Sage Eugenie: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10264. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Clause 8 in Part 2 of this bill the Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill changes all references to mineral “reserves” in the Crown Minerals Act to mineral “resources”. That is very symbolic because this Government sees nature as a resource ripe for exploitation rather than having values that deserve protection and keeping them in reserve for present and future generations.What right do we have to try to access oil and coal and minerals that were put down millennia ago? It is almost as if this Government does not believe humans are going to exist in another 200 years because it wants to exploit everything now rather than recognising that in 200 years’ time we might have the technology whereby we can mine coal and burn it without getting the emissions that contribute to climate change. But no this Government wants it now. It never thinks of the future and it does not think of the environmental debt that it is creating for our future generations.Mr Bridges on Easter Monday I think it was introduced the Supplementary Order Paper that amended the principal Crown Minerals Amendment Act by putting in the Anadarko amendment—the no-protest amendment. The April issue ofLawTalk and I will just quote from it described what the Government did: “The Government appears to be developing a practice of using post-Select Committee supplementary order papers (SOPs) as a portal through which to rush controversial law changes.” We are seeing the same thing happening tonight not through a Supplementary Order Paper but through using urgency.AsLawTalk said further: “The introduction of significant law changes by way of SOP bypasses the normal vetting processes and increases the risk of sloppy lawmaking.” Well we have certainly seen that with the previous legislation because it is back here before it has even become law.This Government should be ashamed of what it is doing tonight. It should be ashamed because of the way in which democracy is being undermined not just by that noxious little clause 14 which creates that 500-metre no-go zone around vessels so that you cannot protest and not just because the Government wants to shut down dissent but because of the way this bill is going through under urgency with no opportunity for public comment.That is typical because we have seen a whole weakening of the regulatory regime in New Zealand under this Government. We have seen the exclusive economic zone legislation that we passed which has yet to come into force that had a bastardised version of sustainable management and then we have seen regulations under that Act that make offshore deep-sea prospecting a permitted activity with no opportunity for the public to comment on it.So what are New Zealanders able to do? If they cannot make submissions on legislation if they cannot make submissions on applications to prospect offshore of course they take to protest because there is no legitimate forum to express their concerns and their dissent. So what does the Government do? It then seeks to shut down that dissent. That is why this bill is very troubling because it potentially increases thelevel of disaffection with Government and with democracy in New Zealand. People are being denied their legitimate right to have a say. They cannot do it in this Parliament through submissions and by contributing to the lawmaking. They now cannot do it under this bill by protesting because the Government wants to make that a criminal offence.So where do people go when they see that they cannot have a say? They get disaffected. That is how revolutions start because people cannot have a say through the normal processes. That is what this Government is doing. It is shutting down the right to have a say. It is totally undemocratic. Clause 14 at the heart of this bill is about that. The Government wants to make it easy for the big corporates—the transnational oil companies the Chinese State companies—to exploit nature and make it easier for its mates which doubtless contribute to the National Party coffers at election time. So that is what this bill is about: making it easier to exploit nature and actually attacking the heart of democracy by riding roughshod over due process and then suppressing the right to protest.