Andersen GinnyVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour) E Te Māngai he mihi mahana ki Te Whare i Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori; tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. [Mr Speaker warm greetings to the House in Māori Language Week; greetings greetings greetings to all.]Thank you for the opportunity to stand and speak on the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill. Learning the fact that we don't have as many protections in this space as we ought to has been an interesting case. Also I was interested to learn that this fish right here [Holds up illustration] the white spotted grayling—Andrew Bayly: Can't see it. Can't see it.VIRGINIA ANDERSEN: You can google it later Andrew. SPEAKER: Order!VIRGINIA ANDERSEN: You can see that this is the only one that has actually been listed as being protected and in fact that fish is now extinct. So it proves that there is important space for there to be greater protections for freshwater fish. New Zealand has 77 species of freshwater fish and 56 of those are indigenous. Interestingly enough I learnt a lot about freshwater fish while completing my Master's at Canterbury University because one of the big issues that came up while looking into the tino rangatiratanga of Ngāi Tahu rūnaka when interviewing each of those was the fact that those farmers were clearing out their drains at times when the tuna were swimming up to lay their eggs and also when they were breeding. The time of the year that the farmers were undertaking this was hugely detrimental to the tuna population in parts of Canterbury. Only through Ngāi Tahu receiving their settlement and being able to go to the Environment Court and take this issue to a court were they able to receive an outcome that enabled a greater working relationship between iwi and farmers to make sure that those regular duties that did need to be taking place were being done at times of the breeding cycle that weren't detrimental to the tuna breeding population. And that was seen as a great outcome for the Ngāi Tahu settlement to have that ability to do that. So it's great to see a bill that now looks more closely at how that will be working and how we will be protecting freshwater fish species within New Zealand. I would like to note that there are particular implications for the Treaty settlement legislation as well noting that freshwater fisheries are a vital resource for most iwi who have been significantly affected by the decline of their fisheries. Always too when looking at cultural settlements and cultural redress in a Treaty settlement package freshwater fisheries are therefore key issues in many of those Treaty settlement packages. So it's good to see that this bill will specifically improve the overall tool box for protecting managing and restoring fisheries and taonga species that are of such importance to iwi. A complete and effective tool box will give the Crown more ability to work closely with iwi in the restoration of local fisheries. In the case that I've already mentioned it also enables a better working relationship at a practical level between farmers who are utilising the land and iwi who want to access those freshwater fisheries. So I look forward to a day when we have more protected fish that aren't actually extinct and I look forward to the rigorous debate and further submissions that we will see during the select committee process. E Te Māngai I commend this bill to the House.