King MattMATT KING (National—Northland): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to speak on the Crown minerals bill. Now this bill is plain madness and we will reverse it when we get back in 2020. It does not reduce emissions it does not speed up the transition to renewables and it does not help climate change. Now they talk about a transition but what's the plan? What is the plan to transition? You can't just kill the supply without dealing to the demand. Now hydrogen—they talk about hydrogen. I've heard the Ministers talking about hydrogen. Well hydrogen is not a fuel in itself; it's a means of storage. It takes energy to create hydrogen and it's a means of storage so that's not a fuel. Hydro—we have nowhere near enough hydro and can you imagine the Greens allowing us to dam some more rivers? I don't think so. Geothermal: we've got beautiful geothermal power in Northland but nowhere near enough geothermal in the whole of the country to meet the demand. Wind farms: I've heard the Ministers talk about Oh wind farms are going to solve the issues." but we would have to build four wind farms a year for 20 years to cope with the growth and deal with the energy demand for New Zealand. So their plan is really to kill the oil and gas industry and then hope and pray that technology delivers the energy we need. Well in South Australia they did that. They have a few numpties making a few decisions and they got blackouts. So are we going to get blackouts? The Crown is looking at somewhere between $7.9 billion and $23 billion in lost revenue from this decision and that's just Crown revenue—that's not the wider economic costs. Well for $7.9 billion the Labour-led Government could have had their Auckland light rail and we could build Waterview Transmission Gully Dunedin Hospital the "Kiwi hoax" programme and Christchurch Stadium. Gas supplies 15 percent of New Zealand's electricity generation. It covers our peak times when we have dry summers and dry winters so it's a vital part of our energy system providing the back-up for our beautiful renewable energy grid. But there was no Cabinet paper no consultation with the industry or the Taranaki people and no cost-benefit analysis. Those members did not campaign on it and there's no mandate and they didn't even give it to the experts on the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee. They gave it to the Environment Committee which also incidentally has a majority with the Labour-led Government. So it's a major contribution to failing business confidence and it hangs out the sign to overseas investors that we are closed for business. Anyone that understands oil and gas and investment knows that it's a long-term strategy and if they think that the Government wakes up one day gets out of bed and changes the rules they're going to get the heebie-jeebies and get out of here. It makes us look like a banana republic. Oil and gas accounts for 54 percent of New Zealand's primary energy needs and provides 4600 jobs in Taranaki and 11000 jobs indirectly and it adds $2 billion a year to New Zealand's GDP. The oil and gas sector is a major contributor of foreign direct investment and do you know what? We had the bill at select committee for a month two weeks of which was when we weren't even sitting. So they had two weeks for an industry that's worth billions of dollars to New Zealand to put their story across and give their submissions. I think that is pretty damned rude. To shorten what is traditionally a six-month process down to one month—I think that's a slap in the face for the industry. And they even blocked the select committee from going to Taranaki. Submitters said this will increase energy prices increase electricity prices increase the cost of living and affect the very people that vote—I mean a lot of Labour voters the low-income New Zealanders. But I quote from Minister Megan Woods: "We are a Government that listens then acts. That consults widely thinks [about] issues deeply and seeks to forge consensus on how we can take New Zealand forward together."—what a joke. This will be devastating long term for New Zealand. Like with charter schools it's blind ideology versus plain old common sense."