overseas licences to satisfy New Zealand’s requirements. This will help position New Zealand as an internationally competitive location for space activities.

A number of changes were made to the bill during the select committee process to clarify the intent of the provisions and improve the workability of the regulatory regime. I want to acknowledge the constructive input from the members of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and the people who took the time to make submissions on the bill. The Government and, I think, the Parliament supports the development of an internationally credible, competitive, and well-connected New Zealand - based space economy that can make a difference in our everyday lives. I am confident that the bill does just that but at the same time provides a comprehensive basis for regulating space activities and managing risks. I commend the bill to the House.

There was no need to regulate outer space and high-altitude activities in New Zealand until they started to happen, so it is a good thing that we are actually having to do this—

💬 Hon Simon Bridges: That’s pretty deep, dude.

“Pretty deep.” he says. Well, Minister, thank you for that compliment. There is no doubt that the trigger for this has been Rocket Lab’s success, and on all sides of the House we celebrate that. I know that one of my colleagues recently informed me that some of the technical capability that lies behind this mainly carbon fibre rocket arose out of earlier America’s Cup activities, where the carbon fibre industry was, effectively, stimulated by those yachting events in past years. That led to the growth and capability of one of the technologies that is now used by Rocket Lab to send these rockets into space.

The legislation is good legislation and Labour supports it, but referring to the Minister’s comments about how important this sort of thing is for New Zealand’s economic growth, I think it falls to me to highlight why it is that we need to do better in terms of growing both our exports and our productivity, and both of those things are linked.

This Government came to office in 2008 on the promise to increase exports from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP—i.e., exports would become a larger proportion of our economy. Since then, in the 9 years that it has been in Government, it has overseen a decrease in exports as a proportion of the economy, and exports currently sit around 27 percent of GDP—far from having increased from 30 towards 40 percent of GDP, they have gone backwards. To the end of the forecast period in the latest Budget documents produced by the Government, the forecast is that by the end of that period they still do not even get back to 30 percent of GDP.

We have to ask ourselves in this House why that is. Why is it that our exports are falling? A large part of that is because of the poor productivity story that we have in New Zealand. In the last week we have seen two pieces of information in that regard that should be concerning us in the House. The first is that GDP per capita fell 0.1 percent in the March quarter, having fallen 0.2 percent in the prior quarter. So that is two quarters in a row where productivity per capita has gone backwards. Per capita per hour worked fell even more by 1.3 percent in the year. So the fact that nominal GDP has gone up has been driven by population increase, not by the increasing cleverness of our economy. It has been, effectively, more people consuming more goods and services in New Zealand that has been the driver of growth. Indeed, the key difference was the 2.1 percent rise in population in the year.

So the OECD was here doing one of its periodic reports on New Zealand just last week. It looked into this issue, and it made the point that New Zealand’s productivity growth is poor and it is worse than Australia’s. Again, we should be holding the Government to account for the poor export and productivity performance: exports going backwards as a percentage of the economy and productivity growth being very, very lacklustre. The OECD said that we cannot rely upon the likes of the outer space bill to fix that and we actually need economy-wide measures. It says, amongst its recommendations last week, that we need to review the tax system—we know that we have got some terrible tax imbalances in New Zealand driving investor prices paid for housing in Auckland ever higher because of the tax advantages people get holding houses for speculative capital gains, whilst we have got under-investment in the productive economy. So it says we should be looking at those issues as a country.

Further, it says that Government should be increasing its spending in subsidies for research and development expenditure, and one of the big differences between this side of the House and the Opposition and the Government benches is that we think that we should have a research and development tax credit so that there is a tax incentive for greater investment in research and development. This is because despite the success of Rocket Lab, as a country we are still one of the poor performers in the OECD when it comes to investment in research and development.

So this bill, good though it is, in respect of regulating activities that are firing objects into high altitude or into space, does not do anything substantial to cure those problems that are at the heart of New Zealand’s low productivity, which affects people in their daily lives, because wage growth for two-thirds of New Zealanders in the last year was lower than inflation. That is what happens when you have poor productivity growth: the economy cannot afford to pay people higher wages in real terms. That is the consequence of the last 9 years of economic management, or mismanagement, by the current Government.

In respect of the details of this bill, one of the changes that was recommended by submitters to the bill—we have other actors in the New Zealand economy who are concerned with outer space and high-altitude activities, notably around Invercargill, where for some years they have had a space monitoring station there, which was co-funded by the European Space Agency because that satellite tracking station can monitor satellite activity in the southern skies in a way that cannot be done from more northerly parts of the world. The Southland economic development unit—that is not its correct name, but that is the nature of its role—

💬 Dr Megan Woods: Venture Southland.

Venture Southland, thank you, Dr Woods. Venture Southland, with funding from the European Space Agency, set up this space tracking station south of Invercargill, which brings some revenue into the area. It made the point that if New Zealand is going to be regulating this space, we have to make it clear to people that our intentions are peaceful. We are not North Korea. We are not trying to increase armaments out in outer space. We are not intending to put into space things that could shoot down other satellites. Our objectives are entirely peaceful. That was not altogether clear on the face of the wording in the original bill, which referred, rather blandly, to our international obligations but did not describe what they were.

