Donald Rod: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Donald Rod: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6289] 
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
: We have just witnessed an extraordinary situation in this Chamber. The establishment parties Labour National and their hangers-on have all just come out against sustainable development. I have to ask the Minister in the chair Judith Tizard how a Government that claims to be an international leader in sustainability can oppose the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise organisation’s taking into account such things as the health and safety of people and communities. How could it oppose it taking into account the need to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations and implementing the principles of the Treaty of the Waitangi? 
I particularly ask the Minister in the chair those questions because she was at the launch of the Sustainable Development for New Zealand: Programme of Action in January in Auckland. She even put out a press release in which she said that the sustainable development programme of action had benefits for Auckland. More than most Ministers she should understand what this bill needs to do to ensure that the Government’s economic delivery arm actually operates consistently with the Government’s whole-of-Government approach towards triple bottom line accountability and towards sustainable development. I hope that she will give serious consideration to the amendments that the Green Party is putting up for this part. 
Before I talk about the amendments I have to say I am very disappointed that I was denied the opportunity of taking a second call on Part 1 especially as we had supported a part by part debate. We were expecting a couple of calls especially as we are the only real opposition to this bill. I think the Greens and ACT are the only parties voting against it despite all the amendments that National is putting up. 
I turn to the Greens amendments and say to the Government that it is not too late to take some steps in the right direction. The starting point is of course clause 9 “Functions”. It is an interesting clause to say the least. The only time the words “sustainable” and “environment” appear in the same sentence is in clause 9(1)(a). Unfortunately the words are not in the right order as that paragraph is all about contributing to “a supportive environment for sustainable economic development”. I must say that is one improvement that I managed to achieve at the select committee; this bill had originally been about sustainable economic growth but we have got the word “development” in there. But the bill is still focused on the economy. It does not recognise that we need to keep the economy society the environment and for that matter our culture operating in harmony to have genuine sustainable development. So our amendment to clause 9(1)(a) is to omit the word “economic”. That does not mean we are opposed to the economy. We are just saying that sustainable development encompasses the economy as well as the environment and as well as society and we invite the Minister to support that amendment. 
We also encourage her to support our second amendment which is to insert the words “the community economic sector” into subparagraph (i) of clause 9(1)(a). If anyone understands the importance of adding the community economic sector it is this Minister who is the Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage. She understands the importance of the community sector the creative sector. That sector should have the chance to be part of the collaborative networks and partnerships between central government local government and the other players in ensuring that we have a vibrant sustainable economy. 
The same logic applies to the next two amendments where we want the words “local communities” inserted and also the words “relevant environmental tangata whenua and community groups”. All the amendments are designed to encourage the sense of wholeness that we need when we are developing our society. There is no point in our developing one part the economy at the expense of others parts—the environment and society. 
There is one key clause that I want to expand on and I will touch on it now just in case somebody replaces the Chair and I miss out on a second call. I want to touch on how vitally important it is that the functions of the new organisation embrace import substitution. At the moment the bill provides for the new Crown entity to contribute to increased exports from and investments in New Zealand and that is very fine. There are a lot of exports that we would like to see encouraged particularly in the organic sector. But this bill flies on one wing. This Crown entity will be trying to fly on one wing because there is absolutely nothing in this bill to provide the balance to encourage import substitution. So we have put an amendment to add paragraphs after clause 9(1)(d). The amendment would enable the new body to actively passionately and forcefully contribute to increased import substitution.