Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. The last member Melissa Lee asked for certainty. This Government will act on climate change—you can have that certainty. This Government is not going to keep throwing tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies at the oil industry—you have that certainty. This Government isn't going to open coalmines on the conservation estate—you can have that certainty. This Government isn't going to mine schedule 4 land—you can have that certainty. This Government acts on the most pressing issue which our Prime Minister says is our nuclear-free moment the greatest issue of our generation—you have that certainty Melissa Lee.It's important to act because the issue we're talking about is our kids their kids and threatened species. But it is not just that; it's literally countries like Tuvalu Kiribati the Seychelles and Mauritius that climate change is affecting right now. That's why when we talk about certainty let's talk about the important things which are cultural extinction our neighbours and whānau in the Pacific our planet our home. So look while we're debating this legislation let's also not forget the certainty of the last Government which was a Government which would throw between $46 million and $80 million a year in tax breaks for the oil industry. I remember when Phil Heatley the Minister of Energy and Resources blew 240000 bucks on a weekend hosting just 10—just 10—oil executives from offshore.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Can we come back to the bill please.GARETH HUGHES: My point Madam Assistant Speaker is that the previous Government threw all the support at the industry but what did we see? We saw Shell surrender their permits. Anadarko's left Petrobras has left and Apache's left. In fact over the last five years more permits have been surrendered—twice as many—than granted. And this is the issue because what we are seeing is oil companies flee New Zealand under National despite National support and now we have to deal with this loophole which was their Crown Minerals Act problem. Now the issue of course that this legislation deals with the loophole is that approval's needed for a change of permit operator but if someone changes the company by buying it out you don't need that approval. It's a good technical common-sense change which I'm glad to see all parties support in this Parliament.This bill increases the penalties from $200000 to $800000. Now that reminds me: when we saw our greatest maritime environmental disaster the Rena we saw 300 tonnes of oil wash up on our beaches and hundreds of millions of dollars of environmental damages and the maximum penalty under National's Resource Management Act at the time was $150000. So this legislation overnight is increasing the penalties for those who don't inform the Government and the appropriate agencies for a change of permit operator to more than the entire costs that were recovered under the Resource Management Act for our greatest ever environmental disaster. That disaster trashed that beach and it broke my heart seeing those oil blobs wash up on those beaches and those dead birds in those baskets. At the same time National was doing everything they could to attract those oil companies down to New Zealand but they've fled and now we have to fix this loophole.I do want a respond to some of the comment on this debate. I heard the member National's spokesperson for the oil industry Jonathan Young who said we need to preserve the reputation of this industry. What reputation? I've seen the groundwater contamination under the Kapuni wells. I've been in Taranaki backyards where the night turns into day because of the constant flaring. I've talked to the landowners affected with the sham access agreements that were signed. I've been in those small rural valleys where National voters with tears in their eyes came to tell me how cowboys in the oil industry had ripped their rural community apart because there weren't guidelines. I've seen the fracking without consents in Taranaki. I've seen the oil spills from the industry off the Taranaki Bight. So don't come here and talk about our reputation when there's unfixable groundwater pollution in Taranaki. Don't come talking about that when I have come to this House with photographs showing cows literally wading in oil and gas fracking waste because it was easier to get a consent to drill a water bore than it was to frack for oil and gas.So when we're talking about protecting the reputation of an industry let's have facts. What we've seen over decades in this country is an industry that only acts when it's pushed and an industry that hasn't acted and hasn't garnered that social licence.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Back to the bill please.GARETH HUGHES: It's important to fix our regulatory regime so while we're amending the Crown Minerals Act tonight with a small technical amendment we also need to keep our eye on the bigger picture which is the purpose of the underlying legislation the Crown Minerals Act which is—as we've heard in the debate tonight—to promote oil drilling and extractive industries in New Zealand. Now I would rather have—and I'm urging the Government to adopt—a regime where the purpose is actually the safe and sustainable resource extraction by making sure we have a world-leading regulatory regime not just an agency which is promoting drilling mining and fracking.I've heard members of the Opposition say that they're scared of potential hypothetical maybe amendments that might come at some future point. It's entirely hypothetical. What I do remember though is the urgency they put this Parliament in to pass the egregious Anadarko amendment where their agency for oil promotion was charging activists. That was a Government that came under urgency to pass it and a Government that was so incredibly hopeless that it had to introduce a Crown minerals amendment bill to fix the mistakes they saw.So I'm proud to be standing with all parties in Parliament tonight and voting for this legislation but let's keep our eye on the big issue which is the issue of climate change and the issue of making sure we've got a robust regime and sustainable industries in New Zealand. But let's keep our eye on the issue and actually look at the facts and make sure that we do protect those farmers and the school which is within 500 metres of an oil and gas facility right now today in Taranaki—which wouldn't be allowed across the Ditch in New South Wales. Let's keep our eye on those big issues as we debate this small technical amendment which is albeit a step forward. Kia ora.