Hughes Gareth: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10220. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. The National Party members are obviously asleep in Parliament tonight and are not taking their calls on this very important bill the Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill. This is an embarrassment—an embarrassment to the country—because what we are seeing is an amendment Act amendment bill being introduced to Parliament under urgency without—[Interruption] Mr Young you want to go back to the people of Taranaki and say that you are doing your best to have a good strong regulation of the oil industry but you are quite comfortable with passing these amendment Act amendment bills to fix up the messes that the current Minister of Energy and Resources has made. You are comfortable with not having any regulatory impact statement any select committee process any real explanatory statement or any New Zealand Bill of Rights Act vetting. Are you comfortable with that? Are you comfortable with such a laissez-faire approach to oil regulation in this country when we are talking about our “100% Pure New Zealand” environment our agriculture industries our tourism industries and our fisheries industries?When we are talking about the future of our economy we should be standing up and protecting it and having the best regulations. But instead what we see are cowboy tactics from this Government. We heard the Prime Minister say: “We won’t allow cowboys in this industry.” but what we are seeing is cowboy behaviour from the Government benches. It is an embarrassment.I want to touch on four points. I want to talk on the Minister’s role in this fiasco in the House. I want to talk about the shoddy process we are seeing. I want to talk about the cowboys we are encouraging with this amendment Act amendment bill. Lastly I want to talk about what we should really call this bill which is the “China National Offshore Oil Corporation Law Bill” because this is what I believe this is really about. This is not a minor technical bill. This bill is making a significant number of changes to a very important piece of our legislation protecting our economy protecting our environment and protecting our workers’ health and safety.I do not want to play personal politics because I do not believe that is the right way to go and I am not going to pit it against the Minister. But what I am going to say is that I think we are seeing an inexperienced Minister who is in over his head trying to fix the mistakes. It is an embarrassment for this Government that an amendment Act that still has not even come into effect needs to be amended under urgency in such fundamental and numerous ways.We are seeing a Minister who is in over his head. The legislation originally was full of holes but the Minister was quite happy—once again I guess like Jonathan Young was quite happy—to not have a select committee process and to not have a New Zealand Bill of Rights Act vet for the fundamental Anadarko amendment which a former Prime Minister and a prominent Queen’s Counsel said was a fundamental breach of human rights and could quite possibly breach international law. But National was quite happy to run ahead in cowboy fashion and here we are seeing the consequences.I agree with Moana Mackey. How long will it be until we are back in this Chamber fixing the holes in this rushed amendment Act amendment bill. It still sounds ridiculous just saying it out loud—“amendment Act amendment bill”. The process is shocking. We are seeing Budget urgency being abused I believe. We do not see any regulatory impact statement. I know it is not a Standing Order of our Parliament but there is a convention that an explanatory statement will actually refer to what is in the legislation particularly in important pieces of legislation.What we know is that clause 14 of this new amendment Act amendment bill is extending the jurisdiction of this country an extra 1.7 million square kilometres over the continental shelf. This is the subject matter of huge international tension at the moment as we see with China North Korea and South Korea. We see China debating these issues over the Spratly Islands. We see the Arctic nations of Canada Russia and the United States arguing about these issues. Who controls the continental shelf? National though unilaterally has decided under Budget urgency to go and decide what the jurisdictional issues are over the continental shelf.I wish the Minister of Foreign Affairs would share his opinion on this legislation because what we are doing is an unprecedented step a unilateral step on something that has vexed international scholars international legal experts and Governments for more than four decades. National has gone ahead and made the decision under urgency. Again what I think we are seeing is a Minister in over his head. We see no New Zealand Bill of Rights Act vet. The process is shocking.There are going to be a number of calls because we are looking at this legislation under all stages. I do want to very briefly touch on—I know there will be a lot more time to discuss it in detail—the substantial amendment in this amendment Act amendment bill which is that the Government is easing up liberalising and taking a laissez-faire approach to who gets an oil permit in New Zealand.I understand that 2 weeks ago the Government opened up 189000 square kilometres of New Zealand’s water to deep-sea drilling. It said that we have got the best standards in the world world-class regulations and that we would have only the best for New Zealand but what the Government is doing is relaxing and weakening the standards for those who get a permit. The Prime Minister said that we are not going to allow cowboys to get permits but what the Government is doing is allowing companies without the financial backing or without the expertise to do things they are applying for permits to do to get permits. This is incredibly worrying because what we are going to see is a posse of cowboys enter New Zealand to speculate in the oil market.The background to this bill of course is that the Government’s oil strategy the Minister’s oil strategy has been such a woeful failure in its own terms. We have seen Petrobras go we have seen Apache Corporation go and we have seen Anadarko delay its activities. The strategy has been such a failure to attract the big players down to New Zealand that now just to keep up appearances the Government is trying to bring in all the small speculators around the world trying to get them to come down to New Zealand and speculate. It is incredibly worrying because we do not want cowboy activity in our oil sector.Lastly why is clause 14 amending section 55 by amending the definition of “offshore area”? It is important because all the Government is adding in clause 14—and it was not until about 10 p.m. last night that I actually saw why the word “or” was so important. What the original Anadarko amendment said was that the provisions the five new offences to criminalise protest activity at sea apply only in the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone. By adding the word “or” to extend jurisdiction over the continental shelf what this Government is doing is expanding its powers over another 1.7 million square kilometres. Why this is significant is that last week the ChinaNational Offshore Oil Corporation and Shell announced they would be applying for a permit—where? Over the continental shelf in between New Zealand and New Caledonia.I would not be surprised if Official Information Act requests show that the Minister probably received a phone call from one of these players saying: “Hey did you realise your amendment Act did not cover our activities because we are worried about protesters. We are worried about New Zealanders standing up to our interests. We are worried about Kiwis who are looking out for the environment and economy. Do something about it.” So of course Minister Bridges said: “Well how high would you like me to jump?”.What we see is an embarrassing process and a shoddy process. We are encouraging cowboys. We are seeing benefits again to the big mates of the National Party. It is a bad day for Parliament. I do not think anyone is proud to see this legislation in front of the House but I am sure there will be a lot more to say about it. Kia ora.