Falloon AndrewANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you very much Madam Chair for the opportunity to take a call although I am conscious that at 1 minute past 5 on the first Tuesday of November there might be quite a few dozen people who would usually watch Parliament TV who have probably switched over—and it has nothing to do with my colleague Matt King taking the call right before me. I did just want to thank actually a couple of speakers who have come before me: both Deborah Russell who is the chair of the Environment Committee for taking a call—and I'm sure there'll be plenty more opportunities for her to do so as we roll into this evening—but also too the Minister Megan Woods who has I think been quite good at responding to some of our comments today. But I do just want to pick up on a couple of comments that she made in some earlier comments and they do relate to Part 2 of the bill. She mentioned that this bill and particularly Part 2 would allow for a just transition away from oil and gas and she specifically said they are not pulling the rug out"—not pulling the rug out. Well tell that to people in Taranaki. Tell that to the 15000 people whose jobs will be affected by this bill progressing through Parliament. That's 15000 people 15000 families who rely on a pay packet from the oil and gas industry. And if members opposite want to repeat the line that's been used many times this afternoon that it won't affect anyone who's currently in work—well go and talk to the people at Fitzroy Engineering Group a company in New Plymouth which employs 400 people who on the day this bill was announced implemented a hiring freeze. That's an absolute example of where a company who is related to the oil and gas industry has said "As a result of this legislation we are going to hire no more people." And that will be replicated across the industry. It will be replicated across the oil and gas sector and replicated across all of the industries that are related to it. She also went on to say in another quite incredible comment that the Barque development which is off the coast of North Otago would still go ahead. My area of Rangitata would benefit hugely actually from the Barque development because they've been in discussions with PrimePort—the very large port in the central South Island—about bringing the gas ashore to Timaru. So a huge number 3100 jobs that would be created from the Barque gas development would be in Timaru. So parts of the bill as it stands say that current permits wouldn't be affected and that's something that the Minister repeated this afternoon. She said that the Barque development can "still go ahead". Well I just want to point the Minister to the permit holder actually which is New Zealand Oil and Gas. In their submission to this bill they said "the Bill makes development of this prospect materially less likely."—materially less likely. So what that means is that those 3100 jobs that would be created in South Canterbury and in North Otago from this gas development are less likely to happen because of Part 2 of this bill and because of this bill progressing into law. It's not just those 3100 jobs though; it's also the billions in taxes and in revenue that would be created by that development. And it's not just that and it's not just the jobs; it's also all those pay packets—those 3100 pay packets that would be spent in Timaru that would be spent in South Canterbury and would be spent in the South Island. This bill according to the permit holder and particularly Part 2 is going to make that development materially less likely to occur because they can't find the international investors to invest. They specifically highlight some of the comments that have come in from offshore because they are a reasonable player in the oil and gas sector in New Zealand. But of course for a development like this and for bringing down a rig for example it is a very expensive enterprise to do. So they have provided some comments from some of the potential international partners who had expressed an interest previously. One of them says "Looks interesting but given state of play in NZ at the moment I don't think we will get much airplay internally. So will pass on this one." Another one said "It's been an education for me seeing the reaction by even discussing NZ here! … the NZ government has thrown a spanner in the works stopping future exploration licences." The last one which is my favourite says "I'm sorry to inform you but we excluded New Zealand from our area of interest for new ventures after series of opportunities review and recent political issues." It is a direct—direct—result of this new Government and this Government bringing this piece of legislation in that that development off the coast of South Canterbury and North Otago is materially less likely and it's because they can't find investors."