Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this third reading of the Maritime Transport (Offshore Installations) Amendment Bill. Like the previous speaker the Hon Phil Twyford we too on this side of the House take this very seriously. In fact we did a tremendous amount of work preparing for this bill before the last election. Of course the election came along and then the responsibility for continuing that work fell to the Government. Thank you for the work that they have done. Can I say the people of Taranaki who have a number of these offshore installations surrounding them in our vicinity and also particularly the sector itself take this to be a very serious matter that not only do we have agreement and unlimited liability to these companies but we have financial assurance or we have a financial security to ensure that that which they are liable for they also have a provision to meet those costs. So we certainly do support not only world's best practice in terms of any exploration that happens offshore but we also ensure that in our jurisdiction they do carry the financial ability to put right anything that does occur.The Minister in charge of the bill the Hon Julie Anne Genter presented to the House Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 417 yesterday and we had a look at that. It was a last-minute SOP and it would allow rules to cancel certificates of insurance before their expiry. This SOP is to allow the Government to require summer 2019-2020 drilling to comply with the new financial assurance rules. Though it does seem poor for the Crown to override its existing insurance certificates rather than let them run their course the sector has expected for some time that the summer drilling programme would require compliance with the new regime. So there is an acceptance of that and a preparedness for it. And even though the potentiality of Government regulation and rules cutting across what were previously accepted practices and limits we do note that there is sensitivity around this particular area and we were happy to vote for that SOP.So the regime's primary focus of course is to prevent hazards and discharges from occurring. New Zealand does have very strong regimes in that regard. It ensures that permit holders have sufficient plans and resources in place to decrease the likelihood of any adverse event. The likelihood of a major marine oil spill is very low. We always are shown examples of what happened. Of course many many years ago in the gulf in the USA—of course that's a completely different pressure system than New Zealand has; completely different environmental environments and seascapes. However it is very important that we have in place the right regime and all the different factors and enablements to ensure that if anything did happen we could respond to face those issues and also protect the interests of third parties as well.So we are supportive of this bill. We are supportive of the SOP. We believe that this will once again enable us to have world's best practice in the exploration programme and regime that New Zealand supports. Thank you for the Minister's comments that If we were to continue to support exploration in those permitted areas". Of course I would remind him that the Government promised to protect existing permits. So it's not a question that he should ask; it is something that he should state: that that is the regime in which the sector operates under under the promise of protection of this Government to protect those permits. I'm very happy to commend this bill to the House. Thank you."