In fact, the international obligations that are now referred to in the purpose clause, clause 3, of the bill record the obligations now in the Outer Space Treaty, which is an international treaty, under the United Nations, to which we are a party. Those obligations include not to launch things that are weapons of mass destruction or nuclear, not to establish military bases, and not to test any weapons in space. These are emphasising that our intentions in respect of what we are doing are civil.

There are some things that of course can be used for both things. If you put a satellite into space that is used for global positioning purposes, then those global positioning services could be used for both military and non-military uses. You cannot go so far as to, effectively, regulate anything that is going to space for global positioning, because it could of course always be used for both purposes. But the intention is, with this legislation, that it be non-military.

There are also rules that are being imposed through permits. Because the number of satellites is proliferating, and a tiny little piece of a satellite travelling very fast can whack a hole in another satellite or knock it off its orbit or ruin it, we have got to be very careful that we are not creating additional junk in space. So the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee looked into how the relevant licensing provisions in this legislation will cause New Zealand to do its bit to make sure that we are not increasing the amount of space junk up there that can cause danger to other satellites that are already in orbit.

So, with those comments, I am pleased to record that the Labour Party is supportive of the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill. Like other members of the House, we congratulate Peter Beck and the other inventors who lie behind this marvellous technology. There was a story told to me recently where someone was advertising in the United States for a prize for the first person in the world to 3-D print a pump. Of course, that is what this company has already done. It has used 3-D technology to print, in smaller form, a form of electrical pump to pump the fuel from where the fuel is stored in the rocket to where it is burned in the rocket. That is only able to be done, on the small scale, because of the innovation shown by this wonderful company.

It is a great privilege to be able to rise and take a short call in support of the third reading of the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill. If I could just start, perhaps, with an apology: when I first saw this bill come across the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee work programme and saw that it was an enabling bill to create the regulatory framework for our rockets to be launched into space, I have to admit I had a much smaller vision of what was envisaged with this bill. In my mind, I saw a sort of backyard-type operation.

It really was not until I stepped through this with my select committee colleagues and listened to Peter Beck’s vision and understood what incredible technology they have brought to bear—as David Parker has just stepped through some examples of—that the bill spoke to the huge opportunity that exists here for New Zealand. I have to admit, I felt a call back to my youth when I saw that Facebook post of the countdown of our first Electron rocket up into space at the end of May, counting down from 10 to zero. It was a black and white rocket that was not 2 metres tall; it was 18 metres tall. It looked pretty significant to see it take off, pretty much like it does at Cape Kennedy. As someone who has always been hugely fascinated by space and exploration, I felt more than a frisson of excitement when I saw that. I thought: “Actually, this is really cool.” And it is really cool that it is happening in New Zealand.

As we have heard already from Simon Bridges, I do think the Government should be applauded for doing the thinking that enables this to continue as a business opportunity in New Zealand, but also for the investment that has come through our Business Growth Agenda strategy to help enable technologies like this to take off—if you can excuse the pun.

I just want to take issue with aspects of Mr Parker’s—it had to be said—comments. The tech sector was in its infancy 7 to 8 years ago, and it is now New Zealand’s third largest export sector. It is growing rapidly, contributing $16 billion to GDP, a significant advance on 8 years ago. It is growing incredibly fast—28,000 firms, including a number that are involved with the Rocket Lab initiative, employing just on 100,000 people. This is an incredibly vibrant part of the New Zealand economy, and I would venture to suggest that not many in this House could have imagined, even as little as 3 or 4 years ago, our being able to stand here and talk to passing a bill that enables space launches from New Zealand in a genuinely scaled-up commercial way that is delivering satellites and other useful equipment into space.

Peter Beck and his team should be congratulated, as too, in my opinion, should this Government for the part that we have played to enable it. This bill is a key part of the ongoing framework to ensure that this will be successful. I think we have the balance right between public observation and participation to the extent that we can, bearing in mind this is highly sensitive technology, but we are also creating the conditions to provide the investors in this opportunity—which I suspect will be significant—to have the surety of the regulatory regime to be able to put the money behind the vision. Some of the expectations that sit on the table in respect of this are that this could be a $600 million to $1.5 billion industry over the next 20 years. I think that should be something that we all should promote and talk to in our communities as an example of what New Zealand can actually achieve.

I was very pleased with the way the bill progressed through the various conversations that we had. There were, obviously, the stages through here but, particularly, the work we did as a select committee. Typically, it was very collaborative. Can I acknowledge Minister Simon Bridges and also all of the cross-party people involved in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. I think we probed quite effectively the areas of concern and issues that were raised, and I agree with Mr Parker, actually. Where we landed in respect of clarifying the sorts of peaceful purpose expectations that we have as a country in respect of this framework by more explicitly tying this bill to our international obligations and by bringing some transparency around what they are was, I think, a very useful step forward.

I am not going to take much more of the House’s time. I think this is a superb bill, and I very much support it in its third reading. Thank you.

It is my pleasure to take a call on this bill. I think many of us have enjoyed its passage through this House. Like speakers before me and, I imagine, after me, I would like to congratulate Peter Beck and the team at Rocket Lab on what is a remarkable achievement. To see New Zealand join the ranks of 10 other countries that are capable of doing this is, I think, something that all of us feel pride around.

