Hughes Gareth: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10291. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to oppose the Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill. Because we are sitting under urgency on a Saturday I have got babysitting duties and had to bring my kids to Parliament. They are in the parents’ room at the moment. Coming down to the Chamber I was thinking about why it is important to oppose this bill going through under urgency. It is not a cliché but it is because of my kids.As a parent the best moments I believe you can have as a Kiwi parent are playing with your kids on the beach. It is such an iconic Kiwi experience and by George we have got some amazing beaches around this country and I do not want to see that special experience destroyed for New Zealanders. I know that this afternoon thousands of Kiwis are going to the beaches to draw a line in the sand against this Government’s deep-sea drilling agenda. Hundreds of New Zealanders are joining hands across the beach in about a dozen cities I understand. I am going to be there with my children. We are drawing a line in the sand. We are saying that if the Government cannot guarantee that it can deal with a spill if the Government cannot guarantee that it can avoid a catastrophic deep-sea spill we should not be doing it.What we know is that this Government is opening up huge acreage with 189000 square kilometres opened up a fortnight ago for tender mostly for deep-sea oil drilling permits. What we know is that the deeper you go and the deeper you drill the more the risks are magnified. The industry itself says that it operates at the frontiers of technology geology and geography. Just last week Lord Browne the former chair of BP said that the risks for deep-sea oil drilling are too high.That is why I am opposing this bill because what this bill is doing through a bad ridiculous embarrassing process and through a shocking shoddy parliamentary process is just encouraging greater speculation in the industry. It is inviting cowboys to come down to New Zealand and be a risk to our environment and our beaches. The risks are too high yet the Government is trying to clamp down on protests.A couple of years ago when theRena spill occurred with those 350 tonnes of oil what we saw was New Zealand woefully unprepared to deal with a spill. Yet the Government still nominated its oil spill capacity to be only 5500 tonnes. What we know is that a deep-sea well blowout could release 600000 tonnes. In America they had 40000 people working on a spill. We have got 400 trained responders. In America they had 1000 vessels. In New Zealand we have got three dinghies. In America they had everything in place but it was still catastrophic and cost $40 billion. Yet this Government says that the maximum penalties are only $10 million and a company has to have insurance of only $30 million.The Government cannot guarantee that we will not see a spill. The Government is not prepared; it is not protecting the taxpayer from liability. That is why we are opposing this bill—this ridiculous bill that just shows the incompetence of the Minister of Energy and Resources. Here we are a matter of weeks after the Crown Minerals Amendment Act was passed. Before it has even come into effect the Government is having to modify it to fix up the mistakes. But it is worse than that because through urgency it is trying to slip in some sneaky changes to benefit its mates in the oil industry.The Government has no vision for this economy. It would rather gamble with our environment gamble with our fishing industry gamble with our tourism industry and gamble with that important Kiwi experience of enjoying a beach with your kids. It is going to gamble with that to support its mates because it has got no vision. But there is a better way. We should be encouraging clean energy manufacturing jobs and a smart innovative economy but the Government is not doing that. It is putting all the eggs in this basket. What you see is the Government cutting special deals. That is why under urgency it is passing amending legislation to amend legislation that still has not come into effect with no select committee process no regulatory impact statement and in fact no actual answers in the Committee stage.The only parliamentary scrutiny our country has is the ability to question the Minister and his officials. Yet the Minister refused to take a single call and neither did any National member take a call in the Committee stage. This is quite simply lawmaking at its worst. But what we are gambling with is our environment and our economy. What the substantive amendments contained in this amendment bill do is encourage speculation. Once this bill is passed and signed into law to apply successfully for a permit companies do not have to have the financial capability to be able to do the work they are promising to do. Let us say that again: you do not have to have the financial capability to do the work you are promising to do—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Not the Speaker.GARETH HUGHES: Apologies Mr Assistant Speaker. This is deeply worrying because what we are doing is encouraging speculation in the industry. The Government’s oil drilling agenda has been so woefully unsuccessful. With Petrobrasleaving Apache Corporation leaving and Anadarko delaying all its work the Government is trying to look as though it is busy by encouraging a proliferation of small players to speculate in the industry because the plan has been just so unsuccessful. The second point is that what we are seeing—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Ha! The member has scared them off.GARETH HUGHES: Well Mr Brownlee I am quite happy to have taken a strong stance along with the majority of New Zealanders. Remember that 99 percent of Kiwis in the regulations submissions said it should be a prohibited activity because you cannot guarantee it.