Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Mr Speaker thanks for the opportunity to take one of the last calls for the evening on the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill. I'd also like to acknowledge the member the Hon Eugenie Sage a very hard-working member a very conscientious member and she will be missed from this House when she retires at the election.Just to start on a little bit of a response to what the previous member Barbara Kuriger mentioned: in terms of conservation land the member seemed to allude to the fact that we don't gain an economic return from conservation land like we do in terms of agriculture like we do in terms of mining. But I would argue that there is a commercial return on conservation land and that is in terms of tourism for one. The second one would be in terms of the sequestration of carbon which is absolutely important. If we don't do that we have to buy carbon credits as a country. So there certainly is some economic benefit to conservation land. As we've heard previously 33 percent of New Zealand is conservation land and we have some absolutely wonderful conservation land and it is important that we protect it and that's what this bill talks about. It talks about protecting the taonga that we have. Just to highlight just one in particular in an area near where I was born the Abel Tasman National Park—absolutely beautiful area. Not quite as nice as some areas of Hamilton—Hamilton Gardens for example—but it's getting close. Getting close. Look that's just a small example of the treasure we have in conservation land and it's important. I hear members laughing; I'm not quite sure why but it is absolutely important that we protect it. The Government does agree with what the member's espousing here in terms of protecting our conservation land. Back in 2017 when I first came to this House I remember listening and others in this House were there too. We listened to the Speech from the Throne from the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. As we were sitting there I accidentally sat on the wrong side. I actually accidentally sat on the National Party side and I actually heard the Speech from the Throne. The Prime Minister at the time the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern what she said in that Speech from the Throne is that her Government will make a commitment to no new mines on conservation land—no new mines on conservation land—and nothing has changed from this Government's perspective. So we are continuing to work in that area in terms of no new mines on conservation land and we agree with the member on that wholeheartedly and we've heard that from the previous speaker.However the member goes a little bit further than this Government is comfortable with at this point in time because the member also in her bill she prohibits the granting of any permits for coal after 1 January 2025 on any land of any tenure to protect the climate from greenhouse gas emissions generated by burning coal. Now there are some problems there particularly in terms of the private land. The previous speaker espoused those so in terms of repetition I won't go into that but just to highlight the fact that conservation land is one thing—it's an area owned by the Government; effectively owned by all of us—but private land is a little bit more challenging. But you know we will continue to work in that area because it is important that we do achieve our Paris targets in terms of climate change.I recently visited a gold mine in the Coromandel region—Thames—and I went underground. It was incredibly impressive. There were some huge trucks going down metres underground. I was genuinely impressed with the work that they are doing in terms of the climate and in terms of the way that they remediate the land. I was impressed with the work that they were doing there. But we all know in terms of coal mines it is a sunset industry and we have made that quite clear as a Government and many Governments around the world have made that clear as well. That's something that we're standing to. So look in the last few seconds just to confirm we agree with the Minister in terms of no new mines on conservation land but the Minister goes further than we are comfortable as a Government in terms of private land. Thank you Mr Speaker.