Wong Pansy: Crown Minerals Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Crown Minerals Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:610;Page:7880] 
PANSY WONG (NZ National) 
: 
 I am encouraged that the Minister the Hon Harry Duynhoven has taken a call. I appeal to this Minister who would understand the consequences when people were not aware of the actual law or were misguided as he was in believing that certain actions were not available to them and therefore found themselves in the position where they were deprived of their property rights. 
The mining industry was informed by the Crown minerals division that its rights to reapply for mining licences were extinguished by the passage of the Crown Minerals Act in 1991. It was informed by the officials that the 1991 Act repealed their rights. A large number of people accepted that until Glenharrow Holdings challenged a case in court and won. The officials who represented the Government until then told them otherwise. Of course they thought they were listening to authority and accepted that decision and suddenly the Labour Government brought in legislation to legislate away those property rights. I inform the Minister the Hon Harry Duynhoven that I attended part of the Commerce Committee in the last term of Parliament and the mining industry was not consulted during the first phase of consultation. It was told by the Minister that it was only a technical amendment. In the Labour Government’s term if legislating away people’s property rights is called a technical amendment I would hate to see what a substantive amendment would be. 
The industry thought that the Government was bringing in legislation and the industry was promised that during the select committee process it would have a fair chance of being heard and consulted. In the middle of a Commerce Committee hearing and out of the blue Harry Duynhoven brought in another commencement date of 5 p.m. on 19 September 2002. He said that if people had not submitted their application then they could forget about it. Harry Duynhoven understood the pain of finding on 11 June that his membership of Parliament was technically lapsed. He should have understood the pain of those people being told suddenly out of the blue that their licences could not be reapplied for. 
It is an outrage. I think Harry Duynhoven should take a call to explain why people who acted in good faith and listened to the officials advice then waited for the due process of the Commerce Committee to complete its deliberations suddenly found that if they were law-abiding they were not rewarded. This particular clause is an outrage to the industry. The industry was never consulted in the first place and in the middle of the select committee process a new date was implemented to stop any person who failed to file an application because he or she was still waiting for the deliberation of the Commerce Committee. 
The Minister should explain to us why the mining industry should have confidence in the Government. Why should the mining industry have confidence in the due process of a select committee? Why should the mining industry continue to have confidence in a Minister the Hon Harry Duynhoven who above any other Labour member should understand the frustration of a law that in his words was outdated old or whatever?