Mackey Moana: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mackey Moana: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 September 2011. Volume:675;Page:21228. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 As my Labour colleagues who have spoken before me have said Labour will be opposing the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill. I say to the member who has just resumed her seat that fine words are all very well and good but what we need to have is decent legislation if we are serious about protecting New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: You had 9 years. Did nothing in 9 years. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: That is not true. Dr Smith says Labour did nothing in 9 years and he knows that is not true. An awful lot of work went into this issue. Unfortunately while Nick Smith was parading up and down the country saying the beaches belong to everyone—no deals; do not let Maori have access to the foreshore and seabed—and while he was planting New Zealand flags and raising up all the racial tension that resulted on the foreshore and seabed issue that work had to be put on hold because clearly there were implications for the foreshore and seabed issue of the oceans policy work that Labour was doing. We went through that period of time. As the Minister well knows he could have picked up that work. He has picked up the work that Labour was doing in this area but he has made significant changes to it which has meant that Labour cannot support it. 
Another three things have changed since that time. The first is that we have a National Government which the minute it came into office went out and said to the world that it wanted more oil and gas exploration in New Zealand. National ramped that up big time; it has never denied doing that. It saw that industry as becoming a big part of New Zealand’s economic future. So National went ahead and ramped it up—and the Minister is acknowledging that—despite there not being the protections in place. Despite there not being any protections in the exclusive economic zone the Government went ahead and said it wanted to do a lot more oil and gas— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: It hasn’t happened yet. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: It has happened. Come up my way. I invite any Government Minister to front up in Gisborne and on the East Coast instead of running away and hiding every time they are invited and explain their position around oil and gas exploration in the Raukumara Basin. But they do not come. They hide and they send Government officials. Our local MP does not show up; the Minister does not show up. No one fronts up to talk to the people on the East Coast who are concerned about what is going on in their exclusive economic zone. That is the second thing that has changed. 
The third change is that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was a big wake-up call for everyone. We had been told time and time again that technology had developed so far—which I am sure it has—that there were a lot more protections in place that we were able to do this work in a way that was a lot safer and that we would not have the kinds of accidents that we have had in the past. I think largely the public had accepted that. The public had accepted that the technology made oil and gas exploration a lot safer. What the Gulf of Mexico disaster showed us is that those dangers are very much still there and they are there in a big way. If we are not able to deal with them if we do not have liability issues sorted out up front if we do not have the capacity to carry out a clean-up in the country is this industry something that we want to ramp up as the National Government is doing before we get those protections in place? 
It is all very well for members to criticise the previous Government and criticise Labour for not supporting this legislation but we have taken all that on board. We have learnt from the developments that have happened over the last few years and we do not believe that this legislation will provide the protection that New Zealanders want to guarantee as much as we can that the kind of disaster we saw in the Gulf of Mexico will not occur here in New Zealand. 
Three things about this legislation are concerning. The first is that as we know the Resource Management Act applies out to 12 miles. The Resource Management Act’s principles are very clear and they are very well known. They are around the protection of our natural environment and our natural resources. But when we get beyond that 12-mile zone the well-known principles of the Resource Management Act principles that have been well tested and that people understand no longer apply. Instead the Government has put in a new test which is around a balance which is always a nightmare—a balance between economic development and environmental protection. I know that the community I live in on the East Coast is asking why we could not have the same principles. Why is it that beyond 12 miles apparently those principles of environmental protection do not apply and it now becomes a balance but within the 12-mile zone they do apply? 
The Minister Nick Smith is on record as saying this is because what occurs in the exclusive economic zone does not affect communities. I say again to the Minister that if he really believes that he should come to Gisborne and say it. He should go up the East Coast go into the tribal areas of Te Whanau-a-Apanui and Ngati Porou— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: That’s not what I said. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: —it is—and tell them— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: You’re making it up. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I say to the Minister that I am not making it up. The little smile on his face tells me he knows very well that is what he said. It was a direct quote. The Minister said that the Government was not extending the principles of the Resource Management Act out because what occurs there does not affect communities. Does the Minister believe that? He has gone quiet; he has gone absolutely quiet. It does affect communities. The communities along the East Coast where that exploration is occurring in the exclusive economic zone are very affected and they were not consulted. 
There are no environmental protections in place. If the Minister is so passionate about the exclusive economic zone and its protection why did he not put on hold those consents until all the protections were in place? 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Because it’s only seismic surveys and they were only subject to consents. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: They are only seismic surveys. Yet there were still intrinsic dangers in carrying out that work. Because this legislation will not be in place until July 2012 at the earliest will he guarantee that if National decides that prospecting will go ahead nothing will occur before the regulatory framework is in place—absolutely nothing? 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: We’ve put interim arrangements in place. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Interim arrangements in place. Again I say it would have been nice if National members had fronted up to the numerous meetings on this issue held in the local community to explain this instead of sending four officials from the Ministry of Economic Development who had to sit there and say they did not know because it was a political decision. Our community could not get the answers it wanted because not a single National MP would front up. I think that in itself is very very telling. 
The exploration that occurred in the Raukumara Basin as the Minister well knows has caused enormous distress in the East Coast communities. Iwi leaders who should have been part of the consultation process heard about it on the news. They heard on the news that it was happening. Since then they have not been able to get answers to some very simple questions that the community has been asking about that exploration in a very ecologically sensitive part of the marine environment. What made it even worse was that for a number of years now the move that people have wanted to make is to put that area into a marine reserve. That was the kind of move from the Government that they were hoping for regarding the Raukumara Basin because it is ecologically significant because it is environmentally sensitive because it has breeding and feeding grounds I say to the Minister because it has a number of endemic species— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Is that your policy? 
MOANA MACKEY 
: The Minister will have to wait with bated breath to hear Labour’s policy. None of the environmental protections were in place. 
The Raukumara Basin is an ecologically sensitive area and it is incredibly seismically active. When we look at the number of shallow earthquakes over the last 10 years we see that with the exception of Canterbury most of them have occurred in the very area where the exploration is taking place. Also it is interesting to note that the other part of the country where the industry is currently doing exploration is in Canterbury off the Canterbury coast. The two most seismically active parts of the country are currently the areas where we are exploring. We know that these oil and gas reserves are now harder and harder to get to because all the easy resources have already been exploited. 
We have major concerns that the Environmental Protection Authority will be the body that administers this legislation. The Environmental Protection Authority is under-resourced incredibly under-resourced for the amount of work and the responsibility that the Government expects it to carry out. It is not autonomous so the Minister can direct it and therefore it is not solely about protecting the environment. It is about carrying out the will of the Government of the day which is not what was promised. Most tellingly the Environmental Protection Authority does not have environmental protection as one of its purposes. The Government refused to support an amendment that would have made environmental protection one of the purposes of the Environmental Protection Authority. That tells us an awful lot about the particular agency that is to administer this legislation. 
We do not have any detail on this legislation. All the detail on it is to be set out in regulation. This is something that the Government has been doing more and more of. So how could anyone have any confidence—any confidence—that this legislation will protect in any way? This is one of the reasons why Labour will not be supporting this legislation. It comes from a Minister who has weakened just about every single piece of environmental protection that the previous Government put in place. He has sat by while oil and gas exploration has been ramped up and then in the dying hours of this Parliament he has introduced a bill that will provide he says some form of protection. We say we cannot see that in the legislation— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. Her time has expired.