Collins Judith: Marine Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Collins Judith: Marine Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8743. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice) 
on behalf of the Minister of Transport: I move  
That the Marine Legislation Bill be now read a second time 
. I would like to thank the chair and members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for their work and unanimous support of the bill. I would also like to thank everyone who has taken time to make a submission to the committee. 
This is an omnibus bill that amends the Maritime Transport Act 1994 and the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012 in order to promote maritime safety and to protect the marine environment. Amendments to the Maritime Transport Act will provide for local regulation of maritime activities by regional councils enable the implementation of four international maritime conventions and make other miscellaneous changes to improve the clarity effectiveness and enforceability of provisions in the Act. The bill also amends the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act to include new provisions in relation to some discharges and the dumping of waste and other matter from ships and to ensure that New Zealand continues to act consistently with its international obligations. 
With regard to local regulation of maritime activity this bill replaces and updates measures currently contained in the Local Government Act 1974. The bill enables regional councils to continue to regulate maritime safety and maritime-related activities in their regions and provides for a stronger regime for the management of port harbour and navigation safety. The bill establishes clear duties and powers in respect of port operations to support and complement the New Zealand Port and Harbour Marine Safety Code 2004. 
The majority of submissions from local authorities supported the current division of central and local government maritime safety responsibilities and sought to clarify that the bill would not expand local responsibilities. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee recommended amendments that clarify that the bill will not create new responsibilities for regional councils but will instead outline the functions that a regional council can undertake when appropriate. 
The committee has also recommended amendments to give regional councils greater flexibility in procedure for setting fees and charges related to the maritime functions. This change will allow councils to use the procedures in the Local Government Act 2002 rather than continuing an existing requirement that fees for these functions be set only by by-laws. 
The bill also enables New Zealand to bring four international maritime conventions into full force: the protocol of 1996 to amend the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976 the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage 2001 the Protocol Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Pollution by Substances other than Oil 1973 and the Manila amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers 1978. 
The grounding of the  
Rena 
 on Astrolabe Reef in October 2011 and the subsequent 350-tonne oil spill highlighted the need to update New Zealand’s liability limit for maritime claims under international conventions. This bill will more than double the current liability limit for shipowners. It also provides a mechanism for giving effect to future increases to the limit. This will allow for a rapid implementation of a further 51 percent increase in liability limits which is set to become available in 2015 for countries that are party to the conventions. 
The Manila amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers 1978 include a blood-alcohol limit for certain on-duty merchant seafarers. The bill gives effect to this measure which will help to ensure that masters officers and other seafarers are fit and able to perform their safety security and environmental duties. Further miscellaneous amendments to the Maritime Transport Act included in this bill will improve enforcement modernise penalty levels and clarify the application of the Act. 
The bill also amends the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act to transfer the regulation of dumping waste and discharging harmful substances in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf from offshore installations and mineral mining facilities on board ships from Maritime New Zealand to the Environmental Protection Authority. The transfer of certain discharge and dumping regulatory functions will ensure that applications for marine dumping and discharges are considered in their entirety by the Environmental Protection Authority thereby eliminating process duplication and providing certainty that the comprehensive environmental assessment requirements will be met. 
The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee recommended changes to clarify and improve the bill in the following ways. The definitions of “mining activity” and “mining discharge” have been widened to ensure that the prospecting stage of mineral mining projects is captured and to ensure that hydraulic fracturing or fracking is subject to the legislation. A new section has been added to better clarify the interaction and relation between the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act and the Maritime Transport Act in terms of the regulation and the discharge of harmful substances. This will more accurately reflect the jurisdiction New Zealand has over the continental shelf beyond the exclusive economic zone. The bill now allows for information sharing between the Environmental Protection Authority and Maritime New Zealand. This will ensure a clear interaction between the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act and the Maritime Transport Act and provide certainty that environmental effects are properly managed. Finally the bill now provides clear transitional arrangements for the applications and consents of existing discharge management plans and dumping permits. 
To sum up the proposed changes will promote the effective management of the marine environment by enhancing existing measures in the Maritime Transport Act. In closing I would like to once again thank the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee members for the work on this bill. This bill will provide an updated and improved framework for maritime safety and marine environmental protection. I commend this bill to the House.