The New Zealand Government announced on Tuesday that it does not see any need for armed air marshals to be provided on New Zealand aircraft, but that it is preparing legislation to allow them for the benefit of other countries wishing to use such a facility into and out of New Zealand. The statement was made by Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven as the Bill came up for debate on Tuesday 20 march. Provision would be made in the Bill for Cabinet to make armed guards legal through an order in Council should the need arise in future. We're assuming this would be after NZ's version of 911. To make it crystal clear to anybody that might be listening, Mr Duynhoven said the Government did not envisage putting armed security officers on planes in New Zealand.

Mr Duynhoven claimed that any tighter security measures on planes could add $4.50 per journey by way of an increased levy on ticket prices. "We don't believe with our current security environment that that would be something we could readily consider. We think that if that was the level of threat that we saw, then our aircraft would not fly. The pilots would say `sorry, we're not doing it'." The Transport Safety Minister said that the provision in the legislation to allow other countries' airlines to carry armed guards would still need a decision by Cabinet to implement that provision.