Wagner Nicky: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 30 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2737. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 Talofa lava Mr Speaker. I rise to support this Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill and I am delighted to support this bill. It has been long-awaited. I think we have been discussing this for probably near on 20 years. This bill is particularly significant because once it is passed there will for the very first time be a framework for environmental protection in our exclusive economic zone.  
As has been mentioned tonight already the size of our exclusive economic zone in the marine environment is enormous. It is about 20 times the land mass of New Zealand and our exclusive economic zone is the fifth largest in the world. I say “our” exclusive economic zone because under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea we have sovereign rights over this area and the continental shelf. That sovereign right under the convention provides us with the opportunity to access the natural resources in this area but it also makes the requirement for responsibility and obligation to conserve and preserve the natural environment. And this bill does just that.  
It has been very interesting to hear the discussion from the Opposition members in the House who are convinced that the bill does not meet our international obligations. However we have had strong advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I note that the ministry actually negotiated this convention. It spent months and months for years negotiating this convention and it believes that this bill meets our obligations.  
But let me make this clear: this is only one bill. There are 14 other Acts that cover this area. This bill covers activities such as seabed mining energy generation carbon capture and storage and marine farming and also some aspects of petroleum exploration and extraction. But right now the most common use of the EEZ is in terms of shipping and fishing and other Acts cover that. For example the Maritime Transport Act 1994 which regulates shipping also regulates marine pollution oil-spill planning and response and also dredging and the dumping of waste. In terms of fishing the Fisheries Act 1996 manages both the fisheries and fishing activities. Other Acts such as the Crown Minerals Act 1991 and the Continental Shelf Act 1964 will continue to operate and they will be involved in the resource-allocation regime for petroleum and minerals. There are also two other environmental Acts the Marine Mammals Protection Act and the Wildlife Act. But what this Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill does this long-awaited bill is that it provides an environmental management framework similar to the Resource Management Act to assess to manage and to control activities in the EEZ.  
There was an enormous amount of interest in this bill. That is no surprise. The Local Government and Environment Committee had 125 submissions and we heard 37. I have to say that every single submitter supported the bill and was pleased to see that it had come to the select committee. There was of course a variety of comments and shades of opinion about the detail of the bill but every submitter was pleased to see that we had a bill that dealt with the environmental effects in the EEZ. There were an enormous number of important issues raised by submitters. We worked our way through those submissions and numerous changes were agreed to by the whole committee and they have been made to the bill. However there were some differences of opinion that we could not reconcile and that will make for great debate during the Committee stage.  
I would like to thank everybody who was on the select committee because regardless of our differences of opinion we were all very aware of the importance of the bill and worked hard to get the best possible outcomes. I would also like to thank the officials from the Ministry for the Environment and from the Environmental Protection Authority. They worked very hard they were well-informed and they did good work for us. I also thank the drafters of the bill. It was a complex bill it did require a lot of rethinking and we appreciate the work that they did. I commend this bill to the House. It is time that we had legislation that provided the environmental framework that we need for our EEZ and this bill will do the job. Thank you.