Parker David; Rurawhe AdrianHon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki): Thank you very much. I want to acknowledge the Minister in the chair David Parker. I think the discussion so far has been very fruitful. I've got a few questions around elite soils and also the national policy statement (NPS) for fresh water. I'm interested in two aspects: where the elite soil processes up to in terms of protecting those soils into the future and that dovetails nicely into the NPS for fresh water where effectively there's been a carve-out for the likes of Pukekohe and Horowhenua growers and a few others I think possibly around the country.So my first question is: how did the Minister get to that point I guess so slowly? Was it to do with COVID where everyone realised that suddenly producing food in this country was essential and if the Government did go hard on particularly nitrogen levels DIN levels—dissolved inorganic nitrogen levels—then that would mean that there wouldn't be any leafy greens. In particular my patch around Levin they produce about 30 percent of the leafy greens across New Zealand and I know Pukekohe also has a larger amount that's produced up there. So I guess the first question is around the elite soils. Where is that process up to? The Minister's talked a lot about that.Second question is: why didn't the Minister if he was going to make the decision that he has made not allow the discussion document to run and cause a whole lot of anxiety and angst amongst horticulture growers and rule that out at the start? I know that he has made the decision. He's been up in my patch recently and I commend him for doing that—meeting with iwi growers the council and the like. I'm interested a bit more in how he foresees the future of Lake Horowhenua starting and maintaining the momentum that we created under the National Government with several pools of funding to try and start the process of cleaning up Lake Horowhenua—what the Minister's views are on that going forward into the future. Both of those aspects—or actually the three of them are all aligned: the elite soils around Lake Horowhenua the carve-out for the NPS fresh water around the nitrogen levels and Government support—working constructively with our local government the Horowhenua District Council and also the Horizons Regional Council.It's interesting. Another point that dovetails into that as well is the One Plan because 60 growers as I understand it at the moment in the Horizons region which is a very large region—almost up to Whanganui across to the coast on the East Coast at Ākitio down to south of Levin; so it is a massive area. So we've got 60 growers currently as I understand it who are unable to get a resource consent and meet the nitrogen levels under the One Plan. So there are four questions there that I would appreciate the Minister addressing. Thank you.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I'll do my best to answer those questions. In respect of the point about the NPS on elite soils the reason for that is if you're going to rely less on hard urban boundaries for reasons of wanting to have competitive land markets you do create a risk that you will have subdivisional pressure or additional subdivisional pressure on soils that are better kept for future vegetable production. So the view that we took was that they need to be better protected through a national policy statement which we have under development.Hon Nathan Guy: What's your timing on that Minister?Hon DAVID PARKER: Well it won't be delivered before the election but it will be delivered either by us or the next Government. If it isn't us—if we were unlucky enough not to be elected—that would fall to the next Government to finish off. In respect of how you do it you actually do need to get down to quite a granular level and actually look at it on maps and we're in the process of doing that.In respect of the vegetable production issues relating to nitrate toxicity after consultation we did decide that it was not feasible to have a nitrate toxicity level of 2.4 which is what the national policy statement requires for nitrate toxicity as proposed to be updated. The current standard's 6.9—2.4 is entirely appropriate for just about the whole of the country but it's unachievable in both Horowhenua and the Pukekohe region. The main stream that leads into Lake Horowhenua or the river currently has a nitrate toxicity level of over 10—I think it's 10.Hon Nathan Guy: The Arawata.Hon DAVID PARKER: The Arawata Stream—thank you. Modelling that we did—because we did some very intensive modelling in this—showed that even if there was I think it was a 40 percent decrease in the area of vegetables and a 40 percent decrease in the area of dairying within that catchment there would still only be a decrease in nitrate concentrations in that stream of about 30 percent—i.e. it would be at around 6.9 which is what the old target was but nowhere close to the 2.4 proposed.That left Government with a choice of pretending we could get there—we're not into pretence—completely closing down all vegetable production and dairying in the region and even then it's unclear that you'd have got to 2.4. The third choice would've been to have a higher standard than 2.4 for the whole of the country—you wouldn't have needed exceptions but you'd have had an inappropriately lax level for the whole of the country to deal with those discrete problems in Pukekohe and Horowhenua—or to have some other regime for Horowhenua and Pukekohe.Now it's a matter of some concern to two iwi groups within Horowhenua that there could be an exception to their area and I understand their concern in that for far too long they've had to put up with Lake Horowhenua effectively being a dumping ground for pollutants from that catchment that they've had to put up with ruining their lake. So we're determined to improve things in Lake Horowhenua and we are considering whether our revised proposal to have a complete exemption for ever to the nitrate toxicity level is appropriate or whether there should be some narrower form of interim exemption which none the less sustains vegetable production which of course we need for human health. There aren't that many places that we can grow those leafy greens that we all need to have a healthy diet at an affordable price particularly in winter.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I understand there's a new Minister coming to the Table for conservation.