Dean Jacqui: Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15582. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Just perhaps a few facts about National’s record. In the 5 years of the National Government we have announced nine new marine reserves which will significantly increase biodiversity protection in New Zealand waters. So that is nine new marine reserves.Louise Upston: How many?JACQUI DEAN: Nine—and that is nine new marine reserves over a period of 5 years in Government so I think that is a pretty good record. New Zealand currently has 34 type 1 marine reserve areas and 14 type 2 marine reserve areas or other management tools. That covers just over 7 percent and just over 1 percent of the territorial sea respectively. National has got a pretty good record in this area. Approximately 9.5 percent of New Zealand’s territorial sea will be protected by marine reserves once the three new Subantarctic Islands marine reserves are gazetted and those are the three marine reserves that are contained in this bill the Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill.Just perhaps a reference to the previous speaker Gareth Hughes and the Green Party minority report that it put into this bill where it talked about 0.41 percent being covered by marine reserves. This refers to marine reserves as a percentage of New Zealand’s economic zone not of the territorial sea so I stand by the percentage of 9.5 percent of New Zealand’s territorial sea being covered by marine reserve status once this bill is enacted. That member is also absolutely correct in that National has a proud history of marine protection. In 1971 we passed the original Marine Reserves Act and established the first marine reserve and that was at Leigh in 1975. Incidentally Leigh was one of the very first no-take reserves in the world. So I stand by National’s proud record and I stand by the record of the Hon Nick Smith in his sponsorship of this bill.The proposal for the marine reserves is the result of a pretty extensive and collaborative stakeholder forum with a lot of input from iwi industry representatives scientific conservation groups and also the wider public. That kind of consultation andcollaborative consultation is one of the hallmarks of this National Government. It has been undertaken in a number of other forums and it is proving to be very successful as indeed it is with this marine protection legislation.Just for a little bit of background although the three island groups contained in the bill have protected land area status the territorial waters around them are not currently protected in marine protected status. They do not have that status as it applies to the land. So the proposal recognises great opportunities for tourism for scientific research and of course for fishing in a responsible and sustainable way. Although I appreciate the words of the Green member of Parliament with him saying that in their view there should be no fishery take in these marine protected areas I have a different view as does the Minister of Conservation. That is why there will be protection in this bill for the ling fishery and also a possible exploration for a crab fishery.This is a thoughtful bill. It was considered well by the Local Government and Environment Committee. I do commend it to the House.