Hughes Gareth: Maritime Transport Amendment Bill Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Maritime Transport Amendment Bill Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 15 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:13868. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker.Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to support the two bills the Maritime Transport Amendment Bill and the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill formerly known as the Marine Legislation Bill. What we are seeing here is that 2 years on from theRena disaster the Government is finally getting round to signing up to two of the international treaties that we should have signed up to an awful long time ago in order to protect the taxpayer. What we saw when that container ship hit the Astrolabe Reef was that New Zealand taxpayers were unprotected. Sure we saw that the environment was unprotected and we saw how Maritime New Zealand had to scramble like a headless chook to deal with that oil spill. We saw two and a half jumbo jets full of oil spill response equipment fly into the country. We saw how woefully unprepared we were. We saw those three skimmers more akin to dinghies which were raised in question time today. We saw how Maritime New Zealand was not prepared to deal with the public when it came to oil spills. What we saw was New Zealand volunteers doing what they do best. Even though the Government was not going to act and was sitting in a corner not knowing what to do Kiwis just did it themselves. They went out on the beaches and they picked up those oil blobs.So it is good that 2 years on we are finally getting round to something we should have done a long time ago. Signing up to these international conventions allows us to effectively double the amount we can claim in order to protect the taxpayer when big ships have problems spilling oil. Obviously there is a liability limit regime internationally and when theRena hit the reef what we found was that we could get a maximum of only $12 million. We can increase that now to almost $24 million - plus which is good and it might even increase in the future.What we know is that taxpayers had to come to the party to the tune of tens of millions of dollars to deal with that oil spill. I think that everyone in this House and every New Zealander could agree that the taxpayer should not have to pick up the tab when corporations damage our beautiful environment. Corporations rightfully should pay when they cause a mess or when they cause a spill. They should pay to clean it up. But that is not what we saw. What we saw was the Oil Pollution Fund massively depleted. In fact we saw it drop from $12 million to only $3.4 million. I understand that it is even less than that at the moment.The taxpayer is threatened by an accident happening. Of course what we know with marine activities in New Zealand is that accidents can happen. Obviously they can be avoidable. We can put steps in place to avoid accidents occurring but they do happen and frankly we are unprepared if we were to see another big spill of oil entering our environment.This Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Amendment Bill effectively does three things. It amends the Maritime Transport Act it amends the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012 and it accedes to these international treaties. There were some improvements in the legislation which the Greens have welcomed but you have got to admit what an absolute shambles it is that the Government is having to amend the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act only a year after it was passed. At the time both the Labour Party and the Green Party strongly criticised the Government for its process over that Act. I believe that it was quite simply an “Easy Drilling Act”. That is what it was designed to do. That is what it was drafted to achieve and that is what the oil industry was asking for. I think it is an absolute shambles that we are having to amend that legislation which was passed only recently so soon in this House.What we are seeing are amendments to the discharge and dumping regime under the exclusive economic zone. It is good to be improving that. There is now a guarantee that fracking at sea will be included. So we welcome those changes.It is an absolute shambles. Sadly what we saw through the Committee stage of this bill is the new consent category accepted by this Parliament. The Government has introduced a new consent category that it had not drafted into law last year. The new category non-notified discretionary is quite simply a clause that gives us no say. We know that exploratory drilling is the riskiest phase of oil production. We know that it was exploratory drilling that caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster which made theRena look like a puddle of oil. There were 300 tonnes spilt from theRena versus 600000 tonnes for the Gulf of Mexico spill. Yet what we see from the Government is that on the riskiest phase—the phase that has caused the largest environmental catastrophe to result from oil drilling—we will have no say. Yet incredibly you get the Minister Simon Bridges on television out of his depth arguing aggressively that Kiwis should not get a say. On two hands he says that