Russell Deborah; Williams PotoDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. I spoke at the first reading of this bill and now it is a pleasure to speak at the third reading of this bill. When I was speaking on the first version of this bill—no rapping here!—I characterised it as a tidy-up" bill. It was a bill which tidied up the legislation and the objective of the bill was to make sure that when oil fields and other mineral deposit fields were being tidied up at the end of their lives it was being done in a responsible manner. In particular there are firms that specialise in cleaning up the last of an oil field but there are attendant risks in that activity so we need to ensure that the firms that are doing it are actually capable of doing the work properly.There was a loophole in the law that meant that if the shares in a firm changed hands the Minister didn't have anything to say about it and didn't have any control over it. So what this particular piece of legislation does is ensure that if the control of a mining or drilling operation passes from one entity to another then the Minister has oversight of it and the Minister can ensure that the job is done properly and responsibly that any clean-up is properly allowed for and that funds are available for the clean-up. It's an important part of cleaning up after what is actually a mucky industry—a mucky industry that results in pollution; a mucky industry that results in slag in oil spills in leakage; a mucky industry that also results in greenhouse gases.Now it can be done—the mining can be done; the oil drilling can be done—in a responsible fashion. It can be done to ensure that there is very little environmental impact of the actual drilling of the actual mining and particularly if it is done where there are responsible operators. What cannot be done is getting rid of the climate change issues associated with the oil and gas industry and with mining for fossil fuels.A large number of the speakers in the House this evening have talked about the changes to the oil and gas industry and we've talked about the words being a "just transition". I want to just talk a little bit more about what a just transition is. A just transition doesn't mean carrying on with no change. A just transition doesn't mean looking for new sources of greenhouse gases. A just transition doesn't mean embracing every possible drop of oil there is. We actually need to make a start on exiting from the oil and gas industry. This is part of what this bill does. This bill helps in the tidy-up of fields but let's go a little bit further.What I can tell the members of the Opposition is that not one single existing permit for oil exploration has been closed down. Not one single existing exploration programme has been stopped. In fact exploration has continued in the area that is permitted for exploration an area of sea that is the size of Te Ika-a-Māui—the size of Te Ika-a-Māui; the size of the North Island. That is the area that is still available for exploration and this is exactly part of a just transition. There are decades for the existing industries to adapt. There are decades available for people to retrain. There are decades available for the new industries to arise. That is the transition that we are engaged in. It is a just and a fair transition giving people time—time—to adapt and change and it is very clearly signalled well in advance. That is what our just transition is about.People need that time. They have it available to them. The scary thing is that our planet doesn't have that time.Hon Member: How many years?Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: We've been told 12 years—12 years—if we are going to limit the increase in global temperatures to a mere 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial temperature. That's a serious change. It's a serious change in global temperatures that underpins many of the weather disasters we've seen lately. On that side of the House they want to hide their heads in the sand and not even engage in starting the just transition. We need to start. That is exactly what this bill is about.This bill helps us engage in a just transition. It is part of this Government's serious approach to climate change and to making the steps towards keeping this world liveable for all of us. We are showing leadership on climate change. We are showing leadership and we are giving people in the oil and gas industry plenty of time. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Do we have a member to take the next call?"