I think the story of Rocket Lab and what it has achieved is an important one for us as legislators in this House. It is a story of science and innovation, and it is a story of how long some of these projects take to come to fruition. So I share the enthusiasm of the previous speaker, Todd Muller, for what has been achieved here, but I would like to caution him about taking political credit where it is not necessarily due, because this is a project that goes back many years, many years before the Business Growth Agenda was even imagined.

This is something that the previous speaker said none of us in this House could have imagined was possible 3 or 4 years ago. Well, that is not necessarily true. If we go back to 2007, Rocket Lab had designed its suborbital rocket, which was capable of reaching heights of up to 150 kilometres, and it had plans to send scientific packages, DNA, and even human ashes above Earth, according to its business development manager, Mark Rocket. This is back in 2007 when it had got to this point where it was capable of putting things up 150 kilometres in the air, so a lot of work had already occurred to get to that point.

Then, I think, we do need to recognise the role that the previous Government and a previous Minister for Economic Development, Minister Trevor Mallard, played in bringing this project through. It was—

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to—I do not want to appear to be ungracious, but I am currently in the Chair and it is inappropriate for the member to bring me into the debate.

OK, thank you. I was just paying due credit. A previous Minister for Economic Development, who attended Rocket Lab’s launch way back in 2007, said it would enhance New Zealand’s emerging reputation as a developer of first-rate technology and components, so I think that to imagine that this has happened because of a scheme that has been put in place in the last 3 or 4 years simply does not understand what an innovation cycle looks like.

The kind of willingness to back over the long term, which we need to have, transgresses parliaments. It is something that we should all take from this story of Rocket Lab and its success here, because many of the things that we want to achieve in this technology space are not going to show us the fruits in the kinds of parliamentary cycles that we are often accustomed to. I think this is testament to that and to a previous Government for having the vision and, actually, the courage to back such a project, which 10 years ago—a decade ago—would have sounded mighty fanciful.

The other really important part of this story to draw out and for us to learn from is around the cross-collaboration that can happen across technology sectors. My colleague the Hon David Parker has already talked about some of the carbon fibre technology coming from the America’s Cup technology that was developed around those boats. This is what is so important around getting critical mass of technology in this country, so that we can have that kind of cross-pollination and collaboration across industries and so that we can grow an economy that is based on innovation, that is based on technology, and that is based on knowledge. This speaks very clearly to that. It is why, when you have a success like this or like the technology in the America’s Cup space, you cannot always predict what the spin-off commercial opportunities or the further technology opportunities are going to be from that work. I think that is something that we as legislators should always remember.

The other thing is that as we are passing this legislation, I think it is apt and timely for us to think about the kind of economy that we want to create if we are seeing Rocket Lab as one of the success stories here, and think about what we need to be doing to plan for that future. That is why I am most proud of the work that the Labour Party has done over the last 3 years in the Future of Work Commission, where we have thought long and hard about the big-picture thinking around what a transformation of the New Zealand economy looks like and what we are going to require. This goes right back into our education system, right back into our early childhood education system, into our primary and secondary and then our tertiary systems. We are thinking about what the kinds of skills are that future workforces are going to require.

I am not saying that in every primary school we should be putting rocket technology on the curriculum. What I am saying is we should be educating our children entering early childhood education and primary school today to have the kinds of skills where they can turn their minds to these kinds of subjects should they want to. If we are intent on creating an innovative economy then we have to be far more innovative with our education system, and, importantly, link that to our future workforce requirements. I think that the bill we are passing here, the enabling regulatory framework that is going to allow this industry to flourish in New Zealand and allow for this to happen, needs to sit alongside some other thinking within Government and within this Parliament that is long-sighted.

My colleague David Parker went through many of the amendments that were made at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee to this piece of legislation. There were 11 submissions received in total on this piece of legislation, and it is fair to say they were all substantial. They traversed many areas, some of which were understandable and good submissions to get in terms of civil aviation and what the interplay is that we are talking about in the area of airspace, which goes beyond what has previously been regulated—what the interplay and the safety concerns were there. There was also the submission that Venture Southland brought that the Hon David Parker mentioned, which talked about it needing to be explicit in this legislation that this is for peaceful purposes. Actually, we are talking about New Zealand being among a group of only 11 countries that are launching rockets. With that comes a great responsibility, and I think that for us here in New Zealand knowing that we are doing this for peaceful purposes is critically important.

Labour is more than happy to support this legislation. We see that it is a long-term project that is bearing fruit, and what we hope is that we can all, across this House—whatever side or corner of this House that we are sitting on—take the lessons from this: the need to take a long-term view of innovation and the kind of commitment that it requires, the kind of courage that that initial investment sometimes requires, and that one of the most difficult things about politicians being involved in innovation is that there is political risk if you do it well. Politicians do not want to come to the House and answer questions about failed projects, but anyone who has worked in the innovation sector knows that to have success you have got to take risks. In fact, you could say that a very successful innovation sector would be counting on a very high failure rate, and that is not always politically palatable. But what we have here is a success story that we can all be proud of, and I think we can also be very pleased that this House is putting into place the regulatory regime that we require in order to make sure that this operates in an orderly and safe way, and for the right purposes, in our country. Thank you.

