I said we would set out to catch up. I committed myself to getting rid of the 1992 permit moratorium as quickly as possible. In some areas nothing has I've still got my colours nailed firmly to the sustainability of the aquatic ecosystem. We all do. Unsustainability has nothing going for it.
Sustainability comes first.
It comes before anything else. Indeed it's my view that as the world's tariff structures are slowly negotiated away, the new trade barriers will be environmental in nature. Questions like these are becoming steadily more important. New Zealand's challenge is to build on the success of the QMS framework and to make sure we have environmental standards that are higher than these new and emerging demands. If our products can clear these non-tariff trade barriers, and the products of other nations cannot, then environmental standards will earn this industry serious money.