Mark Ron: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 16 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4433. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (NZ First): This is a very short bill and as is so often the pattern when you get a bill of this size going through the House and everybody is in agreement that the bill should proceed the challenge is trying to find something that has not been said already.I sat in my office and watched a bit of the House on the telly and I am going to say again—and some people might start to think this is a bit monotonous—that the difference in the way in which the Local Government and Environment Committee operates and the way in which I am witnessing some of the other select committees operate with their consequential reports back to the House is really quite astonishing. It really is quite astonishing. I have to say watch out to some of the front-bench members of the National Party because there are some backbench members of your caucus chairing and deputy chairing select committees who have got all the talent and all the skills to take the place of people like Nick Smith who quite clearly—looking at this legislation and how it got to be here—cannot do his damn job properly. He continues to fall over. I mean why are here? Why have we spent this fortune?In terms of the way in which this legislation has been managed through the select committee I take my hat off to the National Party team because at one stage the bill was set to provide a 6-month transition period. Through some sensible discussion and some cooperative dialogue the select committee unanimously agreed that 9 months was more sensible and a nice compromise. Some wanted 12 months. It started out as 6 months. So the bill has arrived here at the report back with a 9-month clause which we will deal with in the Committee stage. The tone the flavour the way in which the Local Government and Environment Committee operates is I think a credit to the House. I think it is a credit to the members who sit on it. It is a credit to the chair and the deputy chair and to the Opposition parties that sit at the table as well.Speaking of the bill New Zealand First will support it. I have to say how bad do you have to be when you are a corporation as big as Shell Todd Oil Services to get this wrong? The only reason this legislation is here quite frankly is that as far as I can see Shell Todd Oil Services got it wrong. It mucked up. It went running and screaming to the Government. It told the Government it needed to jump. The Government said: “How high?” and it said: “High enough to change the legislation.” So here we are and many many months later we have got the bill going through the House and we are carefully scraping the egg off Shell Todd Oil Services’ face.But I have to contrast this with what I see is happening up in Auckland and how Ngāti Whātua have been treated in terms of the first right of refusal. It seems that if you are big enough bold enough and worth billions of dollars the Government will spin on a sixpence but if you have negotiated for 12 years on a Treaty settlement and you have a right of first refusal suddenly it does not exist.I look at this legislation and I think how easy it is to actually put into place something sensible that is fair to all parties. The Government could have chosen to do nothing here. How embarrassing would that have been? How detrimental would it have been to the company’s operations and how detrimental would it have been to the jobs and the lives of those people employed? The sensible solution was to change the legislation.Quite clearly the legislation if I may be quite boring and read parts of it: “seeks to amend section 162 of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012.” The clause that has been adjusted is very simple. It allows operators to continue operating following the expiry of a permit or privilege until operators have lodged a marine consent. It actually gives them a time. It specifies a time by which they must lodge their consents and get them cleared through. It is not an open cheque book.The commentary on the bill states: “The bill would allow operators to continue mining while their consent application was in progress and any appeals were determined. The purpose of the bill is to provide greater certainty to petroleum mining companies operating in the Exclusive Economic Zone and to help their transition to the 2012 Act’s regulations.” That is all sensible stuff so there is not really a lot more I can say. New Zealand First agrees with the clauses dealing with mining with a marine consent. We are quite easy I guess with the fact that this is a sensible change.My colleague Fletcher Tabuteau spoke in the first reading. I think he had a few terse words for the Minister and he did make it clear to the Government that we felt then that this was a bit of a stuff-up. Quite clearly it has been and from where I sit now having sat on the select committee I can see that the people who did get it wrong were in Shell Todd Oil Services. Hopefully that is a lesson to be learnt by them. Hopefully anyone else out there—and I did make this point at the select committee—now understands the need to plan ahead. I would have thought that a company that big would do those things naturally but clearly not.I did draw in the select committee phase a parallel with councils. I guess Shell Todd Oil Services could buy and sell the tiny little old Carterton District Council a hundred times over. We have issues around resource consents and compliance and we have to ensure that when our consents are about to expire we get the applications in on time and that those consents at best do not expire and at worst are in progress at the time they do and that we get the extensions to them when such occasions arise.Generally speaking local government throughout New Zealand deals with this sort of matter all the time and if it is not on top of its game for its water takes and its water discharges then things get messy. I just do not for the life of me understand how a multibillion-dollar organisation like this can get things so badly wrong and require us to be sitting in the House passing legislation.I will conclude by saying congratulations to the team. The Local Government and Environment Committee is a great team to work with. I am enjoying the work there.This is a small bill. I do not think there is much more to be said but I guess we will have to say it all again during the Committee stage. Kia ora.