It is a pleasure to take a final call on the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill. With this bill, New Zealand becomes the 11th country into space and joins an illustrious pedigree that includes the Soviet Union, the USA, France, Japan, China, the UK, the European Space Agency, India, Israel, Iran, and North Korea. Indeed, some of our larger trading partners were once launch capable—the United Kingdom springs to mind. It is no longer launch capable, amalgamated into part of the European Space Agency.

The business case for Rocket Lab is in the upstream pathway. This is the pathway that focuses on sending objects into space. The downstream actors are the companies that utilise and provide space-related services to consumers. When we look at the value chain of what is a $300 billion space economy, we see that the upstream actors are responsible for 5 percent of that economy, satellite operators 10 percent of the space economy, and the companies that actually utilise space communications are 85 percent of the space economy.

The economic benefits of a rocket launch industry in New Zealand include the direct commercial benefits and also the indirect benefits. Some of those indirect benefits may certainly be less clear and less quantifiable, but I would like to briefly highlight some of them. Certainly, as a direct benefit there is the additional employment by Rocket Lab to scale up to launch capacity. There is additional activity and employment in supplying industries, those that provide components and logistics. There is space tourism—international visitors or New Zealanders watching rocket launches, and members of the satellite industry or their clients attending a launch. There are construction and launch activities, cluster effects—the development of related clusters, for example in the area of satellite manufacture and 3-D printing. There are aspiration effects; achievements in aerospace have been shown to have a significant impact in motivating prospective students and researchers in the field. There are knowledge and technology spillovers—some of my colleagues have talked about that—the benefits from technology, information, and knowledge that is generated by Rocket Lab being applied in other companies or sectors. There are prestige effects—enhancements to our national prestige from having a space industry. And there are human capital effects—the benefit to New Zealand from an increasing proportion of highly skilled personnel.

One of the competitive advantages that Rocket Lab utilises is cost. At a projected cost of roughly US$5 million per launch, this is extremely competitive. It is at least less than 50 percent of the current international offerings, which include $60 million for the Falcon 9 launch, through SpaceX, and $200 million through the European Space Agency, the Ariane 5 rocket. Our geographical location gives us some advantage. New Zealand provides the opportunity to launch into a wide range of azimuths for satellites, especially those that need to go into polar or equatorial orbits. Equatorial launches are desirable. The French Guiana site is a very desirable site for launching a rocket. Of course, around the equator you have the largest circumference of the Earth, so you have that large circumference traversed in a 24-hour period. That means you get what is called launch inertia—a benefit of roughly 1,670 kilometres per hour just by launching at the equator, which, of course, reduces your fuel costs. We do not have that benefit, but one of the trade-offs here is air traffic. One of the benefits we do have is that because we have less air traffic we are able to launch more rockets.

If we look at year-on-year economic return, it is predicted at $30 million to $80 million per year. This is on a base case of one launch per week, an 8 percent discount rate for the direct benefits, and a 50 percent discount rate for the indirect benefits. This is cost-efficient Kiwi ingenuity, making a mark on the international stage and staking out a diversified future economy for New Zealand. I am very proud to recommend this bill to the House.

Kia ora, Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, kia ora. I rise to support this bill in its third reading, which establishes the launch regime for companies such as Rocket Lab, which is going to be launching its 17-metre carbon fibre Electron rockets into orbit, something this whole House can join in congratulating.

There is a famous photograph in my office, one that is a personal inspiration to me and, in fact, was an inspiration for the movement that saw the Green Party grow and rise around the world. It is the famous Earthrise photograph. Taken from space from the Apollo 8 capsule in 1968, it showed the Earth rising above the barren, hostile vastness of the moon. For the first time, you could see the fragility of Earth. I raise this because the issue we are debating here is around the permitting regime for launching rockets into space—what we can get out of the economic spin-offs, the jobs, the GDP, etc. The other thing we can get out of exploring space is knowledge about ourselves, knowledge about our world, and, in fact, the growing environmental consciousness we have seen in the decades since the Apollo space programme.

This is a good bill. We have managed to improve it in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. I would like to acknowledge all the submitters and the officials involved. There are three key areas I would like to touch on where the bill has been improved. The first is related to how the space race started at the height of the Cold War years, after the launch of sputnik. It was seen primarily as an offensive or defensive technology. What we have managed to include in this bill is a more modern understanding of the uses of space, which is a peaceful use of space. While the Green Party and the Labour Party were pushing incredibly hard for an explicit purpose clause for the peaceful uses of space, we were not able to get that through. But what the committee was able to reach by consensus was some very specific language that it is prohibited to place into orbit any nuclear weapons or weapons of mass instruction; “establish military bases, installations, or fortifications on celestial bodies:”, or test any types of weapons or manoeuvres in space. That was a significant improvement on the original bill.

Secondly, an area close to my heart in the Green Party, is the issue of orbital debris. There are 20,000 objects out there orbiting in space that are larger than a baseball. There are 500,000 objects larger than the size of a marble. If you have seen the film Gravity, you will understand the Kessler effect, where we can see potentially catastrophic impacts of these space objects. Already there is quite a huge cost involved in space junk, as it is called, but it could cause a catastrophic change, literally, to our world’s use of technology if in fact it did go all pear-shaped, as we saw in the film Gravity. So it is good that this has been addressed. It was a little bit of an oversight in the original legislation that the Minister for Economic Development had not been cognisant of an orbital debris mitigation plan, but it is good that that has been included.

