Lotu-Iiga Sam: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8847. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
Malo le soifua. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in the second reading of the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill. May I first acknowledge the Minister of Energy and Resources the Hon Simon Bridges for bringing this bill to the House. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: He didn’t. Phil Heatley did. 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: Well he is sponsoring it. He is sponsoring it; we know he did not bring it. It is an important bill because this is part of the Government’s Business Growth Agenda to grow the economy to provide jobs and opportunities for our families and to provide for our families and our communities out there and it is something that this country our fellow countrymen and women are in agreement with and support. 
This bill is about streamlining and simplifying the Crown minerals regulatory regime and it is really about providing better coordination of the regulatory agencies. It is based on amending the Crown Minerals Act obviously and it has three objectives. One is to encourage development of Crown-owned minerals so that they contribute to more growth in our economy which is important again because of job opportunities. It is also to streamline and to simplify the regime so that it is in line with our regulatory reform agenda of bringing down red tape removing bureaucracy and improving efficiencies in our economy. Finally it is about the coordination of those regulatory agencies. 
It introduces a two-tiered system for permit management and it distinguishes between those relatively small complex high-return high-risk petroleum and mineral activities as opposed to the larger low-return industrial small-business and hobby mineral opportunities. Because of the high-risk nature of tier 1 opportunities they will be subject to a more hands-on more coordinated management and regulatory regime as opposed to the sort of simpler tier 2 regime. 
I want to—and I do not do it often—commend Ruth Dyson the last speaker for her contribution. I do not always agree—oh she is about to fall over as she leaves the House. I do want to commend her because as she said she opposes the bill but she did point out parts of the bill that certainly Opposition members agree with and that they would support. But they are not supporting the whole bill. Therefore they are not supporting economic growth and they are not supporting our communities and our families out there. 
I just want to make a quick point about the sad tragedy of course of Pike River the coalmine tragedy. It led to the royal commission and some of the recommendations that were made by that commission. Cabinet took those on board and obviously Supplementary Order Paper 152 will be tabled. It will require the Minister of Energy and Resources to take into account the view of appropriate health and safety authorities. I am sure that the Hon Simon Bridges will do that in his decision making before issuing tier 1 exploration or mining permits. Secondly it will ensure that tier 1 mining activities do not start until the health and safety regulator is satisfied that those safety and health requirements are first met. 
So it is a good bill. It will deliver for New Zealanders. It will deliver some of the economic growth that we see across the Ditch in Australia in terms of its mining and exploration activities. Those are some of the activities and economic operations that we would like to see in this country and this bill will deliver some of those benefits. Thank you.