Mr Bridges has proposed new offences, under the Crown Minerals Act, which attract maximum fines up to $50,000 for an individual, 12 months' jail or $100,000 for a body corporate, for damaging or interfering with mining structures, vessels or their activities - but primarily targeting offences , on the high seas, beyond New Zealand's 12-mile territorial limit.
Mr Bridges defended his seemingly anti-protester stance, also denying oil company interests had lobbied him for the change. Brazilian oil giant Petrobras last year pulled out of New Zealand, for mainly economic reasons at home, but following a flotilla of protesters harassing a seismic research vessel in the open sea.
''No. Not at all. I was not lobbied by any businesses,'' Mr Bridges said from Wellington.
He highlighted concerns of safety at sea, and while conceeding there was no loss of limb or life, or damage to vessels, costs of the protests at sea were high.
''There were massive costs to Petrobras and the Crown, because of what happened in dangerous, open rough seas,'' he said, in an interview with the Otago Daily Times.
Although National has pulled no punches in promoting the mining and offshore minerals sector as having the ability to underpin economic recovery, the ministry has attracted much public scrutiny and has passed from Gerry Brownlee to Hekia Parata, to Phil Heatley and Mr Bridges during the past four years.
Mr Bridges said he was ''engrossed'' in the portfolio which, with power generation, renewable sources and underexplored mineral resources, ''has a major benefit for all the country''.
Oil and gas sector lobbying is intense, albeit out of public view, but last year that sector was quietly bypassed for proposed increases in royalties and taxes being considered for the resource sector in general.
Mr Bridges said no tax incentives or tax breaks were being considered by the Government at present, but hinted that proposed changes to the Resource Management Act would likely have an impact on onshore mining operations.
The Greens' energy spokesman, Gareth Hughes, yesterday claimed legal opinion was that the amendment could breach the New Zealand Bill of Rights and international law, and has undergone no public scrutiny.
A surprise joint statement was released yesterday - which included civil rights activist, former prime minister and constitutional expert Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Peter Williams QC - criticising the proposed amendment, which would allow the Defence Force to arrest and detain anti-mining protesters beyond the territorial limit.
The activists' statement said Mr Bridges' new law was ''a sledgehammer designed to attack peaceful protest at sea''.
''It is being bundled through Parliament without proper scrutiny, despite its significant constitutional, democratic and human rights implications,'' The New Zealand Herald reported.
Mr Bridges countered that public scrutiny would see open ''vigorous debate'' in Parliament next week ''with the relevant matters thrashed out''.
Labour Energy and Resources spokesperson Moana Mackey, labelled the proposal an ''ill-conceived ban on protesting against oil and gas exploration'' and an attempt to ''legislate away opposition'' to the Government's plan to ''dramatically increase offshore drilling''.
She said Mr Bridges should follow the advice of the High Court, which had ruled on the matter, and simply extend the scope of the Maritime Transport Act into the Exclusive Economic Zone.
''It would cover dangerous and reckless behaviour by all vessels, not just protest boats,'' she said.
Mr Bridges said there was ''ambiguity'' in the law beyond the 12-mile territorial limit and legislative change to the Crown Minerals Act was required, because ''fundamental human rights [to protest] had turned into serious criminal wrong-doing''.
The activists' statement was also signed by Maori leader Rikirangi Gage, whose eastern Bay of Plenty iwi, Te Whanua a Apanui, organised the Petrobras protest flotilla in the Raukumara Basin last year, Greenpeace, WWF, Forest and Bird, Sir Ngatata Love, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and Peace Squadron founder George Armstrong.
