Maritime Transport (Lifejackets on Recreational Craft) Amendment Bill

ACT will be supporting this bill, because we’re a party that responds to evidence. The evidence that we heard is that a lot more adults die from drowning when not wearing lifejackets than children, so we support the name change to the Maritime Transport (Lifejackets on Recreational Craft) Amendment Act 2025. I just want to point a few things out to the House and to those listening and watching and to those who might come after people who might be responsible for enforcement like harbour masters. Harbour masters and regional councils already had the power to do this, the select committee heard. Regulations could have been made and promulgated through an Order in Council to deliver exactly this.

However, here we are. One or two small concessions were obtained from the member in charge, such as occupants of a small boat using the bathroom, towelling themselves dry, or sunbathing—it could be anticipated they’re not wearing a life jacket at that time. In the preamble, it says, “In situations like this we would expect harbourmasters”—yes, I’m talking to you—“to maintain a degree of reasonableness in their enforcement.” The member sitting next to me, Cameron Luxton from Pāpāmoa, also pointed out that sometimes, when you go out on a boat, you might want to jump off and have a swim. At that point in time, you won’t be wearing a lifejacket.

ACT supports this bill—at times reluctantly—but we do appreciate that evidence was provided that people’s lives will be saved. We must trust that the hassle and all of the niggle of having to require people to wear lifejackets at all times on these small craft is worth the sauce.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First and also as chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee, which considered this bill.

💬 Hon Chris Bishop: What a committee.

💬 ANDY FOSTER: It’s a very good committee, a very collegial committee, and I was going to say thankyou to all the members of the committee for the work they did. This bill started as being life jackets for under-15s on those small vessels under 6 metres in length. We got really, really strong feedback from the water safety community, coastguards, harbour masters, and so on, saying, “Actually, the problem is, as you’ve already heard, not just the young people; the problem is everybody, all ages.” As you’ve already heard, the average age of people drowning unfortunately is 50 years of age.

What we did, which is quite unusual, is we said to the Business Committee, “Can we go out and get submissions again?” We didn’t think it was appropriate for us just to change the scope. We wanted it to be a good democratic process. We did that. We got those submissions in again, which said, “Go for it.” Just to pick up the thing that Simon Court mentioned, saying, “This could have been done by Order in Council.” Yes, it could have been done by Order in Council, but at the stage that we got that advice, we’d have had to then say, “Minister, you go out and do that if it’s a priority for you, and then you’ll have to get submissions again from the same people who have already submitted to us twice.” We didn’t think that was a very good idea. We wanted to proceed with the bill, and that’s where we’ve got to today.

What we’ve done is we extended the scope of the bill. We changed the title of the bill, as has been said. We think it’s a sensible title. We did this because we heard heart-rending stories of young people, of children, who were wearing lifejackets, the boat turns over, they survive, but their parents, who weren’t wearing lifejackets, drowned in front of their eyes. That is what we don’t want to do. This bill is about, as the Hon Shane Reti said in introducing it, saving lives. What needs to be done now is to get it through today so that we can then have the education and the enforcement prepared for the most risky time of year, which is summer. This bill, we expect, will save about 10 lives a year, and I think it’s really important we do. I just want to commend Shane Reti for the work he’s done, Cam Brewer before him for the work he had done, and all the other people who were party to this bill coming through the Transport and Infrastructure Committee for listening carefully and being collegial and collaborative in this process. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It gives me a lot of pleasure, actually, to stand as the Minister responsible for this area of law, maritime law, which looks after water safety, and to stand in full support of a bill which will save lives and reduce harm. This bill, when passed into law this summer, will save New Zealanders’ lives. It will reduce harm, and it will give many more New Zealanders the peace of mind to know that when their loved ones are out there on the boat, there is a much higher chance of them returning home safely and soundly. I know that anyone who sat through submissions or heard of stories of people who have lost loved ones in tragedies on the water will know how terrible—terrible—a situation it is. I really commend all members of the House for coming together and for passing a piece of legislation which will save lives.

