Court Simon; Brooking RachelSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Minister this matter of how coastal land or land in the common area is allocated under Part 7 Coastal matters" is actually vital to give certainty to a whole lot of infrastructure operators asset owners and people and businesses who might want to develop activities in the coastal area.Minister I'm not entirely sure if you're correct—and perhaps you will clarify it—but is it possible to build a wind turbine on the seabed within the 12-mile limit? Or are there any technical reasons—or perhaps I don't know ecological or even spiritual reasons—why it can only be built in the exclusive economic zone? Because I would have thought that building a wind farm closer to land is actually a much better economic proposition; and with reduced transmission distance to the consumer probably a much better technical proposition as well. So Minister if you can confirm that it is possible or should be possible to build a wind farm within the 12-mile limit that would be great.Then thinking about how applications for different competing uses are dealt with. Well I live in Auckland. The Auckland region has 3000 kilometres of coastline including west coast beaches regularly smashed by 4- to 6-metre swells; where the volcanic mountain range that used to stretch 50 kilometres out to sea all we have of it as a result of coastal processes are the remnants of the Waitakere Ranges which were simply the eastern foothills of an enormous volcanic mountain range equivalent in size the Hon Scott Simpson to the Coromandel Ranges. So coastal processes and how you occupy it—very important to the people of Auckland when you're considering the west coast. Then on the east coast of course is where most Aucklanders carry out their business of recreation and their use of the coastal area.Now in Auckland we have significant competition for land uses in the coastal area. Auckland Council owns most of the boat ramps in the haul-out areas. However there are groups in the community who say "Well look wouldn't it be better if we used what looks like a haul-out area with messy boats with Kiwis in their stubbies and singlets on a Saturday morning sanding and painting the boat—wouldn't it be better if we use that land for some other kind of purpose?" So there is already competition for these areas which is why it's helpful that the bill provides some clarification about a method of competition. But of course if local councils or local government own these areas and they have the decision-making powers then how are other groups supposed to get access? That's not clear.When we think about the benefits of having haul-out facilities—well we have issues with biosecurity Minister. You'll be well aware that Caulerpa seaweed all kinds of marine pests and barnacles which must be removed from boats. There are regional council rules in Auckland and Northland which require recreational commercial boats to be hauled out to be cleaned off and to be repainted with anti-fouling paints at regular intervals. We don't have the haul-out facilities—how on earth are we going to maintain our recreational and commercial boating fleet? So Minister how would the requirements be given weight if a decision maker is looking at bids for competing activities?Then of course Minister we have port developments. I mean what did we learn during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown of New Zealand? That the operation of our ports whether it's having adequately trained personnel proper equipment and being able to come and go without having to show your papers at a regional border if you're a truckie—all very important but it all starts at the port. Because around about 3 million to 4 million containers are imported in and out of New Zealand every year. If our ports are not able to expand to develop to occupy the seabed to occupy the coastal area—and to do it without having to go back and prove why they should be allowed to do it every time—then New Zealand's not going to be able to grow; we're not going to be able to deliver manufacturing and other high-paid jobs around the regions.So Minister if you could explain how this beneficial competition for allocation of coastal land might work so we can all get ahead. Thanks Minister.Hon RACHEL BROOKING (Associate Minister for the Environment): Going first to the comments around the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) my comment here was in response to the member's question. Of course I can assure the member Simon Court that I'm no expert on offshore wind farms; but should it be possible to have them in the coastal marine area (CMA) then clause 19 requires that nothing can happen without a resource consent in the CMA. I take the earlier point from Stuart Smith—his point was that you might need consents in the CMA that then go out to the EEZ so of course we want any work that the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is doing to be joined up with what is happening in this Natural and Built Environment Bill.In terms of allocation as I said before these are not departures from the Resource Management Act and good that we are having the Spatial Planning Bill and that regime in terms of doing it long-term; thinking about how we want to use our spaces."