Tirikatene Rino: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4799. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Kia ora. I am pleased to make a short contribution at this third reading of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill. This is critically important legislation. I do commend the Minister for the Environment Amy Adams for the improvements that have been made to the bill through the Committee stage and also the work that was carried out in the select committee. But alas this has not progressed the legislation to the point where we can support it. There are still too many loopholes and too many uncertain areas in the bill. So alas we will be opposing this bill. 
I just wanted to pick up on some key areas where there are very clear deficiencies in the bill. Firstly around the whole consultation issue—and I am focusing on the Maori issues—there was no consultation with iwi in the preparation of this bill. There were many many submissions from iwi and other interested Maori organisations opposing various aspects of the bill such as the purpose clause and throughout the various processes and procedures that were flowing through the consent processes under the bill. Disappointingly none of those submissions were actually picked up or incorporated into the bill. I speak to points like the Supplementary Order Paper from Ms Sage that included cultural impact assessments which was one thing that Ngai Tahu pushed for in their submissions. 
Likewise and most important was the beefing up of clause 14 the Treaty clause. We have very clear Treaty obligation clauses between the Crown and iwi Maori in the Conservation Act and the Resource Management Act but unfortunately equivalent provisions are not contained in this bill. That is very disappointing. Even more disappointing is that the obligations that do include iwi or Maori interests are just mere procedural matters which are options that can be picked up by the Environmental Protection Authority through its advisory committees but are not mandatory. Likewise there is no inclusion of a right to consult with iwi around any of the application processes. So that is disappointing and that is a huge deficiency in this bill. 
Just the other day I had a briefing from a mining company. To put this into context there was a company that was wanting to mine phosphate on the Chatham Rise. I am not going to talk about the merits of their particular activities but this particular company had a prospecting licence and it wanted to mine phosphate on the seabed floor of the Chatham Rise. I think it is important that we look at these applications on a case by case basis because the members on the other side talk about how there will be such great economic development from extracting minerals or oil and gas and the like. But when we actually spoke to the company and asked: “What would be the employment opportunities created from your mining activity?” it said that there would be very few. Why was that? Because it would be bringing in these big super 200 metre - type ships from the Netherlands with all their expertise to come down and blow the sea floor so that all the phosphate could be sucked up and taken up as raw material. It would be extracting raw material and there was no commitment to actually further value-add or to any other activities there. We oppose this bill. [ 
Bell rung 
] Is that the end of my time? Oh sorry Mr Deputy Speaker. That is a classic example of the spin that there will be jobs created from this mining boom. This company itself said that there would be no jobs created from its activities as all the expertise would be brought from offshore. That actually needs to be taken into account by the Environmental Protection Authority for all applicants that are going to be mining our pristine marine environment—the sea floor and the continental shelf. 
There are big deficiencies in this bill. We are very disappointed that all the Supplementary Order Papers that we put up particularly amendments to strengthen the Treaty clauses were voted down. So alas we will be opposing this bill. Thank you.