Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. Naturally Together – A Call to Action on the West Coast on Sunday where we got close to 4000 locals turning up; 120 MPs were invited six turned up—five from National. It was respectful it was showcasing the very best of the Coast and it talked about how Government policy is affecting locals. Speakers from the affected industries—timber mining tourism farming forestry and electricity—as well as Ngāti Waewae and two of our local mayors were all speaking.It was in 2017 when we first heard the policy announcement in the Speech from the Throne: no new mining on conservation land. The public was going to be consulted. Two years later this Government still has not delivered the consultation document—the discussion document that we've been waiting on. Two years of uncertainty and failing and falling business confidence. Not knowing is sometimes worse than actually knowing and being able to make a decision and get on with life because we don't know how to plan for our futures.I can tell you this: the no-new-mining announcement may as well be policy because that is exactly how the land is being administered right now. It is not national park it is not Schedule 4 land; it's old forestry blocks covered in gorse and flax most of it cut over and a lot of it already mined. It's just a place that had no place to go in the changes of 1989; land that is not virgin native mature forest.That land used to provide up to 1500 jobs; they in turn support other jobs in our schools our supermarkets our cafes our retail and our other trades but also support other things like sports clubs volunteer organisations—like your Rotaries and Lions club St John and your school committees etc. etc. We help heat dairy and timber factories meat-processing plants horticulture hospitals and schools all across New Zealand. There are alternatives that need to come along to fill the gaps that have been created.If we are to stop our industries—and it's not unlike the stopping of the oil and gas exploration—we need this Government to deliver the pathway for this just transition. We're not making a case there for open slather on our stewardship land. In fact all we want is a case by case analysis an assessment because we believe that's the best approach. It's worked well for us for decades and it gives us I believe the best of both worlds. It is not mining or the environment; it is mining and the environment—that's how we've always treated it and that's why our backyard is still pristine.But it's not only mining that's been affected in this Government's policy decisions. We've been feeling the impacts with whitebaiting the freshwater policies the national policy statement the biodiversity native timber running roughshod over our private property rights with more proposed significant natural areas the pounamu the moss but the last straw was to turn down the Waitaha run-of-river hydro scheme a clean renewable energy project. I believe this is unbelievable politics at play.Now the irony that we see on the Coast is that it's the birthplace of the Labour Party and their mission was to look after workers' rights to look after their conditions and fight for the eight-hour day and working conditions. Yeah right. I argue that they have yet to find their new purpose relevant purpose for existing. Coasters are heartland New Zealand real people and proud hard workers. So we are stunned when we are criticised for being vocal about how fearful we are for our futures. It's the speed of change. It's the amount of change happening all at once. Communities need time to adjust to change. So where is this just transition that the Government keeps talking about and not delivering? But to be told by the very person who is elected to take his community's views back to Wellington that we are too resistant to change to get our head out of the sand or to tell others just to get over it speaks to me of a person who has lost touch with his electorate and has stopped listening. As the new spokesperson for West Coast issues I can assure the Coasters we will stick naturally together. As the new spokesperson I will have their back not stab them in it.