Mitchell Clayton: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 31 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:10090. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First) to the Associate Minister of Transport: Does he have confidence in Maritime New Zealand’s management of the safety issues at Taharoa ironsands export operation?Hon CRAIG FOSS (Associate Minister of Transport): Yes I do have confidence in Maritime New Zealand’s management of the safety of the Taharoa ironsands operation. This is undertaken by the Director of Maritime New Zealand as an independent function of this role.Clayton Mitchell: When was the Minister first informed that the Taharoa single-buoy mooring is far beyond its use-by date to be safe and far short of the required loading capacity to cope with the largest vessels ever to come into New Zealand waters?Hon CRAIG FOSS: I have assurance from Maritime New Zealand that the buoy that the member refers to is quite safe and adequate for the task that it is doing. There has recently been an audit of which some recommendations came through and of those 42 recommendations around 30 have been implemented seven of which have been implemented by Maritime New Zealand.Clayton Mitchell: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question I asked was “When was the Minister first informed?”.Mr SPEAKER: No no. The question that the member asked was “When was the Minister first informed that the mooring was not safe?”. The Minister rose to his feet and said he had been informed that the mooring was safe. Is there a further question?Clayton Mitchell: When will the buoy be replaced as per the recommendations of the recent safety audit given that Australian-owned New Zealand Steel has reported a half-yearly loss of $47.1 million and is currently looking to sell the operation?Hon CRAIG FOSS: Those issues are completely separate. Maritime New Zealand safety rules do not care who the owner or user of a particular vessel is; the rules are the rules are the rules. As I understand it there has been a lot of work and upgrading of the existing buoy and the new replacement buoy has been ordered. I believe it is supposed to be in the country or perhaps in place by the end of this year.Clayton Mitchell: What is the Associate Minister going to do about this known high-risk situation which maritime experts are referring to as a ticking time bomb and which they predict to be the next Rena disaster but on a more devastating scale considering that the three ships are more than twice her size?Hon CRAIG FOSS: Most of the rhetoric that the member refers to relates to incidents prior to and including 2012 on a vessel that was not designed for this purpose. There have been three new purpose-designed vessels using the buoy and doing the loading since 2012. There has not been one incident—or even one near-incident—since 2012 with the process they are using for loading on the buoy.Clayton Mitchell: Is he comfortable with the availability and proximity of equipment to respond to any marine disaster at Taharoa; if so how does he rationalise the enormous time it will take for an oil de-bunkering vessel to reach the disaster zone?Hon CRAIG FOSS: I acknowledge that the member just does not want this operation to happen and quite possibly for New Zealand Steel to close. But yes I am confident in the arrangements in and around any emergency or business-as-usual scenario for the operation.