Falloon Andrew; Tolley AnneANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I rise to join my colleagues this evening in opposing the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Bill. I oppose it not because I don't care for our natural environment. I oppose it not because I don't believe in climate change. I oppose it because I care about our regions and the impact on their economies.I rise tonight with a real sense of sadness. I speak tonight on this bill which will have such a profound impact on our regional economies. When we speak about the economy it's important to remember what that means. An economy isn't some abstract theory; an economy is jobs. As we know jobs are so important—not just for a regular pay packet which keeps a family fed and housed and with the lights on. A job is a sense of purpose. Every study every piece of research ever done shows the importance of having someone in a household in work. It impacts massively on criminal offending on truancy on health outcomes and on ongoing welfare dependency. As Willie Jackson and Shane Jones will be finding it is so much harder to get a young person into work if the concept of work is foreign to that young person.This bill has affected business confidence. It's not just this bill of course; it's the compounding impact of employment law changes of increased taxes and of cutting $5 billion out of the State highway network. But business confidence is now at historic lows and despite what the members opposite say that has had an effect. We've seen it already on employment. When National left Government we were creating more than 10000 jobs every month for more than two years. That's dropped now and the reason it's dropped is because business confidence has dropped and that will affect places like Auckland and Wellington and Christchurch. [Interruption]ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! I apologise to the member. I have already asked the House not to have conversations across the Chamber. Members on both sides will cease and desist from doing that.ANDREW FALLOON: But where the impact will be felt most of all isn't in those main centres; it's in regional New Zealand. My colleague Jonathan Young has already spoken about the impact in Taranaki but I urge members opposite to go to the West Coast and discuss with people there the chilling impact that this legislation has had on business confidence on the West Coast. My colleague Maureen Pugh is exactly right: they won't do it; they won't be seen there. Taranaki is all about oil and gas. It's a $2.5 billion industry nationwide. It employs 11000 people—that's 11000 pay packets 11000 families fed and housed and 11000 families who won't end up on the wrong side of statistics. The majority of those 11000 people are employed in the Taranaki region. Oil and gas accounts for 41 percent of Taranaki's GDP—41 percent. Members opposite claim that no jobs will be lost—no jobs will be lost. Absolute rubbish. On the day that this announcement was made to ban exploration offshore for oil and gas Fitzroy Engineering the largest engineering company in Taranaki instituted a hiring freeze. They employ 400 people but they're not hiring any more. The industry in Taranaki will be slowly strangled over the next few years and those 11000 jobs will be lost. I'm speaking of course about the industry now about the jobs lost that exist now about the GDP lost that exists now and about the export revenue lost that exists now. I haven't spoken about the potential. There is huge potential for other regions around New Zealand with oil and gas. In Southland where my good friend Hamish Walker is the MP there is massive potential with the Great South Basin; on the East Coast where we have the hard-working MP Anne Tolley; and in Northland where the MP is an interesting chap named Matt King. In my electorate of Rangitata the Barque gas development would have created 3100 jobs—3100 jobs. It was projected to deliver $32 billion in taxes and royalties alone. But those 3100 jobs are the most important things that we've potentially lost as a result of this announcement—3100 pay packets that would have been spent in local shops and 3100 families fed and housed in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. As we've seen in Taranaki those are some of the most high-paying jobs that any industry can create in New Zealand—often in the range of six figures. That would have been a huge boost to Timaru and their efforts to attract more people to the town and particularly to encourage young families to move there. It's the sort of boost that we'll never see from a Shane Jones billion-dollar fund. That was a sop to New Zealand First for all the anti-growth policies that they're having to vote for and it's a drop in the bucket when you add up all the losses across all the industries that are being affected by those policies—that is if we ever see any of it. More than 95 percent of that fund has been spent in the North Island—95 percent—and spent overwhelmingly in one region alone which is that of Northland the home region of Shane Jones. Not a cent—not a single cent—has been spent so far in mid-Canterbury or in South Canterbury and for what? We ask ourselves: for what? Why is the Government passing this legislation? They've spoken opposite—particularly Deborah Russell who has spoken very eloquently—about the fact that we're burning the planet and we're burning the environment. Well what does the Government's own advice tell them? I turn to the report from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment—their own advice—which says that the net impact on global emissions is uncertain but more likely to be negative than positive."—more likely to be negative than positive. They go on to say that there's a likely increase in global greenhouse gas emissions in the short to medium term. So when members opposite try and lecture us on burning the planet all they need to do is read the Government's own advice which says that this bill this piece of legislation will increase global emissions in the short to medium term. This bill—the announcement was made several months ago before the Prime Minister went overseas. As has been said by other members it was done without any sort of Cabinet process. It was literally a phone call from the Prime Minister to one of her colleagues before she flew out the following day. That poor process has continued. They're now proposing to send this bill off to select committee for just four weeks. Maureen Pugh: How many? ANDREW FALLOON: Four weeks. This bill will literally shut down an industry in Taranaki and they're proposing to take it out for consultation for just four weeks. It's absolutely outrageous. It's an absolute sham of a process to give people four weeks when it's going to impact on 11000 jobs—11000 families. To give people just four weeks to make their feelings known to tell this Government why it shouldn't be passed is absolutely outrageous. We will oppose this bill at every opportunity. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The next call is a split call."