Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to stand tonight and speak to this Maritime Transport (MARPOL Annex VI) Amendment Bill in the second reading. I do remember speaking on a previous reading. I wasn't in the select committee when this went through. It is a very important bill. It is important because New Zealand getting involved now with this MARPOL Annex will strengthen New Zealand's ability to play a credible role in negotiations in the International Maritime Organization and to push for global ambition and to improve New Zealand's ability to protect its trade and economic interests. The last speaker Greg O'Connor was talking about the difference—and I heard Minister Parker speaking about the difference—between the ballast water and the sediment. As someone who is not totally au fait with some of the terminology of shipping ballast" is like a heavy material—just for the audience listening: it's a gravel sand or iron or it's placed in the bilge of a ship to ensure its stability. So if you think about that and you think about the water that surrounds that and sediment I can understand that there's obviously quite a bit of discussion around how those things are defined. It is important as ships are travelling around the world to make sure we get this right because as we've heard tonight shipping is extremely important to us.We know that over this COVID period we have really struggled to get some items into New Zealand. I was very pleased to be at one of our local fertiliser companies on Friday where they said to me "We're not going over into that area of the plant because we've just had a ship come in and it's brought in potash fertiliser." and I know that is something that has been very difficult to get for various reasons—not just shipping—in the world over recent times.The key message really around this bill is that it is relatively minor and yet it is a positive step for the shipping sector towards a cleaner and healthier sector for people and our environment. What is really rather interesting for me in debating this bill having been through a whole range of other things particularly in the energy space and the agricultural space is that we are kind of late to the piece in this one. With so many other things that the current Government is trying to lead the world on—New Zealand first signed up to MARPOL in 1998 which was some time ago. So 94 other countries are party to Annex VI representing 97 percent of the world's shipping tonnage. So we are rather late to this albeit that this particular piece of legislation which we are happy to support is in the process of making a difference to the environment and to climate change around the world. It is really important because it takes into account the human environment around courts it takes into account climate change and ozone layer - depletion both through air-quality regulations and energy-efficiency measures. While we haven't had so many planes going off the ground over recent times like we used to—apart from the occasional huge ship which gets stuck due to its size—and while the canals have largely been doing their thing we have to always remember that we are a very small country right at the bottom of the world and if there is any other reason to be economic and go somewhere else rather than come down to New Zealand I'm sure people will choose that which is why our trade agreements and our relationships with other countries is so important. That relates to the conversations we've just had prior to starting on this bill tonight.MARPOL might seem like a funny word but it is really just the "mar" and the "pol" out of marine pollution. It was developed by the International Maritime Organization which actually first signed it in 1973. So this is going back a while and in terms of climate change and environmental things it was probably quite early in the piece.What Annex VI does is it limits the amount of sulphur content in all ships' fuel to half a percent. It requires certain diesel engines to comply with certain emission standards. It requires certain ship board incinerators to meet performance standards. It is about banning the incineration of certain substances. It is also about ensuring that ships with a mass of 400 gigatonnes or more meet energy-efficiency requirements. So there is a lot going on here on the ship but also ensuring that the port facilities are capable of dealing with the residues and the waste that these ships need to come off. I think waste really if you think about the shipping industry a bit like any travel industry there is quite a—not just the waste that we were talking about before in terms of the ballast and the sediment but obviously people live on these ships so there is a lot of food that goes around the world and food waste and those sorts of things need to be taken care of restocked and waste going off at ports. So there is a lot that is taken into.One of the places I live is on the coast not that far from the New Plymouth port. We assume that these ships are moving often but actually they all have to wait their turn to come into port even in a small port like New Plymouth. So sometimes they are sitting out on the sea for quite some time—so just thinking about the operations that actually have to happen during that time as well.In dealing with the second reading of this bill tonight it is worth noting that New Zealand is one of six OECD countries that are currently not party to Annex VI; the others are Austria Columbia Hungary Israel and Mexico. So it is a pleasure to stand here tonight and have the National Party support this bill because I sincerely believe that this bill will help with our climate emissions. I have to be honest and say that I can't stand here and say that a lot about a lot of the bills that the current Government is introducing. But I guess the length of time this bill has been around gives me a lot more confidence that it has been well-thought-out it has been well tested around the world and the changes that are being made have been well proven over time. So it's not just some idea that was thought up on the steps of Parliament and the next thing you know there is a piece of legislation for it; it's a global piece of legislation that we're following here. It's a pleasure to support the bill tonight. So with that Madam Speaker I'd just like to say thank you."