I know some have said that this could be done through regulation and it could be done through an Order in Council, and that is correct, but I think subsequent Governments of all colours have seen that it’s quite difficult to make that change for a range of reasons. I’m so glad that this has been able to happen through a member’s bill, a process which provides individual members the opportunity to put forward an idea and have it come to fruition.

I want to commend Dr Reti for picking up this bill. What a fine way to sign off a career, first of all, built on saving lives, and finishing in Parliament with a bill which will save lives as well. I want commend Dr Reti for taking this on, for his diligent stewardship of it, for the numerous phone calls keeping me updated on its progress and the changes that were being recommended, and making sure that everyone was on board.

For those of you out there on the water this summer, the change that will be made is very, very simple. This summer in New Zealand, across the country, no matter where you are, if you are on a small boat, you must wear a life jacket at all times while under way—that’s it. While you’re under way on a small boat under six metres, you must wear a life jacket. It happens in some parts around the country. It doesn’t happen universally. This is a change to make sure that no matter where you are, that will happen. The agency responsible for carrying this out in terms of education will be Maritime New Zealand. They will embark on a countrywide campaign to make sure people know about the changes that are being made. They are going to take a positive, proactive education first approach so that everyone gets used to these changes. They are going to do their best to be light-handed in terms of those who don’t quite get it right. The main thing we want to know and that we want to see change is a cultural change in this country so that all New Zealanders growing up take the responsibility upon themselves to wear a life jacket and to keep themselves safe.

If you are out on the water this summer, wear a life jacket, carry two forms of reliable communication, and always, always check the weather forecast. That’s all we ask so that you can come home safely to your loved ones. This bill will save lives, it will reduce harm, I’m very proud to support it, and I’m very proud to commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Labour also supports the Maritime Transport (Lifejackets on Recreational Craft) Amendment Bill, and I would also like to echo many of the sentiments that the previous contributor has just made and the fact that he was able to somewhat, quite fittingly, turn this into a little bit of a public service announcement, because that is essentially where the work starts now. As has been said, the proof in the pudding will be in the education space. It’s not to be punitive, it is to actually save lives.

I want to also acknowledge the Hon Dr Shane Reti and echo the sentiments of the Hon James Meager when he said it’s possibly not by accident that someone whose whole career has been focused on saving lives and improving lives would be drawn to such a bill when he was able to take it over from, I should also acknowledge, the previous sponsor the Hon Cameron Brewer. It’s possibly no coincidence that he was drawn to this bill because it’s very much on brand and it will save lives.

This is ultimately a very simple piece of legislation, and I agree that it could have been done differently, but it wasn’t and here we are. It was a valuable process for us to go through to take a bill that, as introduced, was somewhat different, to listen to the evidence, and for us to be here tonight at third reading. If you are out on a small recreational craft, wearing a life jacket dramatically improves your chances of coming home, and that’s just a fact. All of the statistics bear that out. It’s a fact that we’ve been aware of for a very long period of time, and the impetus to make this change, for whatever reason, hasn’t got across the line, and tonight it will.

When we think about recreational boating and what that actually looks like in New Zealand, whether it’s families out on fishing trips, whether it’s being out in the dingy, small runabouts, people heading across the harbour, a beautiful harbour like Whakaraupō in Lyttleton, or any harbour, most people don’t leave shore expecting anything to go wrong. They’re out there having a good time, enjoying the coast, the river, the lake, and the expectation that something could go wrong isn’t necessarily at the forefront of people’s minds, particularly before it does.

I agree with the Hon Julie Anne Genter, this is a good example of Parliament actually doing a really good job by starting with a proposition, and the starting proposition was different—it was about children’s safety—listening to the evidence, and having to jump a couple of hurdles to do so, but being prepared in a bipartisan way to actually make the requisite change. As introduced, it required, as I said, people under 15 who are on a recreational craft, six metres or less, to wear life jackets. But the evidence before us during that select committee process, it just simply told a very different story. We know that, since 2015, eight recreational boating fatalities were children under 15, each one incredibly tragic, but there were also 161 people who were over 15, and the average age of people who die in recreational boating incidents in New Zealand is 50. The Transport and Infrastructure Committee, therefore, went through a process of seeking permission to go beyond the scope of the original bill and to, really importantly, we should note, go back to public consultation. It wasn’t like we stretched the bill quietly behind the scenes. We got that requisite permission at the Transport and Infrastructure Committee and went back and opened that consultation process.

