Street Maryan: Maritime Transport Amendment Bill Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Maritime Transport Amendment Bill Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 15 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:13875. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): Yes it is a split call. The fact that none of the members opposite on the Government benches can muster more than 20 or 30 seconds to speak on the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill and the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill just as they could not on the one before—Carol Beaumont: Tragic.Hon MARYAN STREET: —is absolutely tragic. It is something that demonstrates that they cannot justify their own legislation. They cannot justify why this House should be passing legislation of this kind. In the nearly 3 hours since question time this has been their contribution. They want just to swing votes through on the numbers and never mind the justification.I want to speak to the part of the former Marine Legislation Bill that is now the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill. I wish it were. I wish it were about environmental effects. The trouble is that once again this bill amends very weak legislation around the exclusive economic zone that has done little to protect the environment. Although I acknowledge that there is work that needs to be done in that area the work that this Government has done is not going to protect the environment. Given that the Government is now considering making oil and gas exploration non-notifiable under the Resource Management Act and the fact that it has passed legislation banning protests at sea in order to advance the oil and gas companies’ interests it is absolutely clear that it has no interest in maintaining the environment. So the weakest possible legislation it can get away with with its slim majority is what it is putting up.Not only was the legislation weak to start with but now we have a shambolic process. The Government as with other pieces of legislation brought this exclusive economic zone legislation to the House just a month ago with 37 pages of amendments and now we have the Government trying to amend something that it only recently addressed. It is hard to imagine just how a piece of legislation might be amended to be even less effective than it was before but this shambolic approach to matters that are of not only interest but importance to the environment that our few little islands exist in shows that the Government has no regard for process content or anything that might protect New Zealand’s environmental interests ahead of the economic interests of offshore investors.So Labour opposes the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill although we are supporting the other part of the legislation the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill. The fact is that when we look at the legislation here apiece whether it is the Crown minerals legislation the Resource Management Act or marine legislation we can see that the Government is working to further the interests of the oil and gas industry or anybody who might be able to make a buck out of the environment without protecting it. So this legislation has to be seen in the context of other pieces of legislation and this Government has to go down in history as the one that has protected the environment the least. Thank you.