Williams Andrew: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5688. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First in the first reading of the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill which was introduced by Minister Phil Heatley yesterday in the House. New Zealand First will be supporting this bill through to the select committee stage. Like some of the other Opposition parties we do have some concerns in some respects to it but there are areas where we do fully support it. 
This bill is all about the natural resources and the Crown-owned minerals of our nation which is a very very important part of our economy. New Zealand First does recognise that economic development and economic growth is required for our country to succeed and prosper and for the benefit of the people of New Zealand. Therefore it is most important that we get this right and it is most important that this Parliament passes legislation to get this right. In terms of Crown minerals we heard from the Minister that since 2008 something in the order of $2 billion in royalties has been paid to the Crown which is a very very significant amount of money. It is about the same amount of money as the taxes that the National Government gave back to the wealthy and the rich but it is a huge amount of money so we do have to be very cognisant of the fact that royalties from our extensive potential mineral wealth in this country will have a significant impact on the prosperity of the people of New Zealand. 
We are supportive of the fact that there will be a two-tiered system for the permit management so that the higher-risk higher-value minerals where there are perhaps more significant effects will have a higher level of permit management requirement rather than those that are of a lower risk and lower value which do not present the same effects. Swift and decisive action is also possible under this bill for non-compliance and therefore it is a good thing that non-compliance will be acted on and that there is swift decision-making to address that. 
The bill will also have a process to sift out applicants that do not meet the standards and it will basically vet applicants in a sensible manner in the early stages so that people do not waste time do not waste Resource Management Act time and do not waste a lot of Crown time or ministry time or time of the courts—the Environment Court or whatever—in terms of applications that simply will not fly. 
 It is interesting that the bill includes a requirement to report the engagement with iwi and hapu called the iwi engagement report each year. We were wondering whether the iwi engagement report was another name for the engagement between the National Party and the Maori Party because they seem to have very much an iwi engagement between those two parties. We do wonder whether had this sort of iwi engagement been in place in some other legislation such as around the State-owned enterprises with the sale of the power companies and the energy companies of the country—had there been a bit more iwi engagement—perhaps the Government today would not be in its embarrassing situation of the water rights issues with the rivers of New Zealand with iwi and hapu. Perhaps had there been more iwi engagement in the early days the Government would not find itself in strife now wondering how it is going to succeed with its asset sales programme when basically most of those power companies are now subject to potential court litigation by iwi and hapu throughout New Zealand. 
This bill streamlines the system for industry and community. Community consultation and the aspects of that in this bill are good as it provides for and ensures community consultation in relation to Crown minerals. It also complements the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act which was put in place just a few weeks ago in this House and which came from the Local Government and Environment Committee in terms of our 200-mile zone and the continental shelf. In that respect it is most important that this legislation is complementary to that legislation in terms of the potential of minerals in the exclusive economic zone. 
As an example of supporting our economic development in this country we were given illustrations at our select committee of the vast potential out there in the economic zone if it is done environmentally and sustainably so as not to affect the environment in any major or significant way. One of the aspects that I certainly noted was the likes of the Chatham Rise between Canterbury and the Chatham Islands. The vast Chatham Rise which is one of the world’s largest depositories of phosphate has sufficient phosphate there so that even if only 1 percent of the Chatham Rise is mined and taken it would make New Zealand 100 percent self-sufficient in superphosphate for our agricultural industries. It would be a huge huge bonus for New Zealand to be able to do that compared with the present time when most of our phosphate comes from Morocco Algeria and other sources. You never know what those sources are going to be like in years to come and when our agricultural system is so dependent on those sorts of fertilisers and things to become self-sufficient in those minerals would be a huge bonus for our economy. There will be many other similar examples. 
However New Zealand First’s position is always that although we support economic development and we want to see appropriate development of the minerals in this country—and New Zealand does sit on significant mineral reserves—we want to ensure that it is done in an environmentally sustainable manner. It must be done in an environmentally sustainable manner because we are but the temporary guardians of New Zealand. We are very fortunate to be in a very unique part of the world—one of the most remote countries in a sense in the world—in the South Pacific. We pride ourselves on our tourism and on visitors coming to this country—and indeed on our own people living here—and on the clean green “100% Pure New Zealand” image. In fact that whole image results from our economy having massive input in terms of tourism the dollars and the economy that benefits from that tourism and from the funds that flow from our environment. So we cannot in any way put that at risk in terms of Crown minerals being abused or taken in such a manner that would put that environment at great risk. The last thing that I think all New Zealanders regardless of your political position and regardless of your stance would want to see would be the image of New Zealand the wonderful vistas and scenery and the wonderful environment we have—and the unique environment in so many ways around New Zealand—being put at risk because of exploitation and inadequate controls over how minerals would be harvested. 
New Zealand First will be supporting this bill through to the select committee stage. We are doing that so that this bill gets a full and robust consideration so that people will have an opportunity to have input on this—so that the people of New Zealand will have full input in this—and so that basically any of the pitfalls any of the negative aspects of the bill any of the risks and any of the oversights perhaps that may not have necessarily been included in this do have an opportunity to be fully fleshed out. I am sure that our Local Government and Environment Committee will put a lot of effort into ensuring that that happens in order to ensure that the people of New Zealand come out of this and that the Crown comes out of this with a very good outcome in an Act that is sustainable and has legs. Thank you.