Williams Andrew: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10295. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): I will take a call on behalf of New Zealand First. We have been looking at this bill the Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill last night and now again today on Saturday and we are coming to the end. I would like to add the views of New Zealand First which as always are the common-sense views the level-headed views and the views that I believe the majority of New Zealanders would wish to see in this House.We have heard opinions and viewpoints from all extremities but at the end of the day a great deal of it is a lot of red herrings and a lot of diversions away from the fact that New Zealand is fortunate to be sitting on a very significant resource. For a population of 4.5 million people we are in a very very fortunate place in the world to have an enormous resource and an enormous potential that if you ask most New Zealanders we certainly cannot just ignore. We must take the opportunities we are given and look at those opportunities in a very sensible sustainable and responsible way. It must be done and we all agree—every New Zealander—that we would not wish for the environment to be in any way damaged and we would not wish for us to put our jewel in the Crown our wonderful environment at risk. At the same time if it is done sensibly and responsibly there is enormous potential to improve the wealth the prosperity and the well-being of all New Zealanders as a result.In this regard New Zealand First has supported this bill in most areas but we did you will note vote against one aspect and that was the aspect in relation to protests on the high seas. That is one area where New Zealand First cannot agree with the Government because we do believe still in the freedom to protest. We could not in our own conscience vote for something that would take away that right of New Zealanders. I have mentioned in this House in the past that we can recall the frigates theOtago and theTaranaki going off to Mururoa Atoll being sent by our Government to protest on the high seas about atmospheric testing in French Polynesia. Our Government sent those vessels. Likewise I can remember when theHaddo was coming up the harbour in Auckland and New Zealanders were out there protesting. So we are a nation of free protest and we do respect that. New Zealand First could not go along with that part of this bill because we still believe in the right of New Zealanders to protest anywhere as long as they are keeping a lawful manner. To protest is their inherent right. That is why we have plaques on the walls of this Chamber representing the many great battles that New Zealanders have given their lives for such as Passchendaele Messines Egypt and Gallipoli. Therefore we do uphold the right of people to defend the rights of their country but also to defend the rights of freedom of speech.Back on to the Crown minerals. We do agree that there were some significant errors in the original Crown Minerals Amendment Act that needed rectifying. This legislation was put down to be enacted next week on 24 May. It was then found that there were some errors in the original drafting which if they were not sorted out with this amendment bill in fact by next week would cause some real complications in terms of the original Crown Minerals Act.It was simple. The main premise the big one of this whole bill was the fact that the tier 1 applicants potentially would not be able to operate after 24 May if this amendment bill was not put through because they are not always necessarily the final company that does the exploration the drilling the actual mining or whatever it is. Often they are scout companies. As I mentioned in the House last night they are the forerunners that go out look at the opportunities look at the potential of the resource do the research do the initial exploration and do the initial fact-finding to see whether there issomething actually there to take forward. If they do establish that then often that is when other major international investors and indeed New Zealand investors would get involved and perhaps take it to the next stage. They were going to be excluded under the original amendment Act and it could have meant that many many operators in New Zealand could literally have had to cease operations because they would have found that they were not compliant with the original Act.That would have been an unacceptable situation. That would have potentially cost jobs in this country. That would have potentially cost investment in this country and that would not be a good thing. New Zealand First would not condone doing something that would result in New Zealanders potentially losing work losing opportunities and losing jobs. That would not be a good thing. We do support the bill in that respect.But as I mentioned in the House last night our support is contingent also on hopefully in the future there being a review in other areas of this whole minerals and resource taking within New Zealand. We in New Zealand First firmly believe that for the country to truly prosper from the taking of minerals both onshore and offshore all New Zealanders must benefit from it. In particular we believe that where New Zealanders and where regions and where provinces are affected by the taking of those resources and the taking of those minerals they in turn should receive a significant amount of the benefit back. The Crown should not just take the royalties and they should not just disappear into a big black hole in Wellington just to be used to pay for other activities of Government and to prop up other areas of Government. They should be returned to where the minerals were taken from.In that respect New Zealand First has put out a policy in the last month or so where we would if we had the opportunity to have influence over this ensure that 25 percent of the royalties taken by the Crown for the minerals would be returned back to the region and back to the province from where they were taken.That would help those regions to underwrite and pay for some of the infrastructure—such as roading such as local infrastructure and such as good facilities for their communities and amenities for their communities—to in some way offset their own costs but also to compensate them for some of the downside of the effects of mining or minerals extraction or exploration or drilling in their particular regions. We think it is a win-win. We have had extremely good feedback from around New Zealand on this. We think it is a positive thing. We think New Zealanders would get on board. We actually think that in order to take New Zealanders with us to take New Zealanders forward and see a benefit in exploration to see a benefit in mining and to see a benefit in taking mineral resources from our wonderful country all New Zealanders should benefit and New Zealand First would certainly ensure that that was the case.Just in closing New Zealand First will be supporting this bill. We do believe in jobs we do believe in employment and we do believe in taking this country forward.