Financial Review Debate — Ministry for the Environment

The mission for the Ministry for the Environment is environmental stewardship for a prosperous New Zealand, and I believe that it is truly delivering on that goal, with three significant environmental firsts in the last year. The ministry is strongly focused on improving New Zealand’s freshwater management and it has led comprehensive reform in this area.

Based on the Land and Water Forum, which in itself was a real breakthrough in terms of getting long-overdue action on water, the Ministry for the Environment has developed the first ever National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and now a new national objectives framework for fresh water. This framework is scientifically backed and will deliver real reform for freshwater management. It will support communities to set freshwater objectives and water quality bottom lines to preserve our ecosystem and human health. I just want to note that the numeric values that inform the framework and bottom lines have been provided by over 60 freshwater scientists from both the public and the private sectors and from academia. These values have been tested against a reference group of water users, so they are practical and sensible initiatives. The framework will provide a solid platform for maintaining and improving water quality in all our rivers, our lakes, and our wetlands. This is something that I think all New Zealanders will support.

Another first for the ministry is the work behind the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act, which we passed last year. New Zealand now, for the very first time, has a legislative framework to ensure environmental protection for our oceans. This is essential regulation and is long overdue. Although there has been an oil and gas industry operating in New Zealand waters for over 50 years, there has never been any protection, and it is absolutely time to introduce that now. This Act will protect our seas, and National has done it.

But probably the most influential first is the work that the ministry has completed to introduce the new Environmental Reporting Bill, which will come into the House later this week. Without objective long-term monitoring and reporting, it is impossible to make scientifically valid and intelligent decisions about our environment. This bill will provide comprehensive and independent reporting, and that reporting will be analysed by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. The reporting will be on the domains of air, climate and atmosphere, fresh water, marine, and land, with an overlay of biodiversity across all those areas. Finally we will have credible environmental information to underpin our decisions. Too often in this Chamber we debate the quality of the information rather than the actions that could make a significant difference to our environment.

So I want to congratulate the Ministry for the Environment on the work that it has done, as evidenced by these three firsts: the national objectives framework for fresh water, which will improve water quality across the country; the exclusive economic zone legislation to protect our ocean environments; and the new environmental reporting legislation, which will provide scientifically based information to influence future environmental decision making. With these three firsts New Zealand has been gaining a reputation for its innovative approach to bringing together successful environmental and economic policy. That is something that underpins National’s blue-green philosophy, based on our belief that looking after the environment and growing our economy can, and must, go hand in hand for the long-term well-being of all New Zealanders.

Report noted.

Ministry for Primary Industries