O'Connor Damien: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Damien: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 16 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9373. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman): In 1992 the National Government deregulated the mining industry. In 1997 it created schedule 4 areas—that is high conservation value areas including national parks which were out of bounds for mining. In 2009 it proposed to mine in schedule 4 areas. And now in 2013—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Some.Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR: —no no it opened them all up Mr Smith. You cannot get out of that one. In 2013 the National Government is proposing to lock in schedule 4 areas once again in this legislation.I will start with the good news. This legislation does include some provisions that Labour supports. The first one that I must speak of with passion is that of implementing the recommendations—or some of them—from the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy which unfortunately was the result of 1992 legislation by the National Government. It is moving to address the problems created and I acknowledge that as do the families of those 29 miners as do the people of the West Coast and in the mining sector. We need safe mining. This legislation makes some improvements in the process for applying for mining permits with a two-tier system that gives due recognition to the important ones. It incorporates health and safety provisions into all aspects of mining including prospects and that is as it should be. It makes it easier to revoke permits where operators do not meet standards and it does increase the penalties.Those are the good points of this legislation and I would like to acknowledge them. However there are some problems with it. One of the things raised by my colleagues there of course is the one that relates to the Minister of Conservation but perhaps has precedent and flow-on issues for other landowners. In 1992 along with the deregulation of the mining industry and mine safety the Government said that landowners should have the ultimate right of I guess blockage and ban on any mining on their land. Prior to that the Crown owned the minerals under the land and gave with those mineral rights the right to the land. It was not right. It overrode private property rights. What is happening here in these bills is that for the Minister of Conservation who holds conservation land on behalf of all New Zealanders her rights to manage that land will be potentially overridden by the Minister for Economic Development.There will be some particularly in my patch down on the West Coast who might say “Oh that’s great.” but when they actually stop and think about it if we want sensible environmentally friendly sustainable mining we have to go about it the right way. Labour supports that but it must be done in an environmentally sensitive manner it must be done in a way that returns real benefits to the community—not just temporary benefits—and it must be done in a way that upholds the highest levels of health and safety across the mining sector. Labour has had that view for a long time and we will not resile from that. The problem is that if as these bills go through those rights of the Minister of Conservation—who owns the land or manages the land—are overridden then there is the potential if the economic benefit test on mining applications applies to other landowners for their rights to be overridden too.What the Government has done at the last minute is bring in a ban on protesting. Everyone thinks it is a bunch of long-haired hippies running out there all in wetsuits whom you see protesting about offshore mining. Well can I say that many landowners—many ordinary New Zealanders—protest against mining because they see the proposals as not being environmentally sensitive and not providing benefit to the community and they too want to protest. We have to be careful that the passage of this legislation does not undermine—as it does for those offshore—ordinary NewZealanders’ rights to stand up and say “This is not right.” Their ability to do that ensures a better process and often ensures a fairer and better outcome.The Government riding roughshod over New Zealanders’ rights to protest is unconstitutional. That is why Labour has taken a position of opposing this and I support the opposition on that basis. In spite of positive provisions in the legislation implementing better health and safety standards in the mining sector there are other provisions in these bills that mean that on balance Labour cannot support this legislation.