Sage Eugenie; Dean JacquiHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. I'm pleased to take a short call on the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Hazardous Substances Assessments) Amendment Bill. This was an interesting bill in terms of submissions—particularly appreciative of submissions from the horticultural sector and Onions New Zealand for example. Apparently New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world to grow onions. A lot of our onions are exported and the sector is in the process of positioning itself as the premium grower of onions internationally. So the concerns that a lot of growers have and others have mentioned this too is that because we've got a very small market for chemicals where there are alternatives to existing chemicals which may have much reduced environmental impacts it's often not worthwhile for the companies to seek the regulatory approvals for their use here. So this bill is quite important as others have also mentioned in streamlining the process and enabling the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to rely on information from trusted regulators overseas. And as Onions New Zealand noted particularly in the EU the European Commission is proposing to reduce the overall use of pesticides or current pesticides by 50 percent by 2030. So a lot of the growers here will need to meet those targets if we're wanting produce to market there. They see that as a great opportunity rather than just a challenge and I think the bill in allowing the use of trusted regulators will certainly assist here. Some submitters suggested that the EPA should rely much more on the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemicals Agency as trusted regulators because their decision-making processes are much more hazard-based than some perhaps elsewhere and they've got a much stronger focus on the toxicity of the formulations that are being assessed. So would encourage the EPA to look there.In terms of the streamlining of processes there were others like the Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility who remain really concerned that in Aotearoa New Zealand we've currently got more suspected carcinogens being emitted into the environment than in Europe or the USA and many of the chemicals that we are able to use here in Aotearoa aren't authorised for use in the European Union. So ensuring that that assessment process through the EPA is well resourced is critical. That's not something the bill deals with but the EPA for a number of years has not had any increases in its funding and it would be able to do a much better job if we recognised its importance as an independent regulator and it was properly resourced by Government. The bill through select committee we didn't make any substantive changes to it—but would encourage the EPA to look at particularly the submissions of Ngāi Tahu because the EPA has a Ngā Kaihautū Tikanga Taiao body to provide advice in terms of Te Ao Māori. But the concerns of Ngāi Tahu were that this wasn't adequate in ensuring that a Te Ao Māori perspective was adequately reflected in the assessