Heatley Phil: Resource Management Reform Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHeatley Phil: Resource Management Reform Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 25 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11238. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei):I rise in support of the Resource Management Reform Bill in its second reading. We from the National Party have made it very clear that we believe—in fact we know and I guess farmers foresters and those in tourism know it best—that the natural environment is New Zealand’s greatest asset. We believe that successful economic and environmental policies can and must go hand in hand. They always have. One of the best examples of this is aquaculture. We have a beautiful marine environment and we all fish we sail we water-ski and we dive—or at least that is me. We do a whole bunch of things to do with the beach and the ocean environment but we also believe that we can grow mussels oysters and salmon. We believe that our environment as beautiful as it is and as much of a provider as it is can also provide economic benefit.The Greens of course are all against unemployment and they are all for jobs but they are against aquaculture. Another example of course is our oil and gas industry which has gone very well in Taranaki for the last 50 to 100 years alongside dairy farming and tourism. We believe that the industry’s environmental record up in the Taranaki is good. It has had issues from time to time over the last 50 to 100 years but it is always improving. There is an opportunity there to expand that in other regions of the country an opportunity where again the environment and economic development can happen. The Greens of course are against unemployment and they are all for jobs but they oppose aquaculture and oil and gas exploration.It is the same on the West Coast where you have mining. I guess it is the home of the Labour Party. There has been mining down there on the West Coast which has a beautiful environment and more national parks and Department of Conservation land than you shake a stick at. Of course the Greens are against unemployment and they are all for jobs but they do not support aquaculture oil and gas exploration or mining.You cannot get a better example of agriculture in New Zealand than dairy farming which is seen right throughout New Zealand. Dairy farming is very very successful. In Canterbury the farmers irrigate as they do in some other areas of the country like Northland. I ask where else than dairy farming do you get such a good example of the business person working with the environment to create if you like jobs and something for our economic future. I ask where is there a better example of that than dairy farming right throughout the country and of course in Canterbury. Of course the Greens are against unemployment and they are all for jobs but they oppose irrigation and they do not like dairy farmers. Apart from not liking aquaculture mining oil and gas exploration dairy farming or anything else that you might like to put up there the fact of the matter the interesting thing is that the Greens are against unemployment and they are all for jobs but they oppose every opportunity you point to out there.That is why in this bill we have considered it a very good idea to introduce an opportunity for 6-month consenting for major developments. Members of the House and members of the public will know that for what we call developments of national significance we have a 9-month consenting regime. We have decided to introduce a 6-month consenting process for major developments that you may not call nationally significant but that are major just the same. We could have called them activities of regional significance but they may very well be activities of some sort of national stretch or they may not be regionally significant but major in their own right. We believe that a 6-month consenting process is a very very good idea for those medium-sized projects.We understand there are about 1600 medium-sized projects processed each year. They include subdivisions supermarkets industrial developments and infrastructure projects. I think that is a good thing. I know that the Greens are against unemployment and they are all for jobs but they oppose subdivisions supermarkets—because they grow their own—industrial developments and infrastructure projects. Just the same I support this bill. I am against unemployment I am all for jobs and I am for every opportunity that we can present that balances environmental objectives with economic ones unlike the Green Party.