There was a very understandable instinct behind the original bill and that was to protect children, but once the statistics and all of the evidence from—and I should also acknowledge not only the officials but the excellent submitters that we had through this process, many of whom have dedicated their whole lives to water safety and to recreational boating. They are experts, and it is disconcerting when, summer after summer in particular, they are faced with that reality of knowing that something simple could actually make a huge difference and avert many of the tragedies that some of them had the unenviable position of bearing witness to.

The bill now requires a person in charge of a recreational craft, six metres or less, to ensure that everybody on board is wearing an appropriately sized life jacket while the craft is under way. That’s a critical distinction. It’s about wearing the life jacket, not simply having one on board somewhere. We know that, even as recently as 2024, 94 percent of craft-related drownings were people who weren’t wearing a life jacket. That’s pretty daunting. That’s pretty sobering. A life jacket sitting under a bench or in a locker somewhere is of absolutely no use if it’s tucked away and it’s not available to you when you unexpectedly need it. When we think about the nature of accidents that happen on the water, they are generally through capsize, through some sort of sudden change in the weather, being in particularly cold weather, a collision—the very moment that you discover that you might need a life jacket is probably not the moment at all that you have time to find it and put it on.

There were also several technical changes around making sure that there was some national sort of simplicity. People really shouldn’t have to worry about what the relevant bylaw is, or what the regional bylaw is that applies in different parts of the country. All of those things happened through this process, which was good. Passing this legislation, though, just to finish off, is probably the first part, and other people have mentioned that the objective has to be with an educational focus, particularly in that first summer. We want behavioural change here, and for things to be enduring and for things to work well, it has to be because of behavioural change. There’s not many of us that think twice about putting on a seat belt. It’s become human nature. It’s become part of what we do, an unquestioned thing that we do, so we really do want this to be unquestioned as well. Having said that, Maritime New Zealand, councils, harbour masters, those people need to have those resources available to them to make sure that they are able to explain the bill and to not have to resort to an overly punitive sort of situation.

This bill will not prevent every tragedy that occurs on the water, and it’s not the whole answer to our drowning problem, and we do have a drowning problem. We still need to ensure that we’ve got adequate swimming education and other sorts of water safety programmes, along with those strong organisations, like Coastguard and Surf Lifesaving, who are such an important part of not only our water safety but also our community.

They also need to be well resourced and well supported to do the job that they do.

I’d like to acknowledge everybody who did submit, particularly those who brought really quite harrowing personal experience of loss and water safety to the committee. It’s an example of the select committee process working well. It’s an example of us being able to utilise the tools that we do have at our disposal to make a good positive change, and Labour is very pleased to support this bill in its first reading.

There are not many bills in this House that you can say are consequential, but this is one of those bills. It really does save lives, and I just want to acknowledge the significance of this day. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of the process and to see this bill get to this stage today.

I certainly acknowledge the history, and the member in charge of the bill, Dr Shane Reti, and those who have come before us and have advocated for change: Sam Lotu-Iiga, Alfred Ngaro, Cameron Brewer, and now Dr Shane Reti. So I really appreciate their advocacy in bringing this to the House’s attention.

I’ve learnt a lot as part of this process, like the simple definition of “life jacket.” There are many different life jackets out there—

💬 Hon Chris Bishop: What is it?

💬 DAN BIDOIS: Well, it’s quite a complex definition but it is in law. For those of you who are tuning in at home, we learnt that there are a lot of different types of life jackets out there—personal flotation devices. They are not the old big thick life jackets that you remember from back in the day. A lot of them are quite thin and stylish. Now they have little belts, so if you’re in a kayak and you’re worried about fashion you don’t actually need to have this big yellow jacket.

💬 Hon Members: Exactly!

