Smith Nick: Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Nick: Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15572. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister of Conservation): I moveThat the Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill be now read a second time. We have just come from debating the Prime Minister’s statement in which he outlined the ambition of his Government to create a record number of marine reserves this year and it is entirely appropriate that the House now works on progressing three very substantive marine reserves covering 430000 hectares in the subantarctic area.Gareth Hughes: Smaller than the oil blocks.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I hear interjections from the Green Party. There is sort of the view that the bigger gains that are made for conservation and the environment are made by the political left. Let me put Mr Gareth Hughes correct. The Marine Reserves Act which was a world leader was passed in 1971 by a National Government. The very first marine reserve created in New Zealand was in 1976: the Leigh reserve north of Auckland. Of the 34 marine reserves that have been created in New Zealand the vast bulk of them have been created by National administrations and we are proud of that. I would also point out that in the term of this Government we passed very important legislation to put in place proper environmental regulation of our exclusive economic zone. So this Government—Moana Mackey: It’s not proper.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Well I hear Moana Mackey from the opposite side interject and say that she questions that legislation. I remind that member that she and the Greens sat in this Parliament for 9 years allowed deep-sea drilling and did not raise a finger—Moana Mackey: None of it happened under a Labour Government.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yes it did. There was deep-sea drilling for 9 years during Labour’s Government with no environmental regulation and there was not a squeak from the Green Party during that period which really does expose the double standards that we witness in some of the arguments about the marine space. But I am absolutely pleased that this bill receives the very wide support of Parliament and I want to acknowledge the good work that the Local Government and Environment Committee under Nicky Wagner’s very able leadership has made to this bill.I would remind the House that the Subantarctic Islands do have World Heritage status. It is actually a status that I was involved in establishing in the 1990s when I was also the Minister of Conservation. What this Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill does is enable—through the collaborative process that was set up back in 2008 which provided a report to Ministers in 2010—us to proceed with the agreement of the key stakeholders that participated in that forum on the creation of these new marine reserves in the Antipodes Islands the Bounty Islands and Campbell Island.This Government does believe that the best way forward with issues like marine conservation is not the very long the very protracted and the very divisive sorts of arguments that we have seen in places like Akaroa but by actually getting stakeholders working together in the collaborative way that has delivered five proposed marine reserves on the West Coast and these three marine reserves here. Another issue for the Government to work through this year is the proposals for marine protection in Kaikōura that have come from the Te Korowai o Te Tai o Marokura process. So I do want to acknowledge the strength of that collaborative process which has brought about these proposals.There have been amendments proposed by the select committee in respect of the review of the reserve around the Campbell Island area. I think the changes that have been recommended by the select committee make good sense. There has been the issue of the timing—whether it should be 5 years before the review of the area in Campbell Island takes place. That has been shortened by the select committee to 3 years. Given the fact that 18 months have passed in between that makes good sense and the Government will be supporting those changes. I would also acknowledge the improvements that have been made to the bill on some of the details.I know that with every environmental initiative that this Government makes—or frankly that the previous Government made—the Green Party always says that it is never enough. There is nothing new about that. I am going to have a heart attack the day the Green Party ever gets up and says: “Yes that’s good and that’s enough and we’re satisfied.” It has not happened once—it has not happened once—with any initiativemade by a Labour or a National Government in the 16-odd years that the Green Party has been part of this Parliament.The last point that I want to make on this bill is to just note the very special ecology of the three Subantarctic Islands areas that we are looking to protect here. It is true that the ocean environment is the new frontier for conservation. Seventy percent of the species that are endemic to New Zealand—70 percent—are not actually on land where all the terrestrial concentration has been. They are actually out there in the marine environment and that is why this Government is giving a particular focus to marine conservation. It is my intention which I want to give the House notice of to table a Supplementary Order Paper during the Committee stage just to note that we want to bring the reserve in as quickly as possible after the passage of the bill. Other than that I think it is in good shape and I commend the bill to the House.