Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): Mr Chair thank you for the opportunity to speak at the committee stage of this bill. I thank us for having a Minister in the chair Phil Twyford although some of the technical things even with the greatest capability of the Minister may be beyond him.I am going to specifically focus on new section 41AE inserted by clause 8 which is really about when the Minister may consent to a change of control to a permit operator. This side of the House and I believe the whole Parliament is supporting this bill but there are some really technical issues that this provision in my view really gets to the nub of and they are how a permit holder may be changed and given the proposed change in control. As my colleague Jonathan Young has previously said in my view the biggest risk in this space is that the permit holder in the long term does not satisfactorily meet the requirements for aftercare and other things such as that. Of course that relies on all the things that are in this new section 41AE(1)(a) subparagraphs (i) (ii) and (iii) and they are that the permit holder (i) has the financial capability to meet its obligations under the permit; … (ii) is likely to comply with and give proper effect to the work programme for [that] permit; and (iii) is likely to comply with the relevant obligations under this Act or the regulations in respect of reporting and … payment of fees and royalties;".If you go further down under that it says "Section 29A(3) and (4) applies for the purposes of subsection (1)(b) with all [the] necessary modifications." I draw to the Minister's attention a submission that with the greatest respect the Minister won't have seen but is from the New Zealand Law Society. It relates to new section 41AE(1)(b) and it "imposes a test related to the health and safety capabilities of a permit operator that is framed in similar (but not identical) terms to those that apply to the initial [granting] of a permit under section 29A of the [Crown Minerals Act]." It goes on to say "The provisions of section 41C(3)(b)(i) as they relate to health and safety capabilities are different again; [and] the latter is framed in more general terms and does not refer to legislation operating in parallel with the Health and Safety At Work Act 2015". It then goes on to say "(such as the Maritime Transport Act 1994)." I understand that reference to the Maritime Transport Act 1994 has been deleted but I'm asking the Minister to confirm that he or she is satisfied that there is complete consistency. I've read the report from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment who believe that a change to the Maritime Transport Act and removing that would ensure some consistency but I'm just mindful that under the New Zealand Law Commission's recommendations on 2.18 they say as I've just previously said it's "framed in a similar (but not identical) way to the initial [granting] of [the consent]". Then it goes on to say that "The provisions of section 41C(3)(b)(i) as they relate to health and safety … are different again".So we have a number of differences and what I'm wanting an assurance on from the Minister is that those differences have been tidied up as has been amended 41AE. This is about consistency and it's about certainty. One of the things we got from most of the submitters in the select committee—and I arrived late on the select committee in this process—was the consistency that needs to apply to give them certainty about investment decisions and this particular provision and what their roles and responsibilities are under the Health and Safety at Work Act in my view falls into one of those inconsistencies. While we're in the committee stage of this bill and in Part 1 I just want to be absolutely assured by the Minister or his officials that there is complete consistency in terms of how 41AE is handled because as we've heard previously and we heard in the select committee a whole lot of things have been done to reduce churn and to make sure that these permit changes and changes of ownership of these permits are done as seamlessly and as timely and as risk-free as possible both to the company and to the environment. Thank you Mr Chair."