Delahunty Catherine: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 07 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10322. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) to the Minister for the Environment: What action will the Government take to make sure there is enough clean freshwater for all New Zealanders?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): New Zealand has 500 trillion litres of fresh water each year flowing through our lakes rivers and aquifers and we extract only 2 percent of that for human purposes. Ninety percent of our fresh water in our lakes and rivers by volume is in a pristine state. New Zealand has ample clean fresh water but there are areas where we have shortages and water-quality problems. The actions the Government has taken include introducing compulsory metering in 2009 the national policy statement in 2011 requiring water quality to be maintained or improved and a record investment in freshwater clean-ups. Further actions include national stock fencing requirements for all lakes and rivers on which I am currently consulting including holding a public meeting in the far north yesterday.Catherine Delahunty: How will the Government ensure there is enough water for the residents of Ashburton who have faced water restrictions for the last 4 months and thanks to the absence of national rules will lose 40 billion litres of their water to an offshore company?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: If you are concerned about the sustainability of New Zealand’s water water bottling would be the last place you would look on the basis of facts and take. Let me give the member the numbers. Of the water that is consented for takes in Canterbury the Ashburton water bottling consent amounts not to 1 percent not to 0.1 percent but to 0.0012 percent—0.0012 percent. So the Green Party pretending it is concerned about sustainability of water by focusing on bottling plants just shows how distanced it is from the facts and the science of water-quality management.Scott Simpson: How do water takes consented for bottling compare with water takes consented for other purposes?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: As I said in my answer to the primary question New Zealand has 500 trillion litres of fresh water. There is 6 trillion litres consented for irrigation. There is 2 trillion each consented for industry and for town water supplies. So although a billion litres for a water bottling plant sounds like a lot it is actually 0.01 percent—0.01 percent—of the number of consents for irrigation or 0.0001 percent of New Zealand’s annual freshwater flows. The idea—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The answer is quite long enough.Catherine Delahunty: How can the Government justify allowing offshore companies to export billions of litres of water from places like Ashburton when local farmers cannot access their own water supplies because of drought?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I just stress again that we need to make our decisions on fresh water on the basis of the science and the facts. And the facts are that if you take the region of Canterbury—and let me give the member the specific figures for the Ashburton water zone. Less than 0.1 percent even in that very local area is used for water bottling plants. You could shut down every water bottling plant in New Zealand and it would just be literally a drop in the bucket of New Zealand’s huge freshwater resource. It is the last place we would go if we were serious about improving freshwater management in New Zealand.Catherine Delahunty: We live in hope. Will the Government commit to putting a moratorium on new consents for bottled water until the sustainability and ownership rights for water are negotiated with tangata whenua and communities; if not why not?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Let me explain the numbers again. New Zealand has 500 trillion litres of water—550 trillion—Metiria Turei: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This question did not ask for numbers at all. It asked about consultation and I would expect the Minister to address the question asked.Mr SPEAKER: The question—I can help by rephrasing it—simply is: will the Government install a moratorium? If the Minister could just answer that I think we will move forward.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: It would be a nonsense—an absolute nonsense—to put a moratorium on the bottling of water and pretend that that would improve the sustainability when the amount of water that is used for—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister has now answered the question that was asked.