O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): The National Government is clearly out of touch on the need to charge for export drinking water. It is all so clear that one Minister does not actually know what the other Minister is doing or thinks about the issue. On the one hand we have got Nick Smith who says it is not actually worth thinking about this issue at all because the amounts involved are so small. He is just not interested. On the other hand we have got Bill English who says: We'll look into it. Because of the force of public opinion we'll look into it maybe some time never—probably never."In fact the exporting of drinking water both bottled and in bulk is set to explode in this country. There is such a demand overseas for it that it is inevitable that it will happen. So Nick Smith's disinterest and Bill English's fob-off are totally unacceptable and just demonstrate yet another failure of leadership by those Ministers and by the National Government.On the other hand New Zealand First already has a bill and here it is—right here already drafted. The Government today refused leave for me to introduce that bill so that it can be read and considered—Fletcher Tabuteau: That's a shame.DENIS O'ROURKE: —and that is a shame. It is a shame because whereas New Zealand First does know what to do about this issue the National Government does not know what to do about the issue and furthermore does not really want to do anything about it at all. That is the truth.Ron Mark: Well Oravida exports it.DENIS O'ROURKE: That is right. All that is actually needed and what this bill does is to make some simple amendments to the Crown Minerals Act. First of all it inserts new section 10A and this is what it would say: "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act or in any Crown grant certificate of title or lease or Water Permit any water extracted or taken as drinking water for export either bottled or unbottled will be considered a mineral for the purposes of this Act." Then it goes on to insert a new Part 2 into that Act which deals with the funds already being collected for regions arising from royalties on other minerals under that Act. So it would just add water to that list.In particular it adds another new section 107 which says amongst other things: "(2) The Minister must consult the region or regions concerned before determining the forecast royalty income for the financial year being no less than 25% and no higher than 50%." So that is the share that would go back to the regions. And then it goes on to say: "(3) In each financial year the Minister of Finance is to cause to be credited to the Funds an amount being not less than 25% of the forecast royalty income for the financial year [concerned]." And then it also goes on to say in new section 110: "(1) The Minister with the Minister of Finance's concurrence with the relevant regions may authorise the expenditure of money standing to the credit of the Fund for the following purposes—(a) to provide infrastructure and/or services in a region; (b) to develop and broaden the economic base of a region; and (c) to maximise job creation and improve career opportunities in a region." That is what they are asking for and that is what needs to be done.So you see it is actually so easy to do this. We in New Zealand First did this in the space of a few days; the Government could have done it easily by now but really just is not interested in doing so.I want to stress one thing: apart from charging royalties for export drinking water water must not otherwise be taxed or subjected to any charge beyond the recovery of capital and the operational cost and that includes taking storing and reticulating water—and of course as I said the operational costs of dealing with that. So here we differ from the Green Party which wants to charge for all water. We do not agree with that; we say let us charge a royalty only for the exporting of drinking water not domestic commercial users in New Zealand. So I want to make that distinction very very clear because it is a very very important distinction altogether. It is so easy to charge for export drinking water. Why is the Government not doing that right now?The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."