The third area, of course, is the debris protection areas that a Minister can enact if there has been an accident. This is the scenario where debris has actually been scattered across a beach or a farm or at sea. In the first reading, we raised some significant concerns on the limits to human rights and limits to media reporting if a debris protection zone was enacted. Of course, this comes from our international obligations under the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) that because these are, basically, intercontinental ballistic missiles, you want to protect the sensitive technology within the spacecraft. We think that is entirely reasonable. We do not want to see nuclear technology, or the means by which it can be carried, proliferate across the world, and we are happy that it has been clarified that the media reporting can still happen outside. Basically, the gist is that you do not want to see photographs appear on the news or be shared online of sensitive technology where we could see significant nuclear weapons harm occur in the future. We think that is entirely reasonable. It is a good bill. It is an exciting industry that is potentially going to flourish, and we have seen some improvements in the select committee for which I would like to thank the members.

I am tremendously excited by the potential for Rocket Lab. As we have heard from other members, we have actually seen New Zealand join the space race as only the 11th nation to have reached orbit. I remember travelling overseas and telling people of this fact that we were the 11th nation, and, in fact, the only nation to have done it without a national space agency; for example, NASA in the US. We are the only country to have done it entirely privately. It is good to see we have now got some Government R & D support for Rocket Lab as well. It is tremendously exciting, and people were blown away overseas.

They were doubly blown away when I said that we were launching carbon fibre rockets. They thought it was incredibly difficult technology to master, but when I said this is how we have our yachts being built for the America’s Cup, for example, they were doubly blown away. It is a good example of how investing in new technology and innovation can spur new sectors of our economy. I am rightfully proud of New Zealand. We have got some amazing examples of technological innovation occurring in our economy, and, in fact, since 2002 to 2013, this was the fastest-growing area, as a percentage of GDP, of any OECD or developed world economy. We should be rightfully proud of some of our champions, like Xero, Rocket Lab, etc., right at the forefront of these new technological industries.

When you look at space, it is a $256 billion global industry, employing more than 900,000 people in 2013. It is exciting to think that New Zealand could get a chunk of that, and we are going to see spin-off industries, hopefully, in terms of micro-satellites, science education—it is fantastic. The challenge for New Zealanders is that we have got some great exemplars, but how do we transition to an actual innovation economy, because we are still dependent on a few raw commodities for the bulk of our exports and we still invest less than half of the developed world average in research and development. Our scientists patent four times less than the developed world average. If there is a space race, in terms of innovation and technology, we are not getting at the forefront, where New Zealanders want us to be.

Moving on, though, we are going to see the launch of a space industry in New Zealand, which all New Zealanders, I hope, can be excited by. But if we stop and think, globally there is $1.6 trillion annually invested in militaries. Often I have the debate with people: is space a good thing to be investing in when there are so many problems on Earth? I would say, look, when you see the $1.6 trillion invested just on arms and warfare around the world—if we could cut that back, there is more than enough to feed, clothe, house, give power to everyone, and still explore space. When you look at the US, it spends $600 billion on its military, representing 3.3 percent of its GDP; it spent just $20 billion, or 0.1 percent of its GDP, on space in 2016.

There is so much still to learn out in space. We are discovering extra solar planets. Just in the last year, we have seen gravitational waves potentially confirmed. There are still huge questions about how our planets were formed in this solar system. We have seen spin-offs—NASA, rightfully and proudly, points to Tang, teflon, and Velcro as some of the spin-off technologies, but there have been a host more that we use in our day-to-day lives. One of them that I think has been the most profound is solar technology, from that first Vanguard satellite launched into space with the solar panels attached. Across my lifetime, we have seen the costs of solar drop 99 percent, and now we are seeing the growth of clean, renewable electricity so that we do not have to burn coal.

From our exploration of space, we have learnt more about our planet in terms of environmental satellites. We have discovered that there are thousands of planets in outer space, many in the Goldilocks zone where water can exist, but when you look at our neighbours—look at Mars, a planet that ran out of atmosphere, that did not have enough carbon dioxide, and that got too cold for life. Our other nearest planet, Venus, is a planet that has too much carbon dioxide. It literally is as hot as the surface of the Sun on Venus—too much carbon dioxide. It is a salutary lesson for us to make sure that we can keep our planet in balance.

Likewise, in the last 10 years we have discovered water on Mercury, on Pluto, and vast oceans on moons like Io—a good example that while water is all around our solar system, and potentially all around the universe, it is our water on Earth that we need to protect. That is why this year the Green Party is championing the two-thirds of our rivers and streams in New Zealand that are considered unsafe for our kids to swim in. So as we go explore the vast reaches of space, as we start a space industry in New Zealand, and as we learn more about what is out there, let us also act more on what is on our planet and protect it. Kia ora.

Just before I call the member Darroch Ball, I am going to just indicate to members that the House rules are very clear that members do not use the phone function of cellphones when the House is sitting. There are a number of members who have phones at their desks for particular purposes—senior members and whips—and my ruling is that members can use those phones, but not cell phones, while the House is sitting.

It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First and my colleague Fletcher Tabuteau, who saw this bill through its progress through the House and sat on the select committee as well, to speak on the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill. I am just going to take a very quick call and reiterate a couple of the points that New Zealand First has made throughout the progress of this bill through the House.

I have to say, firstly, that 3 years ago I never really envisaged myself standing in the House and talking about anything to do with outer space, so it is quite unique and an exciting and fun time for this country—and for me as well, speaking about it. It has already been mentioned that we are one of now only 11 countries that have the capability of launching rockets into space. I think that is a very good thing. It is a very exciting thing for this country, and we need to make sure that we have the legislation to ensure that everything is OK to do that.

There are a number of things that this legislation does, but three of the main ones are to facilitate the development of the space industry in New Zealand, and that is a great thing; to codify international obligations, ticking the boxes; and also to manage our liability that arises from those obligations. As we move into the modern age, we have the ability now in New Zealand to really be able to be at the forefront of that movement and to lead changes. We always use new and developing and evolving technologies, and this legislation will be able to help us use and develop that technology. More and more, we are going to need to use and access space, and the ability to put rockets up into space, and Rocket Lab was the main instigator, I guess, of this legislation.

There is one point that Fletcher Tabuteau did bring up previously, and that is our party’s disappointment with the Rocket Lab situation, where this Government put millions of dollars into the investment of Rocket Lab only to have Rocket Lab sold overseas to the US, and there was no return to the taxpayer of New Zealand. So we need to ensure that when we do develop that technology and the market and different companies—we need to ensure in the future that we do get returns in New Zealand and for New Zealand entrepreneurs and New Zealand companies.

Another point was that New Zealand First is happy with the wording of the legislation. It is in quite a flexible way that the legislation has been written and developed by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. That is obviously due to the rapidly evolving nature of the technology, and this legislation will be able to account for that. Again, we must ensure that for any development within New Zealand we must have a priority and a focus on New Zealand businesses and New Zealand benefits.

New Zealand First congratulates the committee, of which Fletcher Tabuteau was a part. This is a great piece of legislation, looking forward and into the future, and New Zealand First supports it wholeheartedly. Thank you.

I too join in, in essence, with the rest of the members in the House in being pleased to be witnessing such wholehearted support for this bill, the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill. We have got to the third reading now, and I imagine that it is rare to see such a united force. But what does intrigue me a little, and I said this, I think, in my second reading speech—great ideas have many authors, do they not? But, in fact, we need to put this great idea at the feet of the people that Peter Beck works with, and with him, the man. In doing so, we need to recognise that the Parliament’s place is in wrapping the legislation that is required around such amazing endeavours. We have done so, and I must say—although I was a member of the committee for only part of the process—I have learnt a lot. I am not only intrigued but awestruck by some of the knowledge of the previous speaker for the Green Party, Gareth Hughes, about this. It is clearly an area that he enjoys an awful lot.

We have already talked about the tech sector and its worth to New Zealand—$16 billion of GDP and growing fast. But what is required is not only that the Parliament, as it has done in this case, passes the legislation to wrap around—both in New Zealand and the international connection through treaties, etc.—but also that it provides the safeguards and everything that is required, and is far-sighted. I endorse other members who have talked about needing to play the long game here.

I take issue with the previous speaker, Darroch Ball, saying that New Zealand is not getting returns. When New Zealand succeeds on the world stage, it gets a reputation for being a place where technology succeeds. That is what brings new investment to New Zealand. That brings jobs to New Zealand. That keeps scientists in New Zealand—technology innovators and those who want to have an exciting job creating new and unthought-of innovations.

The work that has been done to support the tech sector, and this project as well, is happening within the Business Growth Agenda. Other parties will have other ways of addressing that, and we have heard some of those here today, but the Business Growth Agenda wraps the sort of support that is required in our economy entirely around a project like this.

I do want to finish by saying that I hope that if Peter Beck is reading the Hansard—which is now however many years old—he does not at all feel that this House has lectured him in any way, shape, or form. In fact, we need to provide support, not just now but into the future, to a man who has been very far-sighted and who has created something New Zealand can be proud of. Although we have got a great geographic location for sending these satellites up into space, they are just the beginning of what can be a fantastic business here in New Zealand. Rocket Lab is innovative technology that we as New Zealanders will take great pride in, although the pat on the back is certainly, deservedly, going to Peter Beck. I thank you and commend this bill to the House.

Adrian Rurawhe—5-minute speech.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te W’are. It is a great privilege to speak on the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill in its third reading. First of all, like a number of colleagues in the House I just want to acknowledge again Rocket Lab and in particular its CEO Peter Beck and his entire team for their tenacity, their innovation, and their drive to get the project to where it is today, which, of course, requires that we have some legislation to allow that to happen.

Just briefly speaking on the purpose of the bill, it is, as others have noted, to facilitate the development of the space industry in New Zealand and also to implement our international obligations, which are many. I also want to touch again, as I did at the Committee stage, on the peaceful purposes for developing the space industry. We come from a country, New Zealand, in which we are very proud of our history of upholding peaceful purposes—I understand those particular words were not used, but there are none the less some strong changes that have been made to the bill to ensure that these space adventures, might I say, cannot be used for war, for nuclear weapons, or for other weapons as well. I commend the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for that.

