O'Connor Damien: West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is subject to correctionO'Connor Damien: West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 June 2014. Volume:702;Page:18941. Text is subject to correction.]Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast—Tasman):If ever there was a person and a speech that epitomised the history of the West Coast then it was that one—arrogant patronising preaching from someone sitting over in Christchurch about what is best for the West Coast when for generations his family took the sawmilling and their profits over the hill. This Government wants to do the same thing here. All I ask of the Minister of Conservation and of Gerry Brownlee is to put a clause in this West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservational Lands) Bill that guarantees benefits for the West Coast.We have heard all the pathetic excuses from Nick Smith who is dancing on the head of a pin. Well I will put my credentials on the table. I was born into and grew up in the bush. My father purchased a bit of land that was bush that was native forest and slowly pushed it over to create a farm. I lived in it. I know what the dynamics of it are so do not come preaching from your bloody Fendalton home Mr Brownlee—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order!Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR: —Mr Assistant Speaker—about what happens in the bush of the West Coast.Chris Auchinvole: Brownlee’s mill was one of the best mills.Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR: Mr Auchinvole is no better. The history of our region is people like Mr Brownlee and Mr Auchinvole coming in and promising wonderful things for our region through sawmilling initially and through mining and then packing their bags and moving out leaving the locals to try to find some job opportunities.You would have thought that we would have learnt over the generations. Well indeed it was not that long ago—in fact only a couple of months—when the repetition of that sad event that sad reality came back to haunt us when people sitting on their butts in Christchurch at Solid Energy with a board appointed by a bunch of Tories in Government ruined that company by upping the rates of debt increasing the dividend to the Tory Government and then of course it collapsed when inevitably the coal price went down. Who has suffered most? The West Coast people.What we had was a natural event. I accept Cyclone Ita was quite significant. We have not seen anything like that in living memory on our coast and I have certainly seen tens of thousands of hectares that have been severely damaged; that is right. So I understand the potential value in the logs that are on the ground.I also understand the difficulties in extracting safely that timber from those forests. If you talk to any experienced forester down there they will tell you that that is perhaps some of the most dangerous forest and forestry activity that you can undertake. Indeed there are some valuable logs and timber there. But as the Minister himself said most of that will have to be extracted by way of helicopter. The only timber of value that can possibly pay for that high-value extraction is indeed rimu. The previous speaker Gerry Brownlee talked about mataī. There may be the odd mataī tree there but in fact it will be the rimu. The reality of what happens every day that the timber is on the ground is that in our climate we do have breakdown very quickly. We do have spoilage of the logs and it is only the heart rimu that would be of any value after 2 years.I have had some interesting and robust discussion with my colleagues. I put on the table once again my knowledge from firsthand experience in the bush. I believe we can extract some of those logs. I think we can do it economically and safely but it will be only a very small amount of timber from those forests and it will probably just be rimu. So should we take that opportunity? Well I have always said yes. I do not believe that it will upset the biological cycle in the forests. Indeed if we leave them all there there might be bugs that end up looking like Mr Brownlee—that is too much nutrient in one space is conducive to not the very best of I guess ongoing health and behaviour. It is done in jest. It is not a personal affront to Mr Brownlee. I am saying that it comes from sitting in Fendalton and not on the West Coast. That is what happened. None of his relatives enjoyed that level of comfort on the West Coast when they were sawmilling.Can I just go back to Mr Smith who very righteously piously and pompously said that we should do this for West Coast benefit and then refused to put in place minor amendments which I will table that will give preferential access for West Coasters. I put before you this scenario: having helicopter extraction helicopters from Rotorua most likely and logging gangs again possibly from Rotorua and trucks possibly from Christchurch taking those logs outside the West Coast delivers very few benefits for our region.And do you know what? West Coasters are a bit more astute now than they were when Mr Brownlee’s ancestors came to our region. We had a story about Timberlands West Coast and the transition into exotics. Can I tell you that the reason we did not know the exact volume of the exotic logs in the region is because Timberlands West Coast a company run by a bunch of Tories appointed by the National Government in the 1990s was misleading the Government in terms of what was happening in the forest. You can talk to anyone on the West Coast and they will verify that. We were misled by a company that did not operate properly that did not operate ethically and that in fact in the view of many West Coasters destroyed the opportunity that we potentially had. Moving on to the piece of legislation that we have now it is again as I say one more arrogant piece of legislation proposing to offer huge and ongoing benefits to the people of the West Coast but in fact is offering opportunities for people to come in to get a sweet deal with the Director-General of Conservation and to take those logs outside our region.I come back to the point about the two mills in our regions that are capable of cutting the logs. I am sure that they would welcome a few more logs. But if you talk to them about the market and about the fragile price—and it is high. Mr Brownlee is quite correct. And it should be high. But it is very very easy to undermine the value of that timber on the market because for whatever reason—the chicken and the egg—rimu has fallen out of fashion with many furniture manufacturers and high-value users. Can I say that the risk to the market price of rimu would indeed undermine the economics of some of this extraction. I ask in my amendment as well that any permit to extract this includes a requirement for the person getting the timber to manage that timber on to the market in a way that does not undervalue or destroy the value of that timber.I support the extraction of these logs. There are opportunities potentially from it but there is also a huge risk that if in the typically Tory arrogant way members opposite preach to us what we are supposed to get and then offer the opportunities to their mates and walk away with the benefits in their pockets there will not be ongoing and lasting benefits to our West Coast community. This is an opportunity but it is one that in the hands of that Government without amendment to that legislation will be lost to our region. I say to the Minister Nick Smith who is dancing on the head of a pin with his speech that you ensure that the—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order!Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR: —Mr Smith but I am sure you would too Mr Assistant Speaker—benefits accrue to our region to the people who need jobs to the 1000 miners who have lost jobs because of that Government’s incompetent oversight of Solid Energy. This will offer a few jobs. It is crying crocodile tears to say that Government members care about the West Coast when they let 1000 miners walk from Solid Energy because of your incompetent oversight of a company that should still be employing more miners in our region. This is an opportunity for the West Coast. I cannot guarantee that those opportunities can be taken up.