Sage Eugenie: Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6639. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. I am pleased to take a short call on the Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill. I congratulate Jacqui Dean on bringing this bill to the House because it increases and implements a much more consistent approach to penalties for offences that are committed under the Conservation Act the National Parks Act the Reserves Act the Wildlife Act and the Wild Animal Control Act. One of the areas where it does this obviously is by increasing the penalties for offences under this conservation legislation for the smuggling of native wildlife. That is why the Green Party will be supporting the bill because the existing penalties have not increased for some time and they are out of step with the prices that are being paid internationally for wildlife that is smuggled out of Aotearoa and then sold internationally. There has been a range of court cases where it is quite clear that the existing penalties of up to a $100000 fine and 6 months in jail are not providing a deterrent. So we are pleased that the bill will increase the offending penalties where it has been done by individuals for commercial purposes or by a company—and that is a higher penalty than for offending by an individual. 
But I am also somewhat bemused by this bill because it is a member’s bill yet in September the Minister of Conservation said that the Government would be introducing the Wildlife (Smuggling Deterrence) Amendment Bill later this year and the object of that bill was to increase the maximum penalties for smuggling wildlife such as tuatara parrots and geckos— 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: Conspiracy—there’s something tricky going on here! 
EUGENIE SAGE 
: So yes Mr Bridges what is going on here? Because the Minister when she announced the intention to introduce that Government bill said that the penalties would be increased to up to 5 years’ imprisonment and/or a $300000 fine. So I would be interested in the comments from the member Jacqui Dean in reply about what happens when the Government does introduce the bill that has been promised. How does this bill improve on what the Government and Cabinet had already agreed and is it potentially duplicating that? Nevertheless we welcome the bill and we will be voting for it. 
As other speakers on the Opposition benches have highlighted this is a good bill but the Government is not investing adequately in conservation. We have seen a $54 million cut to the Department of Conservation’s budget and in the annual report of the department released in September it showed that there were 114 fewer front-line staff in 2011-12 than in 2009-10 and a total of 181 fewer permanent staff. That reduction in front-line staff gives the lie to the Government’s promises and claims that its slashing of the public sector budgets is not reducing people on the front line. 
Of course it is the people on the front line—the Department of Conservation staff who are out maintaining tracks and huts controlling wildings and willows doing predator control and providing advice to hunters trampers and international visitors—who are the front line against smuggling because it is often those staff and members of the public who are alert to suspicious activities. People go to visit the quite compliant sites and habitats where species like the jewelled gecko are found and then alert the wildlife enforcement group and warranted officers who can step in and take action. So I pay on behalf of the Green Party enormous tribute to those front-line Department of Conservation staff particularly in area offices who are being threatened by their substantial second round of restructuring which means that they are all going to have to apply for their jobs. 
It was a senior investigator in the wildlife enforcement group who described wildlife smugglers as “greedy people without any consideration for animals”. That is certainly true where these people are snatching species like the beautiful jewelled gecko from their habitats stuffing them in small plastic containers and taking them overseas. It is these lizard fauna particularly distinctive species like the jewelled gecko which have been targeted because of their bright green colouring and that very unusual diamond pattern. Of that species there are only about 5000 individuals left and they now confined to small areas of Otago and Canterbury particularly on the peninsulas. Habitat loss and predation have affected them and poaching is a huge impact and has caused several of the populations to crash. So the Green Party supports this bill increasing the penalties for those individuals who are taking these geckos out of their habitat.