Turei Metiria: Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Marine  Management Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Turei Metiria: Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Marine  Management Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:625;Page:19868] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party has an amendment to clause 10(2) to omit paragraph (d). That provision states that the amendments to the Southland Regional Coastal Plan indicated in schedule 12 will not require the approval of the Minister of Conservation. We do not believe there is any justification for taking out the Minister’s role in this respect. The amendments will be made to the plan and will come into force when the plan is operative. The other parts of the plan as they become operative will require the Minister to give consideration to them and there is no reason why these particular provisions should not also require that consideration. 
These kinds of deviations from existing process are at the root of the Greens’ concern about this bill. There are continual layers of deviations from process deviations from existing protections for marine reserves that simply cannot be justified except perhaps as some kind of sop to the guardians. Certainly we have an enormous amount of respect for the guardians for the work they have done but in the end this measure is about protecting the marine ecology of that area. 
Mr Baldock’s claims about the marine reserves lobby are not only unfounded but also completely unreal when we consider the fact that only 1 percent of this area is to be protected by marine reserves and that on the entire east coast of the South Island there is only one marine reserve and it is a very small one indeed. There are very very few marine reserves in this country. They are difficult to establish both because of the process and because communities need to be involved and consulted. It is very good that the Fiordland community has lobbied around and worked to achieve some kind of marine reserve in this area but that does not justify the claims that there is such a thing as a marine reserves lobby that is turning the whole of our seas into marine reserves because that simply is not true. United Future on this point is absolutely wrong. In fact we have very few marine reserves and the Greens are trying very hard to ensure that the marine reserves we do have in place are well protected—are given the maximum possible protection—to ensure they are there for the future as a valuable part of the New Zealand culture. 
We are asking the Committee to support our amendment to clause 10 because the Southland Regional Coastal Plan will play a critical part in the further protections of Fiordland’s marine reserves. For example I have mentioned briefly the taking off and landing of aircraft and how that will not require a concession under this bill. The Southland coastal plan currently does not require any form of consent for the taking off and landing of aircraft. That plan is under appeal there is a process going ahead about that particular provision and the communities are working very hard together to come to some resolution. We look forward to that resolution but that issue does show that the Southland coastal plan along with this bill are two critical protection measures that need to work together and be considered together when looking at the full scale of protections that can be afforded the marine reserves area. 
If this bill allows for more and more concessions more and more deviations from process and from the protections that other reserves are accorded then more and more dependence and reliance are placed on the Southland coastal plan to provide those protections for the recreational users and for the marine reserves themselves. Then it becomes very critical that that plan has strong provisions to make sure those areas are protected. If as is set out in this bill there are further deviations from the usual coastal plan process—that is the Resource Management Act process—then those protections become less and less available. More and more the marine reserves will become subject to interference or decisions made by this House that are not relevant and do not take into account the full impact of the resource management considerations and the full extent of protection that the marine reserves require. 
So we are very strongly asking the Committee to support this amendment to ensure that the Minister of Conservation is required to give approval to the plan’s provisions including the provisions that are incorporated into this bill. It is also a very important point because the Minister of Conservation is not the primary Minister responsible for this bill; the Minister for the Environment is responsible. Therefore the role of the Minister of Conservation in this bill is very very minor. It is really really important that the Minister of Conservation and the Department of Conservation have a strong role to play in the management of these marine reserves. Ensuring that the Minister of Conservation keeps his role of at least being required to give approval to the Southland coastal plan is ensuring the Minister is playing a part. If the Committee does not want that Minister to be the primary Minister responsible that is the decision of the Committee but if my amendment could be supported then at least the Minister of Conservation will have a role in helping to ensure and maintain protections through the Southland coastal plan. This will make sure that the marine reserves as critical unique fragile areas of our ecology are given the maximum amount of protection they deserve. This is something this House and the Government can provide for them. Again there is absolutely no justification for affording these areas less protection than any other area. As we are talking about only 1 percent of the fiords—only a very tiny proportion of the sea area around the South Island—it is absolutely essential we do the best we can. 
If this Government wants to go out and tell people that it is doing something for the environment it needs to demonstrate that very very clearly and specifically. Supporting the Green Party amendments is one very easy way to do that and to show that it is more interested in maintaining the value of these precious areas than it is in taking the path of least resistance. Because in effect that is what this bill is about. It has in large part taken the guardians’ strategy which is fine—they worked very hard to get and negotiate a strategy around these areas. But what was missing from that strategy and what continues to be missing is an advocate for the marine environment itself. 
Supporting this amendment and supporting in future the other amendments the Green Party is putting forward is one way that this Government can demonstrate that the marine environment deserves an advocate of its own. It deserves to be protected for its own integrity and its own value and therefore these amendments that the Greens are putting forward which try to restore that approach back into the bill should be supported by this Government. 
The question was put that the following amendments in the name of Metiria Turei to clause 10 be agreed to: 
to omit paragraph (d) of subclause (2); and 
to omit subclause (4).