5 March 2007

Air NZ allows snakes on their planes

Air New Zealand must apologise to its passengers and publicly distance itself from the actions of those pilots who allowed former MP Larry Baldock to carry out political campaigning on its planes, the Green Party says.

Ms Bradford has formally complained to Air New Zealand that Mr. Baldock was permitted to go up and down the aisles on several Air New Zealand flights, handing out pamphlets and voicing his opposition to Ms Bradford's bill to repeal S59 of the Crimes Act.

"This is an air safety issue, among other things. I find it incredible that any Air New Zealand captain would allow passengers to be subjected to political campaigning on a deeply divisive issue, while the plane is in mid air. People hold strong feelings, and there was a clear potential for arguments or fights," Ms Bradford says.

"While in flight, passengers are told to kept their seat belts fastened. They do it for their own safety, not so they will be turned into a captive audience for political partisans.

"Air New Zealand needs to condemn this lapse of judgement by its pilots and apologise to the passengers concerned. Or are to we take it that Air New Zealand now considers that its passengers should be fair game for any political or religious zealots on friendly terms with their cabin staff?

"Mr Baldock and his ilk have been playing on fears that are totally unfounded. The opposition to my bill has delighted in spreading willfully inaccurate information that good parents will be criminalized for lightly smacking their children. As the Police Minister recently indicated, the police do not mount prosecutions on the basis of trifling complaints.

"Putting a child on a time out mat will not become a criminal offence either. In two separate clauses, the bill allows for parents to use reasonable force to prevent a child from engaging in offensive or disruptive behaviour, or from interfering with the parent's ability to perform their daily parenting tasks.

"Right now though, passengers need to know they can board an Air New Zealand flight without being subjected to scare-mongering from snake-oil salesmen, blessed by Air New Zealand captains. I call on Rob Fyfe to inform the travelling public just what its official policy is on in-flight politicking, and what it aims to do to discipline its wayward pilots."

ENDS

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