File photo. Photo: 123RF
The exploration and extraction of petroleum in New Zealand will be more accessible from this week with the government's Crown Minerals Amendment Bill having received a third and final reading in Parliament this afternoon.
The Bill (soon to be an Act pending Royal Assent), is the brainchild of Minister for Resources Shane Jones. It removes the 2018 law passed by the Ardern government which limited new petroleum exploration permits to onshore Taranaki.
On Tuesday, the Clerk announced the commencement of the third reading of the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill, but rather than beginning that final debate, a last-minute motion from Jones meant the Bill was sent back to the committee stage in what is called a recommittal.
Recommittals, although not unprecedented, don't happen all that often, and if they do occur, it's usually when a member's bill is being considered. (Member's Bills without the significant drafting resource possessed by a government are more likely to have oddities that need tidying up.)
The process of returning a bill to an earlier stage enables the bill to receive further refinement. This may be necessary for several reasons - perhaps a fault or loophole has been discovered, or the government has had a last-minute change of mind regarding a specific provision. In any case, to make these changes, the bill is sent back to the Committee of the whole House stage, where amendments can be put forward.
After reportedly spotting a loophole, Jones had tabled a significant amendment at 5pm on Monday which was then debated less than 24 hours later in Tuesday's recommittal. The change itself related to who pays the cost of decommissioning and cleaning up oil wells once production has ceased.
The amendment paper, which was successfully included in the bill, places the power for determining who pays for decommissioning costs in the hands of the Minister for Resources and the Minister of Finance (currently Shane Jones), replacing the model of trailing liability. This is the third policy iteration within the current amendment bill.
The Opposition spent most of Tuesday evening drilling into the last-minute switch, trying their best to extract answers from the Minister about why it was decided and who he had consulted with about it.
To listen to some of those exchanges, click the link to the audio version of this story at the top of the page.
*RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk.
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