Falloon AndrewCROWN MINERALS AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Amendments to Parts 1 to 1B of principal ActANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity this morning to speak on the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill. I sat on the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee which considered this bill which was very ably chaired by Jonathan Young. We took our time with this bill. We certainly gave it a lot more consideration than other Crown minerals amendment bills that have passed through this Parliament in recent months.I wanted to ask the Minister some questions and I'm sure the Minister who has just taken the chair the Hon Phil Twyford will be able to discuss with officials my questions and find out some responses to those. I wanted to specifically start with clause 14 which inserts new section 54A into the Crown Minerals Act and it relates to access to schedule 4 land. We did make some amendments to this new section 54A at the select committee just to clarify its purpose but it goes on to say that Despite sections 53 and 54 if a permit relates to land in the common marine and coastal area that is described in Schedule 4 the permit holder may exercise the permit only—" and then it runs through a series of requirements.So my first question to the Minister in relation to that is: that discussion of schedule 4 and permits on schedule 4 land intrigued me a little bit because as members probably on both sides will call quite strongly a few years ago there was a very loud debate about what activity should occur on schedule 4 lands. So I went off and did a bit of my own research and found that there are at least three mining permits that I could find for mining permits on schedule 4 land. The first one is in relation to a public recreational gold mine on a river on the West Coast. Then in 2000 there was another one—obviously under the previous Labour Government—underground mining for quartz gold silver and clay at Broken Hills in the Coromandel. And then in 2005—another one under the previous Labour Government—gold and gemstone stone mining in the Hutt River and the Paparoa National Park.So I was able to find those three. So my first question to the Minister is: what other mining permits do exist presently on schedule 4 land or what mining permits have been granted previously on schedule 4 land? Because if we're going to be discussing schedule 4 in relation to activity about mining permits it would be useful to know from the Minister what mining permits do currently exist on schedule 4 land.The second question I had for the Minister is in relation to his powers over consent to change of control of a permit operator. Again it's new section 41AE in clause 8 and it refers to "When Minister may consent to change of control of permit operator". Subsection 1 refers to the permit holder given the proposed change in control—they're required to first of all have the financial capability to meet their obligations under the permit. So the Minister has to be satisfied that they have the financial resources or capability before he is satisfied that a permit can be changed. So my first question in relation to that to the Minister is: how will he determine that or how will she determine that in this Government's case? What is the metric that they'll look at to decide whether or not they have that financial capability? Is it around the business nous or the qualifications of the people who run that organisation or company or entity or is it in relation to sufficient capital—is the business sufficiently capitalised that if there was to be some sort of problem that arose they would have financial resources sufficient enough to throw at the problem to fix it?There's also a couple of other requirements that the Minister needs to be satisfied with: first of all that they're likely to comply with and give proper effect to the work programme for the permit which is sensible; and the third is that they're likely to comply with the relevant obligations under this Act or the regulations in respect of reporting and the payment of fees and royalties which again is quite sensible.The next part though goes on to talk about the Minister needing to be satisfied that they're likely to meet health and safety requirements under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. So my last question to the Minister is: how will that be determined? How will that be assessed? Will it be by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) as the agency that she is responsible for in this respect or will it be an organisation like WorkSafe? And if it is WorkSafe will they be resourced or is she satisfied that they are sufficiently resourced to be able to go into those businesses and assess that they are likely to live up to the obligations that are required by them under this new part—that they can meet the health and safety requirements under the Health and Safety at Work Act? Will it be MBIE or will it be WorkSafe or will it be another organisation? Thank you Madam Chair."