I also recognise that through this bill, and through the Rocket Lab initiative—they do create opportunities for the future. In particular, I certainly hope that there are strong opportunities—for young people in particular—through education. We are no doubt going to need different kinds of skilled people in the future—engineers, IT people—and I think this is certainly a project that can help enhance the opportunities for young people in the future. We certainly do need that in our country. It is a country where we currently have 90,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 25 not in education, not in employment, and not in training. So any kind of opportunity we can develop to assist young people, in particular, to get into innovative new industries like this one—we should take every opportunity. That is why on this side of the House we are certainly supporting this bill.

I also think that we should learn the lessons of the Labour Party’s Future of Work Commission, in light of this particular bill. The nature of work is changing, and we need more innovation in this country. I congratulate those who had the foresight many years ago to assist this project. As I said, my hope is that these kinds of projects, in light of the outcomes of the Future of Work Commission, develop way more opportunities to fill the many gaps that have been created because we have not had the foresight to do that before.

It is my privilege to speak on this bill. I commend again Rocket Lab and all those who have been involved in this project. Kia ora.

I just want to reaffirm that the Green Party will be supporting and voting for the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Bill in the third reading. Much has been said since the first reading on this subject. I could spend a lot of time addressing the subject, and I shall not.

I am hoping to take a little bit more time than the previous speaker, Kennedy Graham. One thing that I think is worth noting is the Government’s Business Growth Agenda paving the way for innovation to be strongly embraced in our economy. This bill is very much part of that. The emerging New Zealand - based space economy aligns with innovation streams in our Business Growth Agenda.

One group that has recently been awarded the opportunity to set up a regional research institute is the Central Otago – based Centre for Space Science Technology. Its work is going to be about undertaking research around imaging and spaced-based measurements and satellite imagery unique to New Zealand’s region. An example of this is the offshore industry off Taranaki, because part of the consortium of the Centre for Space Science Technology is MetOcean Solutions, based in my city, New Plymouth. It is a company that measures wave and ocean currents and enables industries such as the offshore oil and gas industry to make decisions around deployment of offload vessels, drilling schedules, and the like. The work that it does, not only for this industry but for many offshore activities, is increasingly based around space technology satellite imagery.

When this Central Otago - based Centre for Space Science Technology works with a consortium, including MetOcean Solutions based in New Plymouth, and starts to do its work to enable regional New Zealand to better utilise its resources and better drive its economy around understanding weather patterns, we are going to see some of the advantages of this bill and the likes of the recent endeavours of Mr Beck and his work have great fruition for New Zealand; not just entering into this space economy around the world but—as I think one of the previous speakers Todd Muller said—the advantage of $600 million to $1.5 billion for the New Zealand economy over the next 20 years.

I think there are some great advantages. This is a fantastic piece of legislation that is enabling New Zealand to enter into that innovation space internationally. I commend this bill to the House.

One thing that I do want to say is to Mr Jonathan Young. I hope you were not taking credit for this, or I hope you were not suggesting that your Government should take credit for this. It is one of the reasons why I am pleased that the honourable member Mr Mallard is in the Chair for the third reading. He will be the Speaker who passes this through. The reason I say that is—

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume his seat. We have had a previous ruling from me on this issue. While I would express some gratitude to the member, what he is doing is out of order. The member must not bring the Chair into the debate.

Thank you very much, Mr Assistant Speaker. What I would like to say is that I am very pleased that the Hon Trevor Mallard is still here to see this bill pass through the House, because Mr Mallard is in fact, responsible for—

💬 Hon Member: He’s still doing it.

No, I am not talking about the Speaker; I am talking about the member. But I am pleased that that member is listening, because it is the first time; she might learn something. But, anyway, Mr Mallard is actually responsible, personally responsible—

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to tell the member that he has got to be a bit more circuitous, and he cannot bring me into this debate—not just where I am sitting but because I am sitting here, he cannot bring me into the debate.

Not as a member?

💬 Hon Member: No.

OK.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I will give the member some advice: he could say “the former Minister for Economic Development”.

OK. Thank you. Let me start again. I have got 8½ minutes—let me start again. I am very pleased that the former Labour Minister for Economic Development is here to see this bill pass through the House. The reason I say that is Peter Beck, the CEO of Rocket Lab—because let us be honest; this is about enabling Rocket Lab—does publicly acknowledge that it was, in fact, that former Minister for Economic Development who provided his company with the necessary finance to get this off the ground—that former Minister.

I visited Peter Beck not too long ago and went through his facility, and it is absolutely astounding. It really is. This is the third time that I have spoken on this bill in the House. Apart from Labour members—David Shearer, I think, was one of the ones who spoke on this originally—I have been actually astounded at the lack of enthusiasm by the Government but also by New Zealand First and the Greens about what is going on in Māhia Peninsula.

This is game-changing for New Zealand. I have heard the Greens talk about “treaty”, and I have heard Dr Kennedy Graham—with all due respect—say: “Well, don’t think that we’re supporting this, because we do it with a whole lot of reservations, etc., etc.” I have heard Steven Joyce sit there and read a monologue, as if this were an imposition on his time, to come down here. I have heard New Zealand First say: “Well, this is really bad. We’ve given this company a whole lot of money and now they’re overseas-owned.”

