Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Sometimes I think I have heard enough and then I hear something new. I hear that the colonisation of the coast is being committed by a dangerous invasive species and I hear that the Associate Minister for the Environment has put up a bill that suspends the assessment of the environment Acts so that a former vandal who took a chainsaw to a mangrove could satisfy her desire to cut up the coast. The ecological ignorance that has been displayed in this House tonight is remarkable—it is remarkable. Those members do not understand anything about our coast. They have written a bill without proper scrutiny and without proper process so that they can facilitate people cutting up mangroves—as Sandra Goudie did—as if they are the enemy of the environment. Mangrove is mānawa—it means heart as the Hon Nanaia Mahuta said. Why does it mean heart? Because it is the heart of where the fish actually breed. We have a crisis in fisheries because we have destroyed so many areas for coastal fish to breed and these people want to cut it all up without due process. It is fantastic for them but all it does is show that National members are the enemy of the environment and that they allowed their Associate Minister for the Environment to bring this bill to the House is absolutely extraordinary—absolutely amazing. I really find it extraordinary. I live in the Hauraki—Tīkapa Moana. My family has been there for quite a few hundred years. I know the Gulf and I know the other coasts and I know the people just like those members claim to. There are going to be many people joining our campaign against this bill because it does not represent the ecological passion that drives our communities up there. The coast is affected not by mangroves but by poor land uses. So if we want to fix the problems what do we do? Do we attack the coast with a chainsaw or do we fix the sediment that is blocking up the harbours and changing areas that were previously open coast? Those members have got absolutely no ecological common sense whatsoever. They say: Let's attack this stuff get the right to attack it and then we won't deal with the land use issues." We have got some very poorly managed forestry in our area but these guys never mentioned that because they do not even know anything about the area. They have got no idea about the lack of buffer zones in forestry or the way in which particularly the Wharekawa and Whangamata have been affected by poor forestry management which has led to excessive sediment. If you take away the mangroves where does the sediment go people? Into that magical space called away—out into the sea where we do not have to think about it. If you are a vandal it does not matter that the ecosystem is intimately connected—land and sea. They will just take out the barrier. The other thing that is virtually madness is there is this thing they have not heard of called climate change. Do you know what happened—Hon Simon Bridges: You don't even have a spokesman. CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: We are all spokespeople on climate change Simon—all of us who understand the crisis. If you take this stuff off the coast you open the land up to the risks that come with sea level rise and storm surges and if they knew anything about climate change—which clearly they do not—they would realise that the mangroves are a buffer. They are not only a home for fisheries; they are also a buffer. If you want to modify your environment in some places without a chainsaw which is perfectly legitimate—you do not have to go in there without the law and attack the coast like a bunch of Visigoths—it would be quite good if you followed the letter of the law instead of creating laws to undermine it. I have got 27 seconds to point out that clause 5 says: "The mangrove management plan may include any other matter that the council considers desirable or necessary to give effect to the purposes of this Act." That is vandalism. That is legal vandalism. I know why this is written in here—"any other matter"—and you are going to get one iwi representative on a committee to discuss this? You guys have got no idea—sorry Mr Assistant Speaker not you. But them—they do not know what they are doing with this bill. It is ridiculous and we will fight it to the end. Kia ora."