Turei Metiria: Address in Reply 
Turei Metiria: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:424] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 I would love to address the issues raised by Russell Fairbrother but time and circumstances prevent me from doing so—except to say that his view that the common law would have provided even less for Maori than the Foreshore and Seabed Act provides is quite frankly completely wrong. I look forward to taking another opportunity to demonstrate how that is so. 
On the West Coast of the South Island which is one of our most beautiful areas in this country and where tourism provides one of the biggest economic opportunities there are two examples of threatened indigenous species that may be lost or irreparably damaged by the human pursuit of profit over the environment—the Hector’s dolphin and the giant New Zealand snail whose name I cannot and will not even try to pronounce. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes the great New Zealand land snail! 
First I want to talk about the Hector’s dolphin a quintessentially New Zealand icon. Recently the West Coast Regional Council decided not to notify a resource consent application by Seafield Resources Ltd to prospect for gold and other minerals in the West Coast seabed—partly a result I might say of the Foreshore and Seabed Act. Only a few thousand Hector’s dolphins are left on the coast. It is the smallest sea-living dolphin and is the rarest oceanic species. Hector’s dolphins are extremely vulnerable to human impacts and fishing technologies. They use eco-location to locate their prey and to communicate and they live within the 8500 square kilometres covered by the Seafield Resources prospecting application. 
This application by a company that is owned in part by De Beers an international mining company will use a number of grab sampling techniques and seismic testing to hunt for gold right within the habitat of the endangered Hector’s dolphins. Those sampling techniques involve taking samples off the seabed which may include extracting parts of the dolphins’ habitat and food sources dumping the waste and debris of sea life killed in the sampling process then smothering the area into which it is dumped. The seismic testing could cause serious disruption to the dolphins’ communications and hunting systems. Studies overseas link the use of seismic testing with whale strandings and disruption to fish breeding habits. 
Gill-nets are of course the greatest threat to Hector’s dolphins and we urge the Minister of Fisheries to ensure that the Threat Management Plan for Hector’s dolphins which was promised before the election contains stringent mandatory restrictions on the use of gill-nets. Only a few weeks ago four Hector’s dolphins were found dead on the coast. They had evidently been caught in gill-nets. We cannot continue to allow that fishing method given its undeniably destructive impact on this fragile species. 
We must also control and prohibit other human activities within the habitat of the endangered species that have the potential to kill or seriously threaten them. Hence the Green Party calls on the Government to prohibit any seabed mining or prospecting such as that sought by Seafield Resources within any significant habitat of an endangered species. 
On the West Coast there is also an application by Solid Energy New Zealand to engage in a purposeful process to render the largest New Zealand land snail entirely extinct. The “Augustus” snail—that is part of its name—an indigenous species absolutely protected by the Wildlife Act lives only on a small section of the Stockton plateau north-east of Westport. This is an area where Solid Energy has a coalmining licence. It wants to move the snail population by use of a digger. Clearly it does not care that it is likely to cause the absolute extinction of the species by using that technique. Solid Energy’s cynical use of the law in order to get its way is an absolute disgrace. 
Despite the efforts of Solid Energy and Seafield Resources the West Coast Regional Council and communities on the coast are fighting against the drive for profits based on the destruction of New Zealand’s native species. Across the country there are protests and community actions to support the coasters and the ecology of that precious coast. When species are gone they are gone forever. We must not knowingly allow them to become extinct in this country in the 21st century. We have no right to steal them from our descendants.