Carter Chris: Budget Debate 
Carter Chris: Budget Debate 
[Volume:618;Page:13602] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the Government in support of our Budget—a Budget that has delivered for New Zealanders. We listened to the previous speaker a former Minister of Transport talk for 10 minutes about how little this Government has done for Auckland. Well that must have had Aucklanders rolling in their seats because what did the previous National Government do for Auckland between 1990 and 1999? Absolutely nothing! Our $1.6 billion—and I will repeat that figure; our $1.6 billion—that we have assigned to Auckland’s transport needs was dismissed. He dismissed it out of hand. What did he do while he was the Minister of Transport? I am privileged among other things to be Minister of Local Government. I am proud to say that a bill will be introduced into this House next week that will establish a new governance structure for Auckland’s transport needs. It provides for a radical overhaul so that we can focus on the city’s transport needs through the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. 
Recently I was at the Auckland Mayoral Forum and none other than John Banks the Mayor of Auckland City said: “No Government has engaged more with Auckland than this Government. I am a Tory. I will always be a Tory but I have to say Minister that no Government has engaged with Auckland like the Labour-led Government has done.” That was praise indeed from Mayor Banks and I accept it with gratitude and appreciation for his courtesy and honesty. Mr Banks has seen money flowing into Auckland. He has seen the Westhaven Marina saved for the people of Auckland because this Government took the radical steps of funding it and helping Auckland City to buy it. He has seen the double-tracking of the rail line out west. He has seen this Government delivering the goods because that is what it has done. As Minister of Local Government I am proud to be here with my colleagues Judith Tizard and the Prime Minister and the rest of the Government working to solve Auckland’s problems. 
The previous speaker talked about this country being overtaxed. We were told at question time today that in terms of our top tax bracket only one country is less taxed than New Zealand. That country is Mexico. If we cut our taxes we will be cutting our services. We will be stopping the money that will fix up Auckland’s transport. We will cut off the funds that did things like save Air New Zealand. The Government spent $800 million to save our national airline. Had it collapsed our tourism industry would have been destroyed. That is the sort of action one can do when one is in a careful Government that uses resources for the good of the people. Anyway those are actions that took place before this Budget. This Budget delivers in a whole range of areas particularly for families. But what I would like to talk about tonight is another area that I am responsible for and that is conservation. 
This Government has delivered for conservation. There is a $79 million capacity package to fund the evolution of a network of parks and reserves in the high country of the South Island. In 1998 the 304 families in the high country who hold Crown pastoral leases for farming asked the Government to set up a process whereby they could freehold that land with part of it going into the conservation estate—the sensitive important environmental areas—and with the lands that were suitable for agriculture going to farmers. Of course the previous National Government did not resource that process. Last year a delegation from Federated Farmers came to see me as Minister of Conservation to say that there needed to be resourcing so that the tenure review process which two-thirds of those farmers had entered could be speeded up and carried out effectively. We delivered a $79 million package to do just that—something that farmers requested. I think there will be some excellent outcomes not the least of them being a new network of parks and reserves in the high country of the South Island. That will create enormous recreational and tourism opportunities in New Zealand as well as protect those very sensitive environments and the biodiversity that is found there. 
Just recently I commissioned a study by the Department of Conservation on the impact of the conservation lands on the economy of the West Coast of the South Island. That study revealed that some 1800 people on the West Coast directly owe their jobs to the conservation estate and as well some $221 million goes into the local economy. That demonstrates that conservation lands are important not only for recreational opportunities and for biodiversity but are incredibly important as an economic resource. I would argue that the conservation estate which covers one-third of our country is the greatest economic asset that we have. It brings millions of tourists into this country and provides great opportunities for eco-tourism activities around it. The conservation estate is of course a sustainable resource that will be there forever and it only gets better with time as the land recovers from the impact where sometimes very unsuitable farming practices were carried out. 
As part of that process I have set up the Public Wildlands Programme which has seen a series of strategic purchases sometimes of those high country estates that are in critical areas where we want to create our parks and also in places like Kaikoura Island in the Hauraki Gulf which the Government recently purchased for $10 million. I am very proud of that programme. We have added 200000 hectares in the last year to the conservation estate—that is Molesworth Station Birchwood Station Clent Hills Station Canaan Downs Waikawau Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula Knuckle Point up north Kaikoura Island and I could go on. Those are things that future generations of New Zealanders will thank this Government for because it is an investment. It guarantees public access and public ownership and preserves and enhances the recreational and biodiversity opportunities of those sites. If I have done nothing else in the time that I have been a Minister and a member of Parliament those land purchases for future generations of New Zealanders will be the thing that I am most proud of. 
The Budget also has some other very interesting things. Another very exciting project which some may have glimpsed me announcing on television a few weeks ago was the $7 million we have set aside to make two islands off Fiordland National Park—Secretary Island and Resolution Island—pest free. Those two islands one of them 20000 hectares in size and the other one 11000 hectares will be a really incredibly exciting project because they will be the largest on-shore islands that anyone anywhere in the world has ever attempted to make pest free. If the Department of Conservation is successful in doing that it will be cutting edge of interest internationally and will give us the technology and the experience to address the incredible challenges that our native biodiversity faces. 
In no other country in the world has the natural environment been more impacted on by pests than here in New Zealand. We were as members of this House are undoubtedly aware the only country in the world with a sizeable land mass that was without mammals other than the three bat species and marine mammals. So the introduction of pests—stoats rats weasels ferrets goats pigs and so on—as well as all the plant pests that have been introduced gorse broom and so the list goes on has had an incredible impact on our native biodiversity. We are barely holding the line on biodiversity protection but this Government has funded the preservation of our biodiversity like nobody else did. The Department of Conservation’s budget since 1999 has been increased by 40 percent. It is still barely holding the line but it is a 40 percent increase which is an incredible commitment to future generations and to the future of this country in relation to preserving our biodiversity. I am really pleased about the $7 million for the two island projects in Fiordland: Secretary and Resolution islands. 
One of the other criticisms of the Department of Conservation has been that it is somehow a poor land manager. It is a myth that is often repeated in this Chamber. I could dispute that myth with science and facts but what we have recognised is that as the tenure review process takes place in the high country of the South Island more land will come under the management of the Department of Conservation. In this Budget $18 million has been set aside to manage those new lands for weed control and to deal with pests. We have put the money where the problem is. It is a little bit like what Mr Williamson was saying before about Auckland transport when he asked what the Government had done about that. We have done heaps. We have not only talked the talk but we have walked the walk. We have taken action and that is also what has happened in conservation. 
Wilding pines are another big issue as is rural fire control. Both those issues have received extra funding. One thing that is often forgotten in this House when the Department of Conservation is being criticised is that it is the major rural fire service. It helps farmers. We will put $7 million over the next 4 years into improving the department’s firefighting capacity. Another $700000 has gone into controlling wilding pines. For those who are bit mystified as to the term “wilding pines” I will explain that they occur when trees that were introduced into the high country as shelter belts spread their seed everywhere and destroy the iconic landscapes beloved not just by New Zealand urban dwellers but particularly by high-country farmers. It is a very important issue. 
We have delivered the resources to look after our environment and as the Minister of Conservation I am incredibly proud of what this Government has done to preserve New Zealand for future generations.