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Shane Jones: Resources Minister on lowering royalties to incentivise foreign investors · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Shane Jones is keen to farm native octopus at twenty
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: one after five there's money to be made. He reckons
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: animal right activist groups unsurprisingly matters how at Auckland University
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: for doing a million dollar tax payer funded study into
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the farming of native octopus. The Oceans and Fisheries Minister
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  Speaker 1: with me this morning. Shane, Good morning, thanks, good to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: have you on the phone. Now, can I just before
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  Speaker 1: we get to the octopus, where's your oil and Gas
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: band reversal bill?
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  Speaker 2: At as soon as we pass the various bits of
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  Speaker 2: legislation pertaining to the budget, it's next up. It's all drafted.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: There was a bit of a There were a few
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  Speaker 2: things I had to correct because there was a debate
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  Speaker 2: with the industry and myself over who and how should
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  Speaker 2: the burden of paying for the tidy up after an
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: oil and gas enterprise finishes.
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  Speaker 1: Up the decommissioner.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, got through that sensible place.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Interesting, So you've got you've done your deals, you've
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: got the bill ready to go, and it'll happen after
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  Speaker 1: the budget because it was meant to happen by the
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  Speaker 1: end of last year. Right, So you finally got it
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  Speaker 1: across the line.
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  Speaker 2: That's good tonight, ye, yeah, Well, basically what happened is
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  Speaker 2: the guys from the industry felt that we had taken
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  Speaker 2: an approach which actually disincentivized them spending more money. I
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  Speaker 2: took an approach to protect the revenue base of the country,
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  Speaker 2: worked it through with one of two of the key
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  Speaker 2: senior ministers and look it's drafted and ready to go.
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  Speaker 1: What have you done to allay their fears?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we need to ensure that when decommissioning takes place
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  Speaker 2: that it's done not at the level of the taj Mahal,
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  Speaker 2: but it's comparable with international best practice. But at the
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: same time, if it comes to pass that some of
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the infrastructure has to stay in place, providing that we're
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  Speaker 2: closed off the possibility of spillage of any residual oil
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  Speaker 2: and whatnot. And without sounding too track, common sense rule
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  Speaker 2: the roost.
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  Speaker 1: So what you could leave some platforms out there?
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no no. In other countries around the world,
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  Speaker 2: obviously the platforms disappear. Other countries are exploring were not
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  Speaker 2: those cavernous areas under the seabed, if they're large enough,
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  Speaker 2: whether that can be used in terms of climate change
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  Speaker 2: areas carbon and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 1: But give us and give us a sense, what would
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  Speaker 1: you let stay on the seabed.
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  Speaker 2: Oh look, when we spent the three or four hundred million,
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  Speaker 2: I can't exactly. There's a crowd called tamar and they're
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  Speaker 2: the ones who created the problem three or four years ago.
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  Speaker 2: The Crown ended up absorbing the costs because they fled
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  Speaker 2: like Butter and Kenny Hopson, and we took an approach
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  Speaker 2: at every single thing had to be taken from the
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  Speaker 2: bed of the sea, the foundations, any residual pipework, and
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  Speaker 2: we've left an opportunity for a future minister and the
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  Speaker 2: owners of the assets to meet a high threshold. At
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  Speaker 2: the same time we can make a judgment.
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  Speaker 1: So you could leave at the point which you could
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  Speaker 1: leave the foundations and the pipes in the ground.
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  Speaker 2: Well that's what they do in other parts. All right.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what the Greenies will say about that.
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  Speaker 1: They won't be happy, Shane.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do tend to trigger them. But the fact
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  Speaker 2: of the matter is if we are unable to continually
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  Speaker 2: rather generate an economic saiplus in New Zealand, we're not
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: going to be able to afford the costs of their rhetoric. Anyway,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I'm taking them on next week. They're having a protest
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  Speaker 2: down And what.
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  Speaker 1: About the lowering of the royalties to incentivize foreign companies,
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  Speaker 1: foreign investors? You rule that out.
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  Speaker 2: No, what i'd say is just pay attention during the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: core of the day, That's what i'd say.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So, come on, Shane, look at five twenty five in
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  Speaker 1: the morning. No one's letten let me know.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Hey, hey buddy, don't deprecate yourself.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: No, I'm just kidding. So, but but seriously, that is
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  Speaker 1: that is an active issue, potentially lowering royalties.
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  Speaker 2: Well, now, what i'd say is that what's active is
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  Speaker 2: that if we're four half, we're not happy about using
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  Speaker 2: mountains of coal, then we've got to do things that
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: stir a greater level of interest and boost the risk
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  Speaker 2: taking appetite for the gas industry. And just let's just
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: tie hoduring the course of the day.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, I haven't asked you about octopus. Does it taste nice?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's called Thaki Mutuo. Dungy was an octopus pursuer.
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  Speaker 2: But look what what I was really hoping to check
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  Speaker 2: to you about. No, sorry, yeah, well you're right, it
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  Speaker 2: is nice. I had an auntie who used to sort
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of I know if you go up the island and
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  Speaker 2: I had an auntie. When you've got it, you've belted
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  Speaker 2: it and then you sort of softened it up.
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  Speaker 1: But all right, hey, minister, I've just been told that
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  Speaker 1: I've actually spoken to you for far too long, so
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  Speaker 1: we have to leave it there, I'm afraid, but I
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  Speaker 1: do appreciate you coming on the program, Shane Jones, the
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  Speaker 1: Ocean in Fisheries Minister. For more from Early Edition with
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news Talks.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio