Hughes Gareth: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10271. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. What we are seeing is this Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2013 Amendment Bill being sneaked through under urgency. This egregious clause 14 is being sneaked through under urgency to amend the Anadarko amendment—also snuck through without any New Zealand Bill of Rights Act or select committee scrutiny through a Supplementary Order Paper and amendment. This isterrible lawmaking. I believe it is lawmaking at its worst. That is what the Law SocietyLawTalk magazine is talking about.But what we are doing right now with clause 14 is something we possibly do not even have the legal ability to do. We do not have the jurisdiction to enforce criminal provisions against protesters to protect one specific industry on the high sea. I am sure members know and I am sure the Minister of Energy and Resources knows because he is the lawyer in the Chamber that the high sea is considered to be an inch above the seabed on the extended continental shelf past our exclusive economic zone. This extends out to 350 nautical miles. The reason is that a country is given the rights with the royalties paid to the International Seabed Authority to exploit the minerals on the seabed. But the water column and the sea are not considered part of New Zealand’s jurisdiction.We have heard numerous quotes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website and from the Ministry for the Environment website showing it is clear that we do not have jurisdiction to control shipping. But this is exactly what this Government is trying to do and to sneak it through under Budget urgency at a quarter to midnight. I think it is an outrage.I think the question for the Minister is this: was he even aware he was doing this? It is not in the explanatory note of the bill. Did he even know he was taking this huge step to extend international jurisdiction unilaterally over 1.7 million square kilometres? I believe this is going to have international ramifications. You are going to see the North Koreans try this example you are going to see Japan—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): No no I’m not. No I’m not.GARETH HUGHES: You are right Mr Chair. We are going to see countries like Japan and North Korea trying this on. The world is going to see Japan trying to enforce non-interference zones around its ships trying to do its whaling. North Korea is going to do it. I think this is going to be an internationally significant precedent and I do not think the Minister is even aware he is doing it.Did he get a legal opinion from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade? Is the Minister of Foreign Affairs even aware that Simon Bridges the Minister under urgency is sneaking through a massive jurisdictional grab to extend New Zealand’s rights over it? This is likely going to be challenged I believe at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea at Hamburg. It could be challenged in New Zealand’s courts and again we are doing it all without select committee scrutiny. It is an absolute outrage.But why are we doing it? What happened last week? Which is the first oil company wanting to apply for a permit over the continental shelf? Of course it is the China National Offshore Oil Corporation which last week with Shell announced it wanted to get a permit. This is a company that on its own website describes itself as a mega State asset of the Chinese Government. This company wants to get a permit from Mr Bridges over the continental shelf. I want Mr Bridges to tell this Parliament whether he got a call from either Shell or the China National Offshore Oil Corporation the State-owned oil driller of the Chinese Communist Government. Did he get a call from them saying “Hey Mr Bridges I’m sorry but with your Anadarko amendment you covered only the territories in the EEZ. The poor drafting used didn’t cover the continental shelf where we want to go prospect for oil with Shell.”?Mr Bridges you have not answered a single question. My question to the Minister is this: were you aware and had your office been contacted? What we are seeing is a travesty of justice with a poor egregious clause 14 being rushed through under Budget urgency. This ain’t a good look for this Government.