Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and thank you to the Minister of Energy and Resources for her remarks. I thought she was doing exceptionally well—probably the best speech she's ever given on oil and gas—until she started talking about the just transition. Then she was speaking to her Greenpeace stakeholders the lobby group just to remind them that she's still on track to get rid of this industry in this country. That's quite obvious.Today North Taranaki celebrates the arrival of a rig offshore from Taranaki at the Pohokura gasfield to do some work that will enable that gasfield to deliver energy to this country on an ongoing basis. It's very interesting that OMV the company which the Minister referred to is undertaking this work—a company who has a proud international reputation. What this bill seeks to do as the Minister says is make the regime around the change-of-control transactions robust. There was an occasion where a respected operator from offshore wanted to exit their involvement in New Zealand waters and so offered up shares in their company in this work that were purchased by another offshore company without the Minister of Energy and Resources' awareness and this is what has precipitated this bill.It is correct what the Minister says and the work was done by the Hon Judith Collins when she was Minister of Energy and Resources. In fact all the work in this bill has been led by National MPs. It was around that transfer of control that we felt there was some concern because it was an offshore field. We wanted to know that there was going to be genuine capability of those who were purchasing those offshore assets to undertake the work and if it came to decommissioning that their pockets were deep enough to do that work.We also wanted to know in terms of the health and safety of our environment and those workers on those offshore platforms that that company had a good and strong history of good sensible and exemplary health and safety practice. So New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals had to go offshore to the country where this company has its domicile in order to inquire and have that level of satisfaction. I'm pleased to say that what they found satisfied their requirements. But what it did—it highlighted that there was a gap in our regime. There was a gap in our regime that there could be a change of control that would not or did not necessarily have the Minister of Energy and Resources' prior knowledge or consent. So what this bill does is ensure that that takes place.This bill prepared by the National Government has come to its third reading here nearly 18 months into this Labour Government. I'd have to say that as I look at it these days I see there are weaknesses there. One weakness in this bill is it says in new section 41AC(2) in clause 8 If the Minister is satisfied that there are compelling reasons why a relevant person could not comply with subsection (1)(b) the Minister may receive an application by a later date agreed". Why I say that that is an area of concern is because it requires ministerial discretion. Now I respect the Minister has that role and responsibility to make decisions by discretion but I am concerned that we have had a history of this Minister of Energy and Resources rejecting officials' advice and making decisions that affect an industry without evidence without research and without analysis and that we rely on her discretion. I think that's a problem. We can't get away from it.This is how politics operates: people get voted into office and elevated to a Cabinet role where they do have direction and we have got to maintain safeguards for the people of New Zealand around that discretion. This is why this place operates and exists—not just for decision-making but also to hold the Government to account for that decision-making.While the Minister talks about a just transition I would like to raise something and read out a comment of hers because this comes to the heart of this bill. She said "Taking a just transition approach is important for maintaining the social licence necessary to realise our ambition for a low emissions economy."—this is in her Cabinet paper—"It provides us with an opportunity to articulate a compelling long-term vision that offers reassurance that change takes time and is a natural process within economies and society." We have seen anything but and my concern with this piece of legislation is that it puts a weight of discretion upon the Minister.What we read here in these words regarding the just transitions unit—which the Minister spoke about in her speech though it had nothing to do with the bill—is that she is now stating that change takes time and is a natural process. Nothing natural took place last year. It was intervention. It was social and economic violence and harm created to an industry and to a community and that's why I say—and I am very glad to see—that there is a jack-up rig offshore from Taranaki working on a gasfield that is going to supply more gas to New Zealand. By the way when that gas flows the prices of electricity will drop. At the moment they are double what they should be because of a constriction in gas supply. They were triple that in October-November.Some people say "Well that's why we shouldn't rely on the gas industry." Let me tell you there isn't an industry out there that provides energy that does not need maintenance. We know that the pole from North to South South to North came under huge need for maintenance at one point in time. Because of the constrained supply of electricity the price in Auckland went to $1700 per megawatt when it's normally about $70. I don't hear the Minister of Energy and Resources criticising the electricity industry.So what we want through this bill is yes we want to have a robust regime but we want to have a Minister of Energy and Resources who is going to treat an industry fairly and we want to have a Minister of Energy and Resources who doesn't put this stuff in the Cabinet papers that's just a lot of rubbish and it's not what she believes. So I stand here to say that we will support this bill. Yes I am increasingly upset by what has taken place but I believe that these provisions are good and they should be there. We are proud on this side of the House to have initiated this work and therefore we support it and I commend this bill to the House. Thank you sir."