What they fail to recognise is what Rocket Lab and Peter Beck have actually created, what they have done in New Zealand. They have put us on the world map here. And this is not done out of—well, it is done out of Auckland, but these rockets are being launched from Māhia Peninsula. And the wonderful thing about this, in Wairoa, which is in my electorate, is that for the first time in a long time the stories that are coming out of Wairoa are fantastic. It is not about gang members or anything bad; it is about a really good-news story about how a council saw an opportunity—and it did—and said: “We can’t let this go. We’ve really got to take advantage of this.”, and, goodness me. The CEO, Fergus Power, and the mayor, Craig Little, said: “How do we make this happen?”.

The interesting thing is that Rocket Lab had been working down in Christchurch to get a consent. When I first spoke to Peter, I think it had taken about 9 months and they still had not got the consent. The Wairoa District Council issued the consent in something like 2 weeks. It was not because they did not do the work. It was not because they were lax, or anything like that. It was because they saw an opportunity; they understood the potential, and they thought: “In terms of driving growth in our area, we have got to engage with these guys, and we’ve really got to make it happen.” It is a classic case of local government almost moving, literally, heaven and earth to work with a stakeholder and a company that can drive value and drive growth. I have no doubt that this will be, over the medium to long term, fantastic for the East Coast and for Wairoa.

It will start off with space tourism. I mean, who does not want to see a rocket take off—goodness me. Peter Beck’s vision is to have one of these rockets launched every single week—every single week. So it will start off with tourism, and then built around tourism comes the infrastructure, hotels, cafes, and then out of that comes the retail stores. And then out of that, you get the hundred men and women who are based in the district working for Rocket Lab, earning significant amounts of money, sending their kids to the local schools, buying TVs, fridges, houses, and all those things that they need. This is really good, and it is happening in Māhia, and it is happening in the Wairoa district. So I take my hat off to the Wairoa District Council on this.

Let us move forward to Peter Beck’s vision. Who did not grow up and want to be a fireman or an astronaut or something along these lines? Well, this guy has taken it to the nth degree. It is astounding. You go through Rocket Lab’s factory, and it just blows your mind. The processes that they have had to go through are just astounding, and they are so minute, because, of course, if one little thing goes wrong, if they get one little rubber screw or washer wrong—boom—millions and millions of dollars up in smoke. And they have not quite got it right, and they acknowledge that. It did not quite go as high as it should have. But, for all intents and purposes, this was a huge success.

They have basically tapped out New Zealand for the experts in this area. They have gone to all the universities and they have mopped up all the really bright graduates. They have gone overseas. We talk about a war for talent; well, there is a global war for talent in this area, and they want to work for Peter Beck. They want to do it in New Zealand. That is why Rocket Lab is the first non-Government or private organisation to send a rocket into space. The other thing that they have done is they have tapped out every single manufacturer of materials that they can use in this country, so it is not as if they have just gone in and imported everything and made it and taken off.

Every single machine shop that has the expertise and the precision to produce something for Rocket Lab to go into these rockets, it has used. It has got to the point where the capacity in this country just does not exist to take it to the next level. If it did, then it would, and I have no doubt that there are a number of businesses associated with Rocket Lab that will end up growing substantially. It is like the car businesses in Detroit. You know, you have the massive, big car makers, and then around them you have the guys who make the seatbelts and the washers, and every single little industry around that. I think that in the long term this is what we will see, because we are talking about 52 launches a year.

This will redefine space. It will redefine how data is transmitted. Our kids—or our grandkids, anyway; some of our great-grandkids—will not believe that there were points in time where we did not have mobile coverage. They will not believe that you used to go to the top of a hill and wave your mobile phone around to try to get reception, because this is the sort of technology where, in the deep, dark depths of Africa, you will be able to get the same level of service as you get in Napier, which is the best in the world.

💬 Carmel Sepuloni: You can’t get it in Bethells.

No, you cannot get it at Bethells Beach. We remember those times. We remember times when you used mobile phones to make phone calls, heaven forbid. My daughter does not know that you can actually make phone calls on mobile phones.

I suppose my point is that this is not just about rockets, OK? This is not just about a really innovative and aspirational Kiwi who is making rockets. This is about redefining the way that business will be done in this country. Some of the stories that Peter Beck has told around the requirements of customers, and what they are going to do with the data when they receive it from the satellites that Peter is putting up there, just blows your mind. Now, I do not know whether that is confidential or not so I am not going to talk about them here, but one thing I would say is I think this bill is one of the most exciting bills to come through the House in my time, both in the initial 3 years and in these 3 years, because it is transformational. It really is transformational. I think that in 10 years’ time we will look back, and we probably do not realise now just how transformational this will be in terms of data.

I just want to say that I am incredibly supportive of this. There were some checks and balances, of course. I mean, we do not want people launching nuclear weapons—and the bottom line is that the site that sends these rockets into space can also launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, so we had to be a little bit careful in the legislation that we did not allow that sort of thing, because it is not really in the national interest. So there are national interest tests; the Minister has quite a lot of discretion about whether to grant a licence or not. There are the checks and balances in place to make sure that this is not used—or space is not used—for the wrong reasons.

I would just like to wrap up by saying congratulations to Peter Beck. It is absolutely fantastic. We are watching your progress. Congratulations to the Wairoa District Council; it has done an absolutely brilliant job, and I take my hat off to it. Congratulations to the former Labour Minister for Economic Development, because without his vision I doubt we would be sitting here. Without his vision, I doubt Rocket Lab would be based in Auckland, so congratulations to him as well. Thank you.

I commend the bill to the House.

Bill read a third time.