Little Andrew: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9319. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): I want to take just a brief call on this part of the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill and the amendments to the Wildlife Act because that piece of legislation is not a widely known—or wildly known—piece of legislation and it has been around for a long time. It is an important piece of legislation and goes hand in hand—or hand in glove or hand in paw perhaps—with many other important conservation and environmental pieces of legislation that we have in this country. It has served us well without too much fiddling around for a long time. So when we are presented with amendments to the Wildlife Act in the context of legislation covering mining minerals exploration and the production processes associated with them we need to look carefully and somewhat askance I would have thought at the measures before we blindly go ahead and support them.I note that the principal amendment being made which is to section 9 of the Wildlife Act is to change the references to “by Proclamation” to the term “by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister”. And herein lies the very same problem we have seen in other parts of the bill which my colleagues Ruth Dyson and Moana Mackey have spoken about eloquently and with conviction I might add in a way that we do not often see in speeches about the Wildlife Act.I just want to reiterate the concern that we have that is about the traducing of the rights of the Minister of Conservation which is redolent throughout this bill at a time when our country—we talked in the House only earlier this afternoon about the prospect of a million Chinese tourists coming down here—is marketing itself as a clean green nation and a nation that presents to the world its conservation estate its flora and its fauna as a selling point. That has historically been protected by the Minister of Conservation with the powers that that Minister has but those powers are being undermined by so many parts of this legislation and in no less a way than in Part 5 with the amendments to the Wildlife Act. It is for that reason that as with the other parts of the bill when it comes to Part 5 we express great concern about that and advise to the Committee great caution when proceeding with changes of this nature. So it is for thatreason that we are opposing not just the other parts of this bill but Part 5 in particular and the unnecessary fiddling around with the Wildlife Act 1953 which I know has been very important not just to many New Zealanders but to the Department of Conservation rangers even with their remodelled department now their revised job descriptions and the change processes that they will be undergoing. So on that basis we express great caution and reluctantly opposition to these particular changes to the otherwise innocuous piece of legislation that is the Wildlife Act 1953.The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 210 in the name of the Hon Simon Bridges to Part 5 be agreed to.