Mackey Moana: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMackey Moana: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9312. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOANA MACKEY (Labour): Part 4 of the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill amends the Reserves Act 1977 and this is where we see that synergy that we had with Part 2 where any new land that is deemed to be a reserve will now automatically go into schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act and will therefore be protected. Well that is the general idea.We have concerns that that may change in the future given the noises that have been coming from industry. Businesses are going out and actually prospecting on schedule 4 land. The Government says they are just having a look. They are just interested to see what might be out there. My experience is that businesses do not pay money just out of pure curiosity. They are doing it because they have obviously had an indication from this National-led Government that at some point in the future those parts of schedule 4 are going to be opened up for exploration. Otherwise why would they be looking?It is very very disappointing because obviously this is an issue that the public are extremely concerned about. When you have tens and tens of thousands of people marching up Queen Street that sends a very strong message. The Government said it would back down but all indications are that it is doing it on the sly now.So although I welcome this amendment to Part 4 which deems that any new land that is added to the Reserves Act 1977 automatically goes into schedule 4 and there does not have to be a process that is gone through—that is very good—it is the same thing again which is right through this bill: one step forward five steps backwards. That is a disappointing thing. Yes that is good. Yes it is good that Part 4 means that any new reserve land goes straight into schedule 4—that is fantastic.But what else does Part 4 do? Again it completely dilutes the role of the Minister of Conservation. One of the really big concerns has been where we have seen the role of the Minister of Conservation undermined—no pun intended—Hon Phil Heatley: Very clever though.MOANA MACKEY: —and replaced by Order in Council. Did you like that Mr Heatley? It was not bad was it? It has been completely undermined. The role of the Minister of Conservation is basically to be the guardian of the Department of Conservation land for the public of New Zealand. That is their role. They are there to ensure that future generations of New Zealanders will continue to enjoy the beauty the biodiversity and everything that our conservation estate has to offer.Here we are in Part 4 and for example clause 64 amends section 5 of the Reserves Act 1977 by removing the ability of the Minister of Conservation to declare State forest land to be a reserve under the Reserves Act. That might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people but again this is death by a thousand cuts to the Minister of Conservation. And we have had endless examples of that through every single part of this bill. It is a shame that we did not get a longer debate on Part 1 actually because we did not even manage to get to all the powers that are being removed from the Minister ofConservation in Part 1. But here it is in Part 4. We had it in Part 2 and we had it in Part 3. Here is Part 4 a seemingly innocuous part of the bill that does a good thing which is ensuring that all new reserve land goes into schedule 4. Yet again—time and time again—it is taking away the powers of the Minister of Conservation to be able to effectively protect the Department of Conservation estate. So that is clause 64—that is one example: the removal of the power to declare State forest land to be a reserve under the Reserves Act.If we go to section 6 of the Reserves Act 1977 this provides the Minister of Conservation with powers in cases where there might be doubt or uncertainty about a reserve. This is a very important role that the Minister of Conservation carries out because from time to time—and I suspect marine reserves in particular are a classic example—you are going to get uncertainty or doubts about what was agreed about where boundaries might lie and about the rules of engagement in terms of how people are able to utilise that reserve land. There are endless reasons why concerns might be raised or there might be difficulties with determining what actually was agreed to in the case of a reserve. It is the role of the Minister of Conservation to ensure that in deciding how that is worked out or sorted out amongst the various parties that disagree the best interests of the conservation estate and the preservation of the conservation estate are absolutely paramount.So what are we doing in Part 4 of this bill? What we are doing is again inserting through this amendment bill new legislation that takes power away from the Minister of Conservation and gives to the Governor-General the power to declare that the land is or is not a nature reserve or a scientific reserve. It says that this power overrides the powers of the Minister in section 6 of the current Reserves Act. So you know what that means. That means that the Government and Cabinet get to make the decision—because the Governor-General is not going to go out there and have a look. I mean his role is kind of a formal one. This is the Government again taking away the powers of the Minister of Conservation who is the particular Minister to have sole responsibility for that and giving those powers over to a Cabinet that by its very deeds thus far has shown us that it is not really interested—Andrew Little: You know who the Cabinet Minister is.MOANA MACKEY: —in protecting the conservation. That is right: Steven Joyce the Minister for Economic Development will be making this decision. It will not be the best interests of the conservation estate and the protection and preservation of the conservation estate for future generations that will be paramount when the Governor-General is making those decisions about whether to declare that land is or is not a nature reserve or is or is not a scientific reserve. That is not appropriate. Again it is diluting away the powers of the Minister of Conservation.But that is not the end of Part 4 and the diluting of powers of the Minister of Conservation. Clause 67 of this bill makes another change to section 16 of the Reserves Act. Under section 16 of the Reserves Act reserves are classified by the Minister of Conservation but under the new section 16A proposed in this amendment bill the Minister will have that power to classify reserves restricted. So the Minister will be able to classify recreation historic and scenic reserves but nature reserves and scientific reserves will be done by Order in Council.So again here we have a role that the Minister of Conservation rightly carries out. It is appropriate that that is a role of the Minister of Conservation. It is the way it has always been. It has worked well having a Minister whose role it is to be the custodian of the Department of Conservation estate on behalf of current and future generations of New Zealanders. Here again the National Government is saying: “No Steven Joyce knows better.” so it will give him that power under Order in Council to make decisionsthat should be being made—and up to this point are currently being made—by the Minister of Conservation.But that is not the end of it. Part 4 also amends section 47 of the Reserves Act to provide in future that wilderness areas will be set apart by Order in Council rather than by the Minister of Conservation. So here we have yet another area where Steven Joyce is going to be determining whether or not wilderness areas are set apart. Again we have the removal of powers that currently sit with the Minister of Conservation.Part 4 is seemingly not that controversial but it has been the same with every single part in this bill when you go through it. It is the habit of this National Government in areas where it is clear where the decision-making power lies to remove it from that person and then to provide that it is done through an Order in Council process which does not have to come to this House which does not get to be debated and which does not often get scrutiny because members of the public probably do not even know what the Order in Council process is how they can object to it or how they can take a complaint against it through the Regulations Review Committee which my colleague Maryan Street chairs.The Minister who is in the chair at the moment the Minister for the Environment was a very active member of that committee. She knows very well about and has a great respect for good regulations so I am sure she is appalled at so much more being put through these regulatory processes away from the ability of the public to scrutinise them adequately and away from the ability of the public to make complaints. As I said I think maybe even members of this House are not sure about how they would take a complaint against a process that was carried out by Order in Council. Even if they can take a complaint to the Regulations Review Committee the grounds upon which they can complain are very narrow—very narrow.So instead of having that broader debate where the Minister and the public know that this is the person who makes these decisions—this is the person who classifies reserves and this is the person who if there is any uncertainty we go to to clarify what the position is—now it is being done through this process that is very very away from the public difficult to understand and difficult to access frankly compared with going through the Minister because the Government does not want to have that level of scrutiny.That makes me wonder what it has planned for the conservation estate. Why is it trying to make it difficult by pushing everything through by Order in Council? And under this Reserves Act this is particularly worrying because this is where we have the schedule 4 land. This is the most precious land in the conservation estate and this is where it is classified. What is the Government planning to do that it wants to make all these processes go through Order in Council rather than openly and transparently going through a Minister who is then open to judicial review in a way that the Order in Council process is not? I think we know the answer to that. It is as I have said before that we have mineral companies out there now prospecting in schedule 4 land. They are not spending money on looking just for curiosity. They are not spending money on looking just for the hell of it.