💬 DAN BIDOIS: Yeah, you just need a little belt. For those who are in the Waitematā Harbour and worried about their style, there are a lot of different ranges of life jackets out there, so we have applied a pretty liberal definition to personal flotation devices. So to reassure those out there in the public, if you’re on a kayak or a stand-up paddle board, there is a range of options that exist for you in order to comply with the regulations and the laws.

I’ve also learnt a lot about the definition of size—six metres; what is six metres? [Interruption] Exactly; let’s not go there. Six metres is really a good length that covers a broad range, and we heard from Maritime New Zealand about the number of vessels out there that are going to be covered within this definition. So the committee was satisfied with the length of vessel that we determined.

We also had a discussion, and Celia Wade-Brown led that, of course, on the question: what is a vessel; what is a ship? We’ve simplified that in the law, so that no one is left wondering.

💬 Arena Williams: Don’t leave them without a life jacket.

💬 DAN BIDOIS: Don’t leave them without a life jacket, says Arena Williams—that’s right. The select committee process has been well traversed. Thank you to my select committee colleagues. The committee was ably chaired by the New Zealand First member, Andy Foster. Thank you very much for your chairing. It has been a really good example of how the select committee process is supposed to work.

We all have our political colours, but we’re there to act in the best interests of New Zealand, and we did a really good job of recognising that there was a wider scope that is required. We took it to the Business Committee. The Business Committee gave us approval to widen the scope and put it out for submissions and hear those submissions. I do want to acknowledge those who made submissions on the bill as part of the process. Some made submissions twice as part of the new, revamped scope of the bill. So I appreciate their contribution.

The officials from Maritime New Zealand led us through this and gave us a lot of advice throughout the process, and I wish to thank them, as well as, of course, members from across this House who were on the select committee.

In terms of next steps, this summer is, of course, coming up. Today is the second day of spring. We all excited to be getting out there and feeling that warmer weather. It is going to be, I think, a slow ramp-up for Maritime New Zealand, so for those of you at home, just rest assured—this really is about culture change. The authorities are not going to be actively trying to just get revenue through fining people who aren’t complying. It really is about a culture change, and that starts with education, and we’ve been assured that Maritime New Zealand will have a big education drive to help ramp up and make people aware of the new laws in the bill we’re about to pass today.

Again, I wish to thank everybody who’s been a part of this process. It is a good piece of legislation. It’s one that we on this side are happy to support. I commend this bill to the House.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well, every day in this House you learn something, and today’s lesson was about stylish life jackets.

This is my third contribution to this legislation, and before I start my contribution, Cameron Brewer actually ensured that I acknowledge him about bringing this bill to the House—so he can take some credit for it. I think that’s really important. I also acknowledge the hard work of Dr Shane Reti on this bill as well. To pick up in the middle of the progress—he did a lot of the contribution. I wish him well on the next chapter of his life as well.

Back to this bill. I think this bill is about one thing: saving lives. Lifejackets seem like a simple piece of equipment, but in an emergency, it can be the difference between life and death. I think it’s been mentioned by a lot of different members of Parliament here. They’ve already mentioned how important is it, so I just want to twist it a little bit to the other direction. I just want to thank all the water safety advocates. I want to acknowledge their work—many organisations and individuals across New Zealand who have been advocating for better water safety. Those are the people who have been having this conversation for years. To all those organisations and advocates, I want to say thank you—your work has made a difference.

So let’s change the culture. Don’t wait for the emergency, put it on before you need it. The goal is very simple: enjoy the water, protect your loved ones, and make sure everyone gets home safely. One life saved is worth every effort.

I actually prepared a few pages of my speech, but I realised nothing is more important than passing this bill to save lives. So I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to start my contribution by also congratulating the member, the Hon Dr Shane Reti, and the work that you have done. I think it sort of hit me when members of your own side were talking about what an amazing way to sign off—it really is. It’s part of that long career that you’ve had of saving lives. So congratulations for taking this through this evening. It really will make a difference—it will make a huge difference. In fact, as I’ve been sitting here listening to the contributions, it amazes me, that it’s taken New Zealand this long to actually pass this bill tonight.

