Street Maryan: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 20 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16929. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour):It gives me a great deal of pleasure to rise to speak to this bill the Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill. With the indulgence of the House for a moment I want to use a little story from my own experience that I hope will demonstrate the impact that adventure tourism and whale watching in particular has had on the township of Kaikōura and demonstrate why this particular piece of legislation is so useful.My family and I went to have a look at the whales and do the whale-watching experience some years ago. The first day we got there it was too choppy to go out. The sea was too rough and the trip was cancelled. We were to turn up the next day and try again. So we decided to do something else of course on that first day. Of course Kaikōura had learnt to cater for just that situation. Its tourism infrastructure has developed alongside the whale-watching tourism venture that we know so well. It is an extraordinary thing to do to go out a very short distance from the shore and because of the sheer steepness of that continental shelf and the depth that is suddenly achieved have these whales on our doorstep by that freak of nature that edge of the continental shelf. But the Kaikōura township and community has equipped itself to deal with the off days as well. So my family and I did something else. We did another bit of adventure tourism. We went up Mount Fyffe. We enjoyed that experience as well.My point in relating this is that adventure tourism and the kinds of things for which Kaikōura is now famous provide economic development in a region. Economic development in our regions does not come only from drilling for oil and gas. Here we have a wonderful example of a region that is thriving because of its natural features. It is no wonder that the people of Kaikōura are so up in arms about the prospect of drilling for oil and gas. It is no wonder. This is an area where it might be an either/or situation. I want to come to that in the context of this bill because this bill is basically a good bill. I am pleased to see it here. I am pleased that it has reached this stage and Labour is happy to support it. But can I just make a couple of points because this is not over yet.First of all I want to acknowledge Peter Lawless who came to see me in my office in Nelson to talk to me about Te Korowai o te Tai o Marokura about its establishment about its development and about the process by which it hopes this bill might finally arrive in this place. I was delighted to tell him that Labour would be pleased to support this bill. He was acting as a facilitator on behalf of the Te Korowai guardians and presented this to me. It was a testament to the people of that area who care about what happens to it. I want to pay a tribute to the Kaikōura Coastal Marine Guardians Te Korowai at this stage of the legislation. Its commitment and its energy have brought it this far. The Minister of Conservation is the lucky recipient of the result of this work. That is not to detract from any credit that he deserves for bringing it to the House in this state but I do just recognise the Kaikōura Coastal Marine Guardians Te Korowai and its role in this process.I want to go to one of the points that is not finished. There is the provision in this legislation for the gazetting of notices and there are two notices that the Minister must gazette. First let us recognise that this bill establishes a whale sanctuary and a seal sanctuary. These are good things. In respect of the whale sanctuary there will be a Gazette notice implemented within 1 month of this Act coming into effect that would impose restrictions on seismic surveying in the area. My point is this: imposing a restriction on seismic surveying begs the question of why seismic surveying would be allowed in a whale sanctuary in the first place.This is one of these moments when the Government does need to work out which of these two regional development initiatives it is going to support. Why would we have any seismic surveying in a whale sanctuary? It is not a question of just putting restrictions on the kind of seismic surveying but one of why we would have any seismic surveying. I am not a scientist and I stand to be corrected but what I understand about it is that having seismic explosions at depth that test the topography the texture and the construction of the seabed and the underwater terrain in a whale sanctuary makes no sense at all. Here is a region that is thriving on adventure tourism and on its natural blessings really—the things that it has around it its natural features. So I would like to see at some stage when this bill goes to the Local Government and Environment Committee that very close scrutiny is paid to this idea that the Minister should provide restrictions on seismic surveying when in fact if we are going to have a whale sanctuary let us have a whale sanctuary.One of the things that I learnt when I was out on that boat watching the whales—and the talk that they give one on the boat is stunning; it is just stunning—is that at 3000 metres or 3 kilometres which is the depth to which these whales descend off the continental shelf just off the Kaikōura coastline nobody knows what body shape the whale takes under that pressure. What body shape does the whale take under that pressure? What we do know is that seismic reverberations and the kinds of explosions that are involved in prospecting through seismic surveying will have an impact on these mammals. So why would we do it?My challenge to the Minister is that although we support this bill and would like to see a whale sanctuary in place and would like to see a seal sanctuary in place and would like that area protected why not go the whole distance and say that there shall be no seismic surveying there shall be no deep-sea drilling and there shall be no oil and gas exploration because there is no need?This exploration is not the only answer to our economic woes. What we ought to be doing is maximising the protection of this area because it is a good thing to do for the environment. Not only that; it is of economic benefit to that region and that cannot be disputed. I hope that that is considered when this bill goes to the Local Government and Environment Committee. Thank you.