Sage Eugenie: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 26 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:2012. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Thank you. I am pleased to speak on the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill and to explain why the Green Party will be casting a protest vote against this bill. It appears once again that this is an example of special pleading legislation and that the Government is amending our law for the benefit of particular corporate interests—in this case Shell Todd Oil Services. In the Green Party we believe that there should be one law for all New Zealanders rather than one for the oil companies and one for the rest of New Zealand.The Government has form on amending law to benefit the oil industry. When we had the exclusive economic zone legislation going through an amendment was of course rammed through under urgency in the Committee stage. There were changes to establish a no-go zone allowing no protest and banning New Zealanders from exercising their democratic right within that zone around seismic and other exploration vessels and around oil facilities. We had the Anadarko amendment which allowed companies planning oil exploration to undertake this without the need to get a consent from the Environmental Protection Authority. So we have got history here of the Government changing the law to benefit the oil industry.It is not just a transitional issue because again with one law for the oil industry we are not seeing the Government changing the law to benefit the community or to benefit the public in having a say on this major application to have the Māui platforms continue for another 35 years.The public must comply with the deadlines in the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act. There have been several requests to the Environmental Protection Authority which is considering Shell Todd Oil Services’ application which was lodged last December to have an extension for submissions. The Environmental Protection Authority has declined those requests and all the submissions had to be in by Tuesday. That 20-working-day deadline for submissions which is set out in the law had to be complied with by iwi by hapū and by members of the public despite this being a very complex application and despite the Environmental Protection Authority having made a substantial request with around 55 different points that it wanted further information on.The public were asking for an extension of time so that they could come to grips with the application come to grips with all this further information and make more informed submissions. The Environmental Protection Authority said: “No abide by the law.” But here we have the Government changing the law to benefit Shell Todd Oil Services to extend its deadlines because it did not get itself organised enough to apply well before its permit expires on 27 June.The Green Party certainly does not want to imperil the gas supply for New Zealanders but we do not think there has been enough information provided that that is in fact a risk. As Gareth Hughes noted the company could potentially make other arrangements. This bill could be all about saving Shell Todd Oil Services the cost of making alternative arrangements in terms of our gas supply.The Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act has been in place for 3 years. Shell Todd Oil Services is big enough and ugly enough to understand what the provisions of the Act are and what the requirements are in terms of lodging its application. It failed to do that it lodged an application for marine consentonly last December and now Parliament is being asked to change the law just to suit the company.The application that the Environmental Protection Authority is considering is a major one. I note in one of the newsletters that the company has put out about the Māui marine consents it noted that the application was a good opportunity to consider future activities that may take place at Māui and Shell Todd Oil Services will likely seek approval for these at the same time. So is there going be an expansion of the existing activities there? Are there going to be other environmental effects? Is this legislation going to give the company an easier run? We want to see much more detail around the justification for the legislation to reassure us that the Government is not just making changes to benefit Shell Todd Oil Services. Thank you.