Smith Nick: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Nick: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 18 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4607. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): I move That the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. This bill deals with the exclusive economic zone which amounts to an area 21 times the area of New Zealand’s land mass. Prior to 2012 there was no environmental assessment of oil platforms minerals activities or the like in that massive area of space and I am proud to be part of a Government that has actually provided for a robust system of scrutiny for activities that might take place in that area. But we have the issue of the four major platforms of activities that occur in that space and how we might transition them into the new regime. There are four operators: Shell Todd Oil Services with the Māui platform; Australian Worldwide Exploration which runs the Tūī platform; OMV New Zealand on the Maari platform; and Origin Energy Resources with the Kupe platform. The regime we put in place required each of those to apply to the Environmental Protection Authority for a consent at the time their minerals permit expired. Shell Todd Oil Services was the first of those to come up for renewal in respect of its minerals permit and it properly applied for a permit and consent from the Environmental Protection Authority and that consent has now been granted.The issue that is before the Parliament with this bill is that in the event that anybody chooses to appeal that consent we could have the quite unsatisfactory position after the end of this month where Shell Todd Oil Services would not be able to continue to use that platform at Māui and as a consequence there would be a significant effect on the security of 20 percent of the gas supply for New Zealand. What this bill simply makes plain is that in the event that that decision is appealed Shell Todd Oil Services can continue to use the consent and that platform through to the date when all of the appeal processes are concluded and I would be very surprised if there was any member of this House who would logically take issue with that. Of course we also deal with the other three operators by clearly setting out the process when they come to apply through the same process.I want to commend the work the Local Government and Environment Committee did and I commend the work of the Committee of the whole House which finalised this bill. A future reapplication will now be required over a period of 9 months. The technical amendments that have been made through the select committee process clarify the way in which the Environmental Protection Authority will deal with those applications. With these additional transitional provisions we will end up with a sensible regime in which we can bring those previous permits in when we did not have a regime for the assessment of environmental effects for those applications previously made. It is a sensible bill. It is a bill that provides for the continuation of New Zealand’s central energy supplies while also ensuring that we have integrity for the Environmental Protection Authority’s assessment of those environmental effects and the conditions that it has recommended in its decision around the continuation of the Māui platform. For all those reasons I commend the bill to the House.Debate interrupted.