SpeechSTEPH LEWIS (Labour—Whanganui): Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Prohibition on Seabed Mining Legislation Amendment Bill. Hon Gerry Brownlee: It's the House who grants that—no problem.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): Order! Mr Brownlee.STEPH LEWIS: I congratulate the member Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on having her bill drawn from the ballot and for the work that she has led on this issue. I understand that one of the reasons the member drafted this bill was as a result of the Trans-Tasman Resources application to mine ironsand from the seafloor off the coast of Pātea. I want to acknowledge the feedback that I have received from the people in my electorate the Whanganui electorate on this issue. They've expressed concern specifically about the Trans-Tasman Resources application: that they have not carried out proper due diligence on the environmental impacts of sucking up the seabed extracting the iron from the sand and depositing the remaining sediment back into our sea. I've been told by my constituents that they are concerned what the impact would be of the sediment drift on the delicate ecosystems in our area. There is no research that I personally am aware of to show what impact the noise of that mining would have or the expelling of that sediment would have—back into the sea—on the endangered Māui dolphins which reside off the Taranaki coast. I've heard from local fishermen and mana whenua that they are concerned about the impact of the sediment drift on their ability to fish to gather and collect and eat kai moana from off the coast of Taranaki. Questions have been raised about what changing the mineral composition of the environment would have on the ability of aquatic plants to grow and again what that would mean for the fish and other kai moana to find food off the Taranaki Bight. I've heard concerns from our locals that the community of Pātea and the South Taranaki district would see little economic benefit if this mining goes ahead because many of the workers would likely be flown in and flown out. Few if any jobs would go to locals and profits likely back over the Tasman to Australia. As a local MP I have heard those concerns. I have heard what the local community want to see in respect of this particular project. However as the local MP I am also acutely aware that unfortunately the way this bill has been drafted means that if it became law tomorrow our oil and gas fields off the coast of Taranaki would be turned off. The bill would revoke 14 existing petroleum permits in offshore waters located in the Taranaki Bight of which nine are mining permits and six are exploration permits. This is because it makes activity prohibited if it's a mining activity and mining activity relates to the seabed likely to contain mineral deposits including fuel minerals such as coal and petroleum. At the moment around 70 percent of New Zealand's petroleum production comes from offshore petroleum permits and licences off Taranaki. These permits and licences would be revoked but are critical to ensuring the security of New Zealand's energy supply. Three of these fields—Māui Pohokura and Kupe—produce about 50 percent of our natural gas which goes into our gas network from Taranaki. So shutting down would have a major impact on our gas network and local employers like Fonterra. The shutdown of these oil fields would also result in declining production of LPG here in Aotearoa so we would either need to find somewhere else to produce LPG or import more. In 2018 our Government prohibited any new grants of offshore oil and gas exploration permits. In doing so we did honour existing agreements to protect existing jobs.We are working with the sector through the national energy centre to transition the workforce and economy over time but we can't support a bill that would revoke those existing mineral permits and consents immediately retrospectively and without compensating parties. That would decimate the local Taranaki economy. But I hear your concerns and as you have heard from my colleagues in this House today we have announced there will be a select committee inquiry into seabed mining to properly understand the impacts this has on our ocean. In October last year we signed and backed a conditional moratorium on seabed mining in nearby jurisdictions. I want to say again—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Poto Williams): Order! The member's time has expired.