Guy NathanHon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki): That was a great speech wasn't it? The Hon David Parker—gosh! I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. He said things like he's constantly advocated for this scheme—Hon Member: Oh!Hon NATHAN GUY: Yeah he's saying that's true and that it's the best scheme he's ever seen. I couldn't believe it. He went on to say that the Government has been very generous and that he could have clawed the money back but that they decided not to. I want to thank the Minister for his very good contribution. It was very reasoned. It was a contribution based on common sense. Water storage in this Waimea dam is based fundamentally on common sense. The benefits are going to be not only economic; they're going to be environmental. And there are going to be social benefits as well. I want to cover all of those things.First of all I want to pay tribute to Dr Nick Smith. He has been in this House for longer than this bill has been thought of. This bill came out of the 2001 drought when regional leaders and industry leaders in the Waimea and Tasman area in Nelson got together and thought We can't handle these prolonged droughts. We need to do something." So when that first vote from the council a couple of weeks ago failed I was so disappointed. And to hear regional leaders and industry leaders on the radio saying that this is really going to cripple our community and our regional economic development—I want to put my hand up and say "Well done." to all of those people who have driven this project for 18 years since its inception.I also want to acknowledge Crown Irrigation because the first vote was difficult for them to stomach and understand and reason with but they got back around with the councillors and with the mayor and struck a deal that is going to ensure that this project is built and is going to benefit many many generations to come. In particular I want to pay tribute to the mayor Mayor Kempthorne whom when I was Minister for Primary Industries for a number of years I got to know very well down there. Murray King Julian Raine and many many others like John Palmer have helped to drive this project forward but in particular Nick Smith is the sponsor of this local bill.What was really telling in Dr Smith's contribution is where he is sending this bill to select committee. Many would think "Oh it should go to the Primary Production Committee because it's all about production and economics and growing vegetables and horticultural products etc." But he's decided to send it to the Governance and Administration Committee which I think shows the breadth of this bill. It's not just about the primary sector and agricultural production; it's actually about the community. This is going to supply water into the city and those other towns that are growing very very quickly. We have heard numerous examples of where the Waimea is over-allocated. I was reading a figure before. It's over-allocated by 64 percent. We've heard the Minister talking about saltwater intrusion. That is a big risk. We know that fish species are struggling to survive when we have a prolonged dry period like we had in parts of the North Island and across the country this summer. So this benefits in particular the community—those social benefits providing a reliable source of water. It also means that the aquatic life is going to flourish into the future.I'm looking forward to hearing from the Greens in a moment because they have a bill that's working its way through the Parliament. It's going to be focused on native fish species. So you would think that the Greens would be standing up here this evening talking about the environmental benefits that we're going to get from this scheme because ultimately this will mean that instead of livestock production it will change and we will have more apple trees. I've seen the economics on apples. It's about $15000 per hectare. No primary sector crop can match apples. So this will transform what happens in the Waimea Plains. There will be fewer nitrates into the water body so you would expect that this would have the broad support of the whole of Parliament. I'm going to be really interested to see if the Greens support this bill this evening. I commend it to the House."