Sage Eugenie: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 03 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15121. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.EUGENIE SAGE (Green) to theMinister of Conservation: Does he stand by his statement “No I did not” when asked in this House whether he gave any indication to the Department of Conservation on the direction or content of its submission on the Tukituki Catchment Proposal?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister of Conservation): Yes and I am sorry to bore the House by again repeating the statement by the Deputy Director-General of Conservation Doris Johnston who said: “The Minister did not play any role in my decision making. He gave no direction. He never told me his view.”Eugenie Sage: How does the Minister reconcile the statement that he did not provide any indication with the fact that a Department of Conservation staff member sent an internal email stating that staff could not provide much comment at a forthcoming meeting on the Ruataniwha scheme because “We will still be waiting for guidance from our Minister.”?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The record is quite clear that I did seek a copy of the department’s submission before it was made to the board of inquiry. It is also very clear if you look at the hundreds of pages that have been released to the Green Party and others that on the Friday prior to my meeting the recommendation from the department was a neutral submission—i.e. before the department even met with me there was a departmental senior official recommending a neutral submission.Eugenie Sage: I seek leave to table an email from a Department of Conservation staff member to Doris Johnston which says that Department of Conservation staff were waiting—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Leave is sought to table this particular email. Is there any objection—[Interruption] Order! I am putting the leave to the House and members can decide whether they want it tabled or not. Leave is sought to table that email. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Eugenie Sage: Does he still stand by his statement that he did not provide guidance when that is what Department of Conservation staff said they were waiting for and 2 days after he met with senior management the department’s substantive submission which it had spent over 3 months preparing was suppressed?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member is being very selective in the documents that she is quoting. On the Friday prior to the meeting with my department when Department of Conservation officials met with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and met with the regional council—after that meeting departmental officials decided they would lodge a neutral submission. The only direction I gave to the department was that I wanted to see a copy of the final submission before it was lodged and that was received by me and that was the submission that was lodged.Eugenie Sage: Is not the Minister trying to cover up the fact that he influenced his department not to submit on the largest irrigation dam scheme in New Zealand despite the impact that the scheme would have on water quality and native fish in the Tukituki catchment?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I do not think the words of Doris Johnston can be clearer. She said she made the decision. She said she did not know what my view was. She said that I gave no direction. The only way the member’s claims can be correct is for a senior public servant appointed by the previous Government to be not telling the truth.Hon Ruth Dyson: How can he say that he exercised no influence over the Department of Conservation’s decision to withdraw its substantial submission queryingthe model allowing nitrates to allow the Tukituki River to be toxic and cause ecosystem collapse when an email from his office at 8.46 a.m. on Tuesday 30 July says: “The Minister would like to see the DOC submission together with a short note justifying it prior to the submission being lodged.”?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: A Minister asking the department to provide him with a copy of a submission before a board of inquiry and an explanation of why is absolutely proper. I would love to show the member the hundreds of pages of submissions that were approved by previous Ministers under the Labour Government on equivalent boards of inquiry.