Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National): Thank you Mr Chair. Well I'm glad the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries spoke and I'm glad the Green Party spoke because it puts the context around what's actually happened here today. The Green Party made it very clear that they don't want this ability to have those kinds of decisions within the bill. They just don't see it as there.The Labour Party have confirmed that in the Minister not explaining why Supplementary Order Paper 257 is being dropped today. As my colleague Tim van de Molen said we just debated this a mere number of hours ago in this House. There was not one mention from the Labour members that they felt that this was an issue in the Primary Production Committee. There's not one point where the Minister stood up today when he had an opportunity just now to explain why he did this. All he did was try and confuse and conflate people and say Oh it's a 48-page bill."Well I'll show you what your 48-page bill looks like now. [Holds up Supplementary Order Paper 257] You've taken out clause after clause after clause. It's typical Labour Party propaganda. They try and say "We're only just changing a small part of the bill."—he's ripping a big part of the bill out. And it's not only the part of the bill that he's ripping out; he's ripping out the consultation between the industry and Government and that is the ability for the industry to go forward and Government to go forward. We all want to see the same thing happen in the fishing industry: we all want to see the best result for New Zealand fishing and New Zealand fishers.The Minister deliberately did not say anything when he spoke. He had the opportunity to explain his decision. He has been sitting there quietly smugly looking. He knows damn well that he doesn't want to explain it. He just wants to hide it behind the process. He doesn't want it in there. He's shaking his head. Well maybe he needs to stand up and tell us why he's taking it out—and not some excuse that "It's a 48-page bill and it's not the heart of the bill we're taking out." Well of course there's more in the bill; everyone knows that. But I actually want an explanation. You just don't take things out with one line saying "This is deleted this is deleted this is deleted." and stand up and try and excuse yourself. Explain it. Explain it to the industry. Have you got a good reason? Tell us.Hon David Parker: It's the committee stage. It's what we debate at the committee stage.Hon DAVID BENNETT: It's what we're going to debate at the committee stage! Well this is actually in the Minister's—so he's now going to debate it. He's telling us he's going to debate it. Well he had the opportunity then to actually explain what he wants to debate. He won't debate it. I bet you they've all been told not to say a word on this. All the Labour—the whip's trying to stand up and shut it down. That's what he's doing. They're not going to stand up and debate it and explain it.Hon David Parker: We're debating the motion.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Yes. And were you going to explain why you're against it? [Interruption] Yeah your reason against it is because—he says the bill is big enough as it is and he doesn't have to explain it. He is more important than the industry! He himself does not have to bow to this Parliament and explain his decision. He just has to oppose it. The arrogance of that Minister in doing that and the arrogance of the Labour Party. They've got no intention of debating this. He's trying to shut it down. The whip can't get up quick enough. And there's the next call: it will be a Labour Party member trying to shut it down won't it? None of them are going to explain it. None of them are going to debate it.The Labour Party needs to be honest with the fishing industry and say why they've done this. They need to get out there and the Minister needs to explain it and not waffle about the size of the bill and try and hide behind that—actually say what he thinks about the issue. And as our oceans and fisheries spokesperson Todd Muller has said there's good faith in that select committee. The members of that committee have discussed this time and time again. There's good faith by the sector. This is something that we don't do every day in the fishing industry because it is very complex and difficult. And for a Minister to come in here and be so arrogant as to say "I don't have to explain it. It's just a big bill. I've taken out 10 lines. Who cares?" just shows how out of touch he is with the public and how out of touch the Labour Party is.Now the whip can stand up and do his closure motion. Go for it mate. Knock your socks off. But it just shows that you've got no intention of explaining what you're doing and the Labour Party are just using this process. They could have done this months ago. The Minister wanted to do this months ago it was in his mind—it didn't come up today. He's been—Mark Cameron: Lobbied.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Well I don't think he's been lobbied. I think he's actually known this for a while; he just didn't want to have it in front of the debate. He just wanted to put it in at the very last minute in the committee stage. Don't shake your head like that. We know it's the truth. You didn't want to actually debate it. You didn't want to actually have it in the public arena. You only wanted to put it in at the last minute so that you had to explain it for the very least amount of time and you won't even explain it to this House. It's a shambles of a Minister and it just shows the deceitful nature of the Labour Party."