I was hearing people talking about members of the public who came into the select committee and told their stories—the heart breaking stories that we’ve heard. I sat there thinking, “How many lives did it have to take for us to get to this point, that we’re actually passing this tonight?” I also listened to the contributions from people saying, “Isn’t this when Parliament is at its best?” And I have to say, it is, completely, when Parliament is at its best—when there is an issue and we come together. I think the Transport and Infrastructure Committee has done something even more extraordinary here. They’ve seen just how big the issue is, that it was bigger than what their scope was, they’ve come up with a solution, and everybody has been on side with that.

I get quite emotional. I have a story, and it’s a story, unfortunately, that did not have a happy ending. I sit here tonight and I think of the person in my story and the difference that it could have made to a family that was torn apart by tragedy. My story goes back a number of years, where we had a young man at our school who had special learning needs, and he went out fishing one night with his dad in the Tauranga Harbour. Those of you who know the Tauranga Harbour know that it’s not an exceptionally deep harbour, but just like anywhere in this country, tragedy can hit in a heartbeat. He wore a lifejacket, just like we’ve heard here this evening—that many young people are often put in the lifejacket—but his father didn’t. The wind hit that boat, that little tinny, really quickly and upended it. The young man saw his dad die before his eyes. We never saw that young man back at school again because his whole family had been upended; tragedy had struck.

What we’re doing here this evening, taking all the joviality aside, that we’ve had a lot of fun as we’ve been talking about it, as we hear about saving lives, and that’s the difference that we are making as a Parliament this evening. I often wonder about that young man. Often wonder what happened to him, because his life might have been saved, but, hell, what a thing to go through; to see your father die before your eyes like that.

To the Transport and Infrastructure Committee: you have done an amazing job of changing this. To all of the people that have been in charge of this bill, of bringing it to this stage—what an exceptional difference you are making in so many lives. I feel really proud to stand here this evening and proud to be part of a Parliament that is making such a difference to people.

We have heard, here, this evening, about this will be a culture change. Yes, it will be a culture change, and we have to work, and the authorities will have to work, to make sure that people understand what that culture change means. But in time, it will be just like those seat belts that I can remember as a kid. You know, you didn’t “make them click” back then, but I can, now, think, “Well, look at the change that’s happened in a relatively short space of time; that, now, we don’t get in cars without making it click.”

Well, from tonight, the change is going to happen. We will see people getting in boats and going for the lifejackets and wearing them and putting them on. We will see families not torn apart. We will see young people not lose their parents because of a decision that was made because they didn’t have the lifejackets or it wasn’t part of the culture of wearing a lifejacket. This is Parliament at its best. This is why I’m proud to be a parliamentarian.

Thank you so much to everybody involved in getting it to this stage and thank you to all of those people that have submitted and told their stories. We are making a huge difference in this country, here, this evening. Kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a great honour to take a call in this third reading of the Maritime Transport (Lifejackets on Recreational Craft) Amendment Bill. I first want to congratulate all of the members who participated in this process and who have championed it over the years; the Hon Cameron Brewer and, in particular, of course, the the Hon Dr Shane Reti; and also all of the people who took the time to submit—in some cases more than once on this bill, as it’s changed its scope and even changed its title—to enable it to protect the people that need to be protected. Saving children’s lives sounds like the most commendable thing, however, they were not the ones who were drowning at the highest rates. And so it made much more sense to extend this bill to cover everybody.

As has been well-traversed, this bill was well-discussed throughout the select committee process—had a lot of submitters. I want to take the time to just thank some of the people who’ve contributed and advocated for this change over the years. In particular, I want to thank, on behalf of the the Hon James Meager, who omitted them earlier, the New Zealand Safer Boating Forum and Water Safety New Zealand in particular, for their contributions, and who were particularly well-traversed and well-prepared for the committee.

