Williams Andrew: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10239. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): I take a call in the second reading of the Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill. This is becoming bigger than Texas effectively. It has been blown out of all proportion and all sorts of spurious arguments are being thrown in the mix when basically what we are talking about here is sorting out a piece of legislation that unfortunately was originally drafted with an oversight in it. That oversight now needs to be rectified so that the original legislation which is to come into effect on 24 May—next week—can come into effect in the correct manner. If it is not it impacts on the original legislation and it means that the original legislation is left wanting. It means that New Zealand and our economy and the opportunities within it are left wanting as well.If we could just sort of simplify it down what the original legislation overlooked was the fact that in exploration in mining in looking for resources often there is the equivalent of a rugby team or a soccer team or a football team in respect of talent scout - type organisations that are looking for the potential and the opportunities in this particular industry. They are the sort of scouts—the ones who are going out there in advance—who are looking at what is the potential of the minerals or of the resources. But they themselves do not necessarily have the full capacity the full technical ability or indeed the financial strength to undertake the actual mining drilling or exploration that subsequently ensues. What they do is they set the parameters perhaps secure the permits and do all the initial exploration the initial findings the research and geotechnical investigations and all these various things to ascertain whether there is a future. If there is a future things can then be escalated. Then as it says here in this legislation you have farminees and farm-outs. Then it might go to the next stage where a much bigger operator will come in and take over and take it to the next stage.Unfortunately the original legislation did not allow for that exploration-type work to be approved under the original legislation. Effectively therefore on 24 May in a week’s time many of those exploratory companies will not be able to continue to operate in this manner and it would be an impasse. That would not be good. That would put a great deal of uncertainty within the industry and indeed it could pull the rug out from underneath some opportunities that are occurring in terms of mineral exploration and research in this country.So this amendment bill improves the legislation. It gets it right. It sorts out what was an error in terms of the original drafting. The original legislation was here in the House only 3 or 4 weeks ago. New Zealand First supported it at that time. We do believe in economic development in this country. We do believe in sustainable responsible development of our resources. That would not be the case if this amendment bill was not passed because it would simply kneecap the original legislation if this bill was not passed and it would make it very difficult for the original legislation to proceed as it was intended by this House. So New Zealand First will support this bill. We do believe that it is in the interests of the New Zealand economy and New Zealanders that this bill does proceed that this is sorted out and put on a correct footing and that the interests of the overall economy are put first in this.