9. Question No. 9—EnvironmentHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel) to the Minister for the EnvironmentQuestion No. 9—Environment9. Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel) to the Minister for the Environment: Has he received a copy of the August 2019 Landcare Research report Impact testing of a proposed suspended sediment attribute: identifying erosion and sediment control mitigations to meet proposed sediment attribute bottom lines and the costs and benefits of those mitigations" and if so does the report state "The Clutha catchment has the largest reduction in level of nitrogen leaching because its entire area is afforested to meet the sediment reduction target"?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Yes and yes but the member misrepresents the report. He makes two fundamental mistakes. The first is that the report is about highly erodible areas not whole catchments as the member suggested. The second is that although the theoretical desktop nationwide model he quotes was prepared it was not applied to this catchment in particular. This theoretical model does not account for glacial river flour or ground-up rock. Fortunately the member will be pleased to learn that the proposed national policy statement specifically provides for the exclusion of rivers carrying glacial flour—which is what the Clutha does—and I refer him to pages 23 and 40 where it says that the attribute on suspended fine sediment does not apply to glacial flour - affected streams and rivers like the Clutha. Hon Scott Simpson: Does the same report on page vii state "Among the selected catchments the Clutha requires the largest area of afforestation (375300 ha)."? Hon DAVID PARKER: You know I was born on the banks of the Clutha in Roxburgh. I've lived up further in the catchment in Queenstown. I've walked the Dart the Rees the Routeburn the Rockburn the Greenstone the Caples the Matukituki the Wilkin and the Young rivers in the Clutha catchment. I still camp most years on the Manuherikia another major tributary of the Clutha. I've rafted the Clutha from Wānaka to Clyde before it was dammed by the National Party and I can assure that member that outside of Fiordland and Mount Aspiring national parks the land is mainly tussock land and rolling open hill country. Indeed ever since the woody scrublands were burnt in pre-European times by Māori chasing moa it has been that way. It has never been predominantly forest and it never will be. Rt Hon Winston Peters: Just to get it clear: is the Clutha a glacial river since yesterday or has it been that way for tens and tens of thousands of years? Hon DAVID PARKER: It has sir and it will be for many many years unless the National Party get their way on climate change policy in which case those glaciers will melt pretty fast. Hon Scott Simpson: Then what is his response to the conclusion at page 61 from the report which says "these are substantial costs incurred by farmers … These high costs may drive some farmers to change their land use or even shift their employment to non-agricultural work."?Hon DAVID PARKER: It appears that the member still does not understand. Regulatory impact statements are informed by reports like that but that was not a report into the national policy statement that is proposed which as I have said excludes from the fine suspended sediment attribute rivers that are carrying glacial flour. Hon Scott Simpson: Why then given that answer is the report linked on the Ministry for the Environment web page that relates to consultation on his freshwater package? Hon DAVID PARKER: Because the regulatory impact statement is a requirement of the underlying legislation in New Zealand. It's prepared independently by the ministry and it referenced the report for the reasons that I've explained.Hon Scott Simpson: Does he still believe that when it comes to water policy New Zealanders can simply trust him because he knows what he's doing?Hon DAVID PARKER: On this occasion I think that member has displayed who's right and who's wrong.Kieran McAnulty: Are there problems with soil sediment not glacial flour from ground-up rocks in some lower South Island rivers?Hon DAVID PARKER: Most certainly there are. Just two weeks ago I had a meeting with the Otago rock lobster industry who provided me with these recent photographs of the Taieri which does have a problem with suspended soil sediment after high rain events. That's a photo of the sediment coming out of the Taieri River. This is a photograph of how far that plume spreads up the coast and these are photographs of what the rock lobster industry says is the effect on the decline of the Otago kelp beds which used to be in the areas that are shown in yellow and have declined to the areas shown in red. These are serious issues and we are determined to address them.Kieran McAnulty: What are high soil sediment levels doing to estuaries in the area?Hon DAVID PARKER: We've also got problems in our estuaries. This photograph is of a river just south of the Clutha the Ōreti that discharges into the New River Estuary which is immediately behind Invercargill. These are recent—Hon Jacqui Dean: Why does Labour hate farmers?Hon DAVID PARKER: —sediments. These are the cockle—oh I see. I hate farmers Jacqui Dean says. You know these are the cockle beds—why does she hate cockles? These are the cockle beds that have been destroyed as a consequence. This is the status quo that the National Party is trying to protect.Kieran McAnulty: What are high soil sediment levels doing to streams in the area?Hon DAVID PARKER: A tributary of the Ōreti River that ends in that estuary is the Otapiri Stream. It is one of the most studied streams in northern Southland or in Southland because it's got records that go back to the 1960s. There has just been a peer-reviewed study by Cawthron Institute and Fish & Game members in the latest New Zealand Natural Sciences magazine. It's based on this data set and photographs that aren't in it. This is a photograph of the stream. The data that they have which goes back to 1964 shows that in the riffles where the stream is moving quickly more than 90 percent of the macroinvertebrates are now dead and in the pools where the water is moving slower more than 99 percent of them are dead. There are actually no fish to catch in that river now as a consequence because they've got nothing to eat either. This is the sort of practice that we need to improve in New Zealand whereas that is the status quo that the National Party is determined to protect."