Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National): Thank you Madam Chair. We will be supporting this bill as well. It's a bill that is very short in nature and as the Minister has just said probably has as its most creative part the use of fuel and the direction around that for shipping in New Zealand especially of coastal shipping. That will have an impact on the cost no doubt of shipping and so that needs to be taken into account because all environmental changes do have some consequence and some action that has to be taken and this will be no different. We look forward to that being done in a constructive way—that is done in a manner which enables coastal and other shipping to perform its activities in New Zealand which are vital for our economy.I just want to take a moment to really focus on that. As the Minister said in his contribution shipping is crucial for New Zealand and never before have we seen how crucial that is than in a time when our export industries have been the mainstay of the economy at a very difficult point in our country's current state in dealing with a pandemic and needing the export earnings to be able to function as a country. So any legislation that has to do with shipping has actual vital importance for the New Zealand economy at this time.I note also that in select committee we are also—and I see the chair of the committee here Greg O'Connor and just acknowledging the committee members and submitters. I was not part of the committee for those submissions but I understand that Christopher Luxon was our member that was dealing with it at that time and that the submissions were done in a constructive way between all the parties. But in the select committee at the moment we are looking at coastal shipping we are looking at the shipping industry as it comes to New Zealand and we are looking at our supply lines. They are vital for this country going forward and there's some really crucial questions around that that we as a country need to face.I know when we were in Government a few years ago those same issues were arising at that time and they are to do with which ports should be the main ports for New Zealand entry and exit of exports and imports how we should regulate and how we should look at our coastal shipping industry how we should look at the opportunities that are being presented and some of the challenges that come from shipping lines desiring that certain ships of certain size are coming to port in New Zealand. All those things come together and are really important for New Zealand as an exporting food-producing country and also as an importing country of a lot of the commodities that we use and our consumer goods. So anything in regard to maritime transport is vital for our country at this time.It's been interesting that the Government hasn't taken on board this challenge though. We've seen in healthcare the willingness for the Government to take the challenge on you can say and try and reform the governance of our health institutions. We've seen it in education where the Government has tried to reform the polytech sector. We've seen it in local government in water that they've tried to come and change that but strangely they have done nothing in the shipping sector. One of the most vital sectors for New Zealand and the Government has not said a word.They'll come and say that in the last Budget they gave—what is it?—$30 million to coastal shipping which is going to make no difference in effect to what's actually happening and what New Zealand needs to do to go ahead. And all the time we are seeing more investment by many regions in their coastal ports. At the same time we are getting a very big change in the way that the shipping industry operates around the world. We just have to look at that and we see as we've seen in select committee the big shipping lines are now looking at bigger and bigger ships that will only go to one or two ports in New Zealand. That's going to be a crucial decision New Zealand has to make going forward.There are some that argue that we leave it up to the market and that the market will determine where that goes. There'll be some that say that we need to actually make a strategy around how and what ports are the identifiable ones for New Zealand going forward and there'll be some that want a mix of that to take into account that Governments of the day can't always project what will happen in the future.So those are all the elements but the Government has stayed away from that. They haven't taken up that challenge when I know years ago when we were in Government they harped on about coastal shipping and they harped on about having a strategy around coastal shipping and yet they haven't done anything in the time that they've been there. I just wonder if there's some other reason that we don't know about the reason that the Government hasn't undertaken that approach.Now when we look at the shipping industry and one of the key things has always got to be the Port of Auckland. The Port of Auckland is crucial for New Zealand and our shipping sector. And we wish that we could have those issues sorted that we've seen up there and that really has—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! I'm just going to ask the member to return to the bill at hand. The member's been canvassing issues around the wider shipping industry but in fact this bill is around emissions and I'd ask him to come back to the bill.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Yes thank you Madam Chair. But it is partly around emissions but it is also partly around the large structure that we as a country have signed up to.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The member's not arguing with the Chair—the member is not arguing with the Speaker. I invite the member to resume his speech.Hon DAVID BENNETT: OK. So we do support this bill but this bill is part of an international arrangement around shipping and it is part of how New Zealand operates in that shipping environment and that is the whole point of it. It's an international bill that is being approved in New Zealand and has some impacts on the New Zealand shipping industry especially in the coastal shipping area with many of those environmental aspects as has been mentioned. We also need to look at the difficulties we're seeing in shipping as well with the Australian ports now looking at industrial action. That will have a major impact on New Zealand as well and that will mean that there'll be less ships coming to this country. And it is vital that we do have a strong shipping industry when we consider that the Minister of trade for example is just going overseas again to try and reassert a trade agreement with the UK which obviously failed in his last attempt. The importance of actually having that ability to transfer those products is crucial and if we get the Minister to do his job and actually sort out that agreement that would be helpful for our shipping industry going forward.So this is a bill that National will support. It is a small bill and it has got that environmental context but the shipping sector is something that is vital to the New Zealand economy at this time. Supply lines are crucial in New Zealand at this very time and it would be great to see the Government actually take some leadership in that area and actually ensure that New Zealand producers can guarantee their products get to market and that New Zealand consumers know that the imports that they will be purchasing will actually come through. This is another reflection on how the Government hasn't acted when it should have acted in the best interests of the New Zealand economy. It's been focused on other issues and hasn't been focused on the real issues that drive an economy and that's making sure that our shipping lines our supply lines are effective they're world class and they're keeping up with the pace of change that we're seeing in the shipping industry.So we support this bill but we also seek that this Government actually takes some action in this sector where they haven't done in the past.