Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to take a call on this the Gas (Information Disclosure and Penalties) Amendment Bill. It has been a privilege to be on the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee as we have worked our way through this. Now firstly I want to thank the previous Government—the previous Parliament should I say; the 52nd Parliament who began this work. That was before my time and I've had the pleasure of coming on board and getting involved to learn to understand but also to work on behalf of my constituents in my electorate where this is personal. I want to say a big thankyou also to the Hon Dr Megan Woods our Minister who has brought this piece of legislation to the House and to my select committee colleagues who have been part of forming this taking it to select committee and hearing the submissions as it has moved through the parliamentary process. Now I didn't really want to get into it but my colleague and member on the other side of the House who I sit on the select committee with—Melissa Lee—just sort of forced me to go there because there is some misinformation going around in around the fact that we've suddenly stopped exploration. Well we haven't stopped exploration. This bill isn't a response to the announcement in 2018. We know there are a lot of other things that went on. I just want to draw your attention to the fact that the last time we discovered gas offshore was the year 2000 I believe. That's the last time. It wasn't that suddenly in 2018 we stopped and there was nothing left. But it has been hard to find already which is a separate point. And then onshore I think off the top of my head forgive me if I'm wrong it was around 2006 that was the last time there was any kind of onshore discovery of gas. So for the member to say that because of the ban—that keeps getting thrown around here—that we have to bring this legislation in is incorrect. Putting an end to new permits offshore doesn't affect this at all. Then I was encouraged this morning in select committee we had the Minister Dr Megan Woods speaking about the energy sector and again the c" word keeps coming up in this House. Angie Warren-Clark: Not the "c" word!GLEN BENNETT: The "c" word does. It's a bit disingenuous again this "c" word because I know— Barbara Kuriger: Just say the word "coal".GLEN BENNETT: It is a dirty word. And I know that member does—Barbara Kuriger: The member can't say the word "coal".GLEN BENNETT: "Coal". I can say "coal" as much as I like.Barbara Kuriger: Isn't it embarrassing that the member can't say it?GLEN BENNETT: I'm not embarrassed at all because like I said the Minister in select committee this morning was really upfront. In fact as always she owns this space and talked around how "Yes there is coal in use" that's why we as a Government are exploring our New Zealand battery options because we have to transition we must transition and we will transition. We can either lead the world or we can stay in the coalmines of the 19th 18th and 17th centuries. But we are in the 21st century and we must move on. We need to find resilience and hence why we are looking at the New Zealand Battery Project. But I am digressing from this bill because I felt like I had to in terms of what was just said across the other side of the House which was incorrect.The other thing also was around job losses. I am very sad that the Waitara Valley Methanex plant has been mothballed. That really does grieve me as the member for that area because one job loss is too many. The previous speaker did talk about the job losses around oil and gas and how somehow this bill is responding to that—which again it isn't. But we know again that Methanex which is a great employer in my electorate had to mothball it on several occasions in the last 20 years as they always do. Simon Court: Point of order Mr Speaker. I had the benefit of attending a wonderful dinner last night with Speaker Mallard and we received the benefit of his advice on Speaker's rulings. I'd just like to bring the attention of the House to 44/4: a member may not accuse another member of making a statement they know to be incorrect—in other words making things up. I think that Mr Bennett did in fact accuse the former speaker from the National Party of making information up.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's not what I heard; a debating point is what I heard. I take a dim view of people interrupting other members who have a right to speak. Debate the points. GLEN BENNETT: For me it was really obviously in terms of just trying to clarify some statements in this House while the masses watch on television and in the gallery. Again it was a pleasure to be in the select committee process—I think this was one of the first bills that I've worked through—and to be able to have the submissions from a number of submitters and several oral submitters to talk and many of those were in the gas industry so it was important to them. So we were able to hear some of the information some of the issues they had and also to take on board some ideas that they brought to this particular bill. Now this bill is here to strengthen the regulation-making powers in the Act to provide for enhanced information disclosure requirements for the gas market and to ensure that settings around enforcement and penalties are substantially robust. Now we need this; we need to ensure it is in place. And the previous member—and I know as I rewatched some of the speakers earlier on when this was first talked about around the Pohokura site in terms of the outage that we had there back in 2018 and in terms of our security when it comes to gas and of course information to disclose and what penalties might be involved. So this bill also seeks to clarify the current policy intent that regulations made under the Act for arrangements relating to outages and other security of supply contingencies may apply across all industry participants and also to consumers—but of course not to domestic consumers. So I think back to when we had our submissions in January via Zoom and to some of the concerns. I note here that there have been some proposed amendments and some information and there was obviously the legislative scrutiny as well and I feel that we've landed in a place where both sides of the House can agree. There are some things that we don't agree on but in terms of we need to ensure that this is here because the security of our gas supply is very very important. Now the Gas Act has been around for a long time. And 1992 was my last year of high school—I know you can't believe it you thought I was only starting school then; I was just finishing actually! Careful careful. So it has been around for a long time. I believe back then some of our climate discussions some of our challenges around gas supply were probably a bit too far in the future for many. We should have had our eye on the challenges of gas security but unfortunately I'm not sure that this bill particularly back then was thinking in that space. The Gas Act is the principle piece of legislation that regulates us the Government of New Zealand and the natural gas industry. Looking at Part 4A of the Gas Act it sets out the co-regulatory model for governance of the gas industry. This means that an approved industry body that's the Gas Industry Company co-regulates the gas industry through making recommendations that secondary legislation be made by the Minister. This secondary legislation is referred to as a "gas governance arrangement". Now I also want to note that the Gas Act also provides for gas governance rules to be made rather than regulations and that these can be made for all purposes that regulations can be made for. Rules are notified by the Minister in the New Zealand Gazette. So as a member of the select committee and bringing it back to the House again today for the second reading I support this piece of legislation— Barbara Kuriger: So hard to go home. GLEN BENNETT: —and I know that Barbara Kuriger thank you that you do as well—but we need to keep our eye on what is important and this is ensuring that the information disclosure and penalties amendment bill of gas; this isn't here to talk about the "c" word; it's not here to talk about what people like to refer to as "the ban" because— Barbara Kuriger: Say it Mr Bennett it is "coal". GLEN BENNETT: —I can say "coal" many a time thank you madam. It was a wonderful thing. We here on this side of the House support the fact that we need to ensure that companies in New Zealand are regulated are ensuring the gas supply that we keep the lights on and that we transition—we transition away from coal—and we are committed to that. I commend this bill to the House."