Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'd like to commend my colleague Stuart Smith who has articulated brilliantly and like you Mr Speaker I too enjoyed that tremendous speech. In the third reading obviously I'd like to thank my select committee members on the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee. As the chair said earlier we do actually work very cooperatively and efficiently and I'd like to wish the members—I'm not so sure if I'll get another chance to wish them good luck in the coming election because next week is our final week in the House. But on this bill and the purpose right from the outset it changes the dynamics of how the industry is supposed to operate. Instead of the Government promoting prospecting and exploring for minerals it is basically only going to be managing it. So literally it is not saying Welcome you are here to explore"—and potentially get more minerals that are needed for all of the products that Stuart Smith talked about in his speech. That change is in clause 4. The other aspect of it in clause 5 is that it also talks about the functions of the Minister responsible for the administration of the principal Act where the attracting of the permit application is now officially cancelled. They're not going to be attracting it. They're going to decide "from time to time" meaning hardly ever under this Government because it looks like they're officially off the target area for the Labour Government for the prosperity of New Zealand. Where other Governments in the world are trying to incentivise mining for minerals and they are even subsidising some of the work that they do New Zealand is basically saying no and that is at the cost of us all. I know that the Government actually talks in a very big-falutin way about how they're committed to emissions reduction and yet their decision to close down on gas exploration which other countries support as a backstop for energy means that we don't actually have that any more. I think that overseas they say in Norway—Stuart Smith: They've just reopened. MELISSA LEE: They've reopened according to Stuart Smith. He's just told me that. Hon Member: Oh Stuart Smith is a very wise man. MELISSA LEE: He is—well he is the spokesperson after all. He knows his business and I think sometimes I have to wonder whether the Minister does in fact know about it. The issue is that the Minister of Energy and Resources in her answer during the committee stage said that it wasn't part of the debate but she introduced it by trying to defend her Government's position by saying that New Zealand has had the lowest importation of coal in the last quarter of last year. I have to remind the members that in 2021 we had one of the highest importation of coal—close to 2 million tonnes—that came into this country from Indonesia where we cannot guarantee that their exploration methods are as clean as we do it. Why not open the mines here in New Zealand so that we can control the environmental impact? We only do it because we may need it when the water levels in our hydro lakes are down and we need the coal to power our energy but instead we import it from another country where we can't control the emissions commitment of those countries or the practices of those countries. Going forward whether or not it is products that use minerals that we import we probably as a nation need to think about how those products are manufactured in terms of their emissions profile because that's the trend around the world. I think we would all support that but we need to actually think about how we do it in New Zealand. I think we can be better and all of us can agree to that. But as Stuart said do we want to make sure that we support the mining industry to explore and get these minerals out of the ground to potentially use for the things that we need including electric vehicles (EVs) and including silica for example. I mean you know Silicon Valley—we need chips right? Potentially we could actually create manufacturing where we filter the silica that we—Stuart Smith: We could sell them silicon ingots. MELISSA LEE: Exactly and we should think about the future. The future is in digital and it needs a lot of minerals. I think that EVs have—how many more minerals?—six times more minerals than conventional cars. I know that earlier I talked about the wind turbines—one wind turbine takes 220 tonnes of coal to manufacture. Hon Member: So you replace the coal. MELISSA LEE: I know. But the thing is that we have to look at those costs as well and perhaps those costs for carbon emissions could be reduced if we did it from New Zealand rather than importing coal that has a really terrible carbon emission profile and it has to be shipped to New Zealand as well. That also is a carbon profile addition rather than things that are dug up from our own ground. I'm not suggesting we go all foolhardy on coal coal coal; I'm talking about minerals. There are plenty of minerals in our Crown land where we can promote and be responsible in their attraction. I think that the Government could actually do more to support the industry instead of kiboshing it and saying no and calling them out as if they are bad actors. I think everyone tries to do their very best. Yes we do get some bad actors and those bad actors need to be pulled up for their activities and we should make sure that they pay for their bad activity in terms of their pollution. But when we consider the fact that overseas Governments are incentivising minerals mining and trying to make sure that there is competition in the field I think New Zealand is actually badly served by our Government trying to reduce the amount of exploration. I certainly do not support this bill."