As has been discussed, this bill is only the beginning. Really, what this requires is a massive change in culture. This bill isn’t about any of us, really, in this House. It’s not about convincing us across the aisle that this is needed. This is about a man who’s about 60 years old, who’s been heading out off the heads all his life, ever since he was a child. He knows that stretch of water better than anybody else, and he has never once needed a life jacket; he doesn’t assume that anything is going to be going wrong. This is not about his experience. This is not about his personal competence, and we’re not asking someone like him to not believe in himself or to, you know, not have the confidence on the water. What we’re asking is that those people put it on for the other people on the vessel with them, put it on for the people who are waiting for them at home, who are waiting for them to get back at the end of the day.

When it comes down to it, there’s no way that this can be enforced on every vessel. There’s not going to be the life jacket police running around making sure that everybody’s got their life jackets on in a 6-metre vessel under way. This is about making sure that the signal is sent that this is the expectation of everybody. Knowing that this is the way it is everywhere in New Zealand makes it clear across the country so that travelling between different jurisdictions doesn’t matter. As has been pointed out, even in small areas there can be a bylaw difference, which just does not make sense, especially when there are no real boundaries on the sea.

We’ve heard about some of the terrible statistics of drowning. Over the last 25 years there have been over 400 drownings; most of those—over 300 of them—involved people who were not wearing a life jacket, and 80 percent of them were on small craft. So this is a very pertinent and important piece of legislation and will save lives. I’m not sure which pieces of legislation the Hon Dr Shane Reti assisted in, which different pieces of policy he’s guided through, will have the greatest impact on the number of lives, but this is definitely one of those where, although we know that it will have a huge difference, the success of this legislation will actually be measured in lives that are not lost, in funerals that are not attended, in chairs at tables that are not left empty. Although we may never know the names of those people who weren’t lost, there are going to be hundreds of people, potentially, in the future who will still be with their families because of the work that this House has done this evening.

It is wonderful to see bipartisan support and the process having worked so well. Parliament is a place where real change and deeply impactful things can happen. When I think again about those people that are not going to be lost, what will happen to them instead is that they’ll simply come in on the tide, tie up the boat, and argue about who is cleaning the fish. They’ll complain that the bite was better last year. That is the whole point. I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I stand to take a call on the Maritime Transport (Lifejackets on Recreational Craft) Amendment Bill, and I want to start by acknowledging the Hon Dr Shane Reti and your mahi in this space. It’s been really lovely to listen to your valedictory speech last week and then hear the debate on this bill this evening. Well done on your work over many years, and to finish on this bill—what an amazing achievement.

It’s also been really interesting to hear about the select committee process of this bill and the changes that were made and the cross-Parliament collaboration on this bill. It’s great to see this positive change that can be made for all New Zealanders because Parliament is working well together. A big mihi as well to the submitters and all the very, very experienced people who submitted on this bill that led to the changes that included adults as well.

Like many New Zealanders, I grew up boating as a child, and I remember being told that the law was that you didn’t have to have your life jacket on; you could just have it in the boat. It was insisted on that I wore a life jacket as a child, but I remember that law and I remember back then thinking about how that is absolutely bizarre, because how does a life jacket save me if it’s down the front of the boat and I’m at the back? You’d think after years of boating I’d know what the front and the back of the boat are called, but I can assure you I no longer boat as much as I used to. But it is those scenarios where the adults will put the life jackets on the kids but not put them on themselves, and I think this bill is going to make a huge difference to so many New Zealanders’ lives and so many adults’ lives if they are required to wear life jackets.

A lot of speakers tonight have talked about that culture shift, and I think that’s a very important aspect of creating legislation that can lead to a change of culture. It’s such an important aspect of what I believe we can do in this House that has long-lasting effects. Other speakers have spoken to examples in previous legislation that have had those effects, and I think that can happen in this case. It needs to of course come alongside education for everybody, and water safety doesn’t stop here. We need to make sure that we are teaching all our kids to swim so they can all enjoy our wonderful New Zealand summers at the beach and everybody can go home safely.

With that, Madam Speaker, thank you, and I commend this bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee, the House is suspended, and I will resume the Chair at 9 a.m. tomorrow for the extended setting to consider Government orders of the day. Congratulations, Dr Reti.

Sitting suspended from 9.58 p.m. to 9 a.m. (Thursday)