Tanczos Nandor: Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill — First Reading 
Tanczos Nandor: Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3588] 
NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 I want to begin by thanking members for all of their contributions during this debate. I want to echo the words of my co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons when she acknowledged particularly those parties that have indicated their support for this bill to go to select committee because— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the member— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek leave for the member to finish his right of reply so that the bill can be wrapped up. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Leave has been sought for that course to be followed. Is there any objection? 
Gordon Copeland 
: I am sorry but I could not quite hear what the member said. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I am seeking leave for Nandor Tanczos to be able to finish his right of reply and for the vote to be held prior to the rising of the House for the dinner break. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Leave has been sought for that course to be followed. Is there any objection? There is not. 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: Waste is an issue that needs to be taken seriously and I appreciate the comments made by all the members who said that this bill should go to a select committee. The bill has things in it that perhaps need to be addressed but let us get it to a select committee discuss it and give the public an opportunity to have their say on it. I think that that is an important consideration. 
I thank Steve Chadwick for her comments. Her contribution was a very useful one. She said the Government is making progress and that the bill is a convenient legislative vehicle by which these matters can be taken to a select committee so a start can be made on working them through. She said the bill is broadly compatible with where the Government wants to go and that a significant amount of work has been done. I appreciated those comments. 
I also appreciated the comments made by Marian Hobbs who I think hit the nail on the head when she said that these are the big issues that need to be discussed. So let us get them to the select committee where they can be discussed and worked through because I do agree that there are issues that need to be teased out and worked through. 
I want to thank Te Ururoa Flavell for the comments he made and the Maori Party for its support. Again Mr Flavell pointed out the importance of the issues for tangata whenua all over the country. I have had discussions with people from Ngati Wai who are having real trouble getting some recycling happening around Whangarei and are facing resistance from the council there. Hopefully this bill will help work some of those issues through. He pointed out the inadequacy of the voluntary measures and the need to have some teeth—which of course is what this bill intends—and the contribution this will make towards the genuine progress indicators. 
Peter Brown pointed out in his comments that he had some serious reservations about part of the bill and I acknowledge that. But I thank New Zealand First for supporting the bill going to the select committee to allow us to work some of these things through. 
I was disappointed to hear that United Future will not be supporting the bill. Although I did provide a summary of the bill I am not sure Gordon Copeland fully understood all of its provisions. For example he was concerned about the things that were banned to landfill. His opposition was that he wanted waste to be dealt with appropriately and did not think that bans were the way to do that. The point is—and I tried to emphasise this in my first speech—that this would happen only where there was capacity to deal with materials in another way. For example it is totally inappropriate that organic waste should go to landfill. In most cases that waste is the main source of toxic leachate and methane gas out of landfills. So if there is a capacity to deal with organic waste outside of landfill let us make sure that that waste does not go to landfill. To me that seems pretty obvious. 
I refer to the issues around extended producer responsibility. Jeanette Fitzsimons made the point about why it is so important that we actually provide a basis to design waste out of the system and that producers when they are designing their products actually take account of the effect of their products when it comes to recycling disassembly and the like. So it seems to me unfortunate that United Future took the position it did. 
I want to refer to the UMR Insight Ltd poll published by the Business Council for Sustainable Development which pointed out that 49 percent of voters with a current voting preference say they would be more likely to be attracted to a party that places an emphasis on preserving New Zealand’s quality of life. Peter Nielson has said that the message to smart policymakers is that voter support can be driven to parties that propose to do more about waste reduction. Fourteen percent of voters say that this would make them much more likely to switch their vote. 
In that light it is interesting to consider the words of Nick Smith to the National Party lower North Island regional conference where he talked about National’s need to communicate to New Zealanders a commitment to protecting the environment. He criticised the Government in a number of ways including its position on waste but then decided to oppose this bill without demonstrating any solutions on how we are to address this problem. It just demonstrates that for all Nick Smith’s fine environmental words the reality is that National is determined to do absolutely nothing about it. 
If National wants to be taken seriously on the issue of environment then it has to put up some solutions and understand that MMP changes the way things work. One can support legislation going to a select committee and move amendments both there and in the Committee of the whole House to change the way a bill works. I thank all members and you Mr Deputy Speaker. I am pleased to see that this bill will be going to the select committee. Let us work it out there.