Bridges Simon: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: General Debate[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12123. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources):I am not going to dwell on that sorry excuse for a speech but to hear the Leader of the Opposition talking about the Prime Minister not coming clean and about him saying “What can I get away with?”—well that is rich from a guy who will not tell us how much money he has got in Chase Bank accounts. “Rich” is the right word for it actually because I suspect that the reason the member will not tell us is that he is rich and that does not fit the narrative that he wants to leave this House with in his short time remaining as leader.But actually I want to start this speech today by congratulating Shane Jones. There has been a huge amount that Shane Jones has said recently in relation to resource development that I wholeheartedly agree with. He has talked about mining creating job openings for low-incomeMāori families and how he is tired of the “hostile rhetoric from the Greenies”. He has talked about how his visit to Taranaki provided the opportunity to reinforce the importance of the mining industry and the need for the future Labour-led Government to assuage whatever anxieties might be there in the minds of employers or future investors. He has talked about offshore oil and gas drillingbeing an essential feature of domestic and export growth and said that businesses enabling that would get full Government support. He goes on and on.But the small problem is that just as Shane Jones does not talk about his movie tastes with his colleagues neither has he sought their views on resources let alone asked the real policy drivers in the Labour-Greens coalition—the Green Party MPs—what they think. How else can you explain what his colleagues have said and done? Annette King and Grant Robertson the deputy leader of the Labour Party put out a pamphlet last year asking to stop south coast oil drilling. They then sought donations to campaign against oil drilling. Moana Mackey the member who is—many of you watching on your box sets may not know this—the spokesperson for the Opposition on these matters has put out a press release: “Exploration not such a golden opportunity”. She has talked about drilling and mining development being a flawed economic development strategy. “This is not where New Zealand’s economic future lies.” she says. [Interruption ] You are right to ask Ms Tolley. Are these people in the same party as Mr Shane Jones? Let alone what the Greens have said. Catherine Delahunty said on mining: “It’s unforgivable devastation.” On the Crown minerals legislation: “It is a declaration of war.” Gareth Hughes said it is a “dirty old-fashioned 19th century economic agenda” and “It is not an economic strategy for this country.” He says that oil and gas is not the answer and it is time to “stand up to foreign oil industries.” Well what an insult to the 14000 to 15000 people and growing in this country who work in that industry.But here is the kicker: the rank—actually disaster porn—scaremongering from the Green Party which presumably Moana Mackey and Grant Robertson support. After the Wellington earthquakes Green members were on social media all over the show with their anti-science anti-evidence rhetoric linking the two. Clearly the Age of Reason the Age of Enlightenment and all science has passed that party by because without a skerrick of evidence and without any basis it is linking oil and gas to the earthquakes. Well the 19th century had a word for that I say to the Green Party. They called it “quackery”.Hon Phil Heatley: What’s that?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Quackery. I am not talking Mr Heatley about Trevor Mallard; it is actually much worse than that. It is the false and fraudulent promotion of fraudulent science. This House actually in 1908 you would be interested to know passed the Quackery Prevention Act. I am not suggesting that we use it on the Green Party but maybe New Zealanders should simply know that Shane Jones is out on his own in the Labour-Greens coalition—that coalition of quacks—when he talks about the support for the 15000 hard-working New Zealanders in that industry and the billions of dollars the $4 billion it brings to this country. So I say to New Zealanders who want to back resources and jobs to vote National at the next election.