the Government is doing something that is so popular that all Kiwis are demanding it and that there is huge widespread support for it even though he cannot think of even a single person in the town ofKaikōura who supports the Government’s plan.So the Government says that on one hand there is massive support for deep-sea drilling yet on the other hand it says that no one in the country is going to get a say. I find that contradictory I find it ridiculous and I think that when you look through the veneer what you see is that this Government is deeply scared of what New Zealanders think about oil drilling. New Zealanders want to protect their beaches. To be able to build a sandcastle with your children and put out thecray pot with your kids—that is a Kiwi right. Being able to trade with whale-watching as they do inKaikōura and to have a thriving aquaculture fisheries tourism industry—this is what our country trades on and we are seeing this Government put it at risk and not give Kiwis a say. That is why this legislation amending the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act is a total shambles. It is unfair it is secretive and it is taking away the Kiwi right to have a say when potential activity threatens your environment.Despite that though what we are seeing are some positive moves in the legislation formerly known as the Marine Legislation Bill. We want to see the environment protected. We want to see the taxpayer protected. These points are just one little step we could do to protect the taxpayer. A year ago on the anniversary of the grounding of theRena I presented a 10-point checklist that the Government could do with positive common-sense solutions to protect the taxpayer. What we should be doing is increasing the Resource Management Act maximum corporate penalties because $600000 is a joke when you see the cost to the taxpayer from theRena. We need to be building up Maritime New Zealand’s Oil Pollution Fund. We need to be building up its budget and I proposed a good solution for that which is to use the petrol levies paid by boaties. That would give Maritime New Zealand an extra $20 million - odd. I think it is fair that boaties should pay for protecting the waters because that boatie money is essentially just going towards new motorways under National. What we should be doing is doing things that business and unions support like having a rapid response multipurpose vessel to protect our waters. Those three skimmers are not enough. We need to be building up the expertise in Maritime New Zealand. But ultimately what we have to do is not risk our environment from a catastrophic oil spill.What New Zealanders want what people inKaikōura want is a guarantee from the industry and the Government that we will not see a spill. The Government and the industry cannot give that guarantee. Also the Government and the industry cannotguarantee that they could respond to a big spill. I find it deeply shocking that this Government has nominated only 5500 tonnes as its oil spill response capability. The Gulf of Mexico spill was 600000 tonnes. This Government says that it has no sub-sea oil response capability. This Government says that our capping stack technology to deal with a deep-sea blowout is there it is available but the only problem is that it is in London. We see a massive percentage of the oil spill response equipment stored in Singapore.What we need to be doing is putting in place common-sense steps to protect the taxpayer from accidents when they occur but the most effective thing we could do to make sure that oil does not hit our beaches and that oil drilling does not ruin that Kiwi tradition of being able to play on a beach with your kids and catch a fish safely—the best way to assure that; the only guarantee the Government can give—is if we stop deep-sea drilling. So although we are supporting this legislation we are going to keep fighting the Government’s deep-sea “drill it mine it frack it” agenda in this House on the streets and online. We are going to keep mobilising. We are going to send a strong message to those companies as we did withPetrobras and as we saw with the Canadianfrackers Apache. We are going to send those companies the message that they are not welcome in New Zealand.New Zealand’s future New Zealand’s jobs and New Zealand’s prosperity are going to come from clean energy and it is clean energy where more net international capital investment is going. It is clean energy that China Europe and America are calling out for. Clean energy is our future. There are going to be more jobs more taxes that stay in New Zealand and more long-term prosperity. When I talk about wanting a richer New Zealand we are not going to see it from hoping that someone finds something at the bottom of the sea and does not leave too much of a mess and that we can clip the ticket as those profits are exported. A richer New Zealand will come from our strengths. It will come from our innovation. It will come from looking to the future. The future is clean energy. That is where the Green Party focus is going to be and that is where a Green Government is going to provide leadership and attention.So although we are supporting this legislation we are presenting a vision of oil-free beaches a sustainable economy and a richer New Zealand. Kia ora.