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Order!GARETH HUGHES: And Mr Assistant Speaker what we are seeing is this Government making it easier to get a deep-sea oil permit without the technical capability. Let us say that again. You do not have to have experience of knowing how to drill a well to get a deep-sea drill permit under National. What we see this Government saying—and we saw John Key a month ago saying—is that it is not going to invite cowboys down to New Zealand but this is exactly what this legislation rammed through under urgency does. It is about getting cowboys to come down to New Zealand to speculate. We do not want people learning how to drill on the job—we do not want people learning how to drill on the job. The Government is gambling with our economy and gambling with our environment. It is not on because there are better ways forward.Just lastly what we see is clause 14 being sneaked through by Minister Bridges. Originally Parliament saw the traditional New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and select committee processes bypassed through the introduction of a Supplementary Order Paper. Now the Government is using urgency to amend something—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I have members who do not have the floor interjecting on each other. If they want a call that is fine. They can do it later on. But they know it is out of order and it is discourteous to the member who is trying to speak. Courtesy is contagious members.GARETH HUGHES: Let us hope the National members can take a call and talk about the substance so that they can talk about why they are weakening our permit rules why they are weakening our regulations and why they are risking and gambling with our environment.The important breach of human rights and I believe international law is in clause 14 which they are sneaking through. They are sneaking through under urgency something that had no scrutiny because they snuck it through in an amendment to the previous legislation. This is not on. Eminent legal professors have said that. What they are doing is extending their five new criminal provisions the so-called Anadarko amendment introduced through a Supplementary Order Paper out into the continental shelf.This is interesting because New Zealand does not actually have jurisdiction over the continental shelf—if you look at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website look at the Ministry for the Environment website and look at the conflicts wracking China Japan and the Arctic countries that are debating this very issue at the moment—but the Government is quite prepared to unilaterally run ahead and say: “Oh sure we don’t have jurisdiction but we’re going to apply laws that relate only to the oil industry that relate only to protest.” It is so scared of protest—it is sending the message that protest is effective and it is laying down a challenge to protestors that the industry is scared of the work they are doing—that it is prepared to run roughshod over New Zealanders’ human rights. It is an honourable tradition which the former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer Peter Williams QC and Dame Anne Salmond NewZealander of the Year have said is such a fundamental part of New Zealand and such an honourable tradition.The Government is ramming through and extending these egregious powers over an extended 1.7 million square kilometres of the continental shelf. It is deeply worrying because it is a breach of human rights. It is deeply worrying because it is going to have international geopolitical ramifications. New Zealand is unilaterally running ahead extending its jurisdiction. What we are seeing is all in support of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation which only a fortnight ago said it is going to be applying for a permit—where else but the continental shelf.This is a worrying precedent we are seeing from this Government. We are seeing laws being made for Hollywood. We are seeing laws being made for casinos. We are seeing laws being made for the industry by the industry. This is not on. It is not what Kiwis expect. This Government has got tens of millions of dollars in subsidies pages and pages of tax exemptions free research support free support from officials and legislation being passed for the industry. It even calls out the navy to support Petrobras in the oil industry. This Government is sending out a very important message: “Drill baby drill!”. New Zealand is open if you are a foreign offshore oil company.What about the wind industry? What about the manufacturing industry? What about the geothermal industry? This Government is sending the message that this is not a level playing field. It is going to subsidise support and do anything it can to support one particular industry because it has got no vision. It would rather risk our environment and gamble that someone will find something somewhere and that will be our path to prosperity. It is not because we have got the fourth-lowest royalty rate in the world. We know from Taranaki that we are going to see hardly any jobs.What we know is we are going to see all the profits flow offshore. The Government’s own report says 90 percent of the profits are going to flow offshore. That means hardly any jobs hardly any taxes hardly any royalties and profits flowing offshore yet risking our environment. Why does the Government not listen to the PricewaterhouseCoopers report that said there is a $22 billion clean-energy opportunity? Why does it not listen to the Pure Advantage report that says there is a $6 trillion clean-tech industry that we could be getting a slice of? But no this Government would rather keep its head in the sand and bend over backwards to follow this disturbing trend.This is lawmaking at its worst. There is a better way. The Green Party is offering solutions to make New Zealand a richer place and to enhance those beautiful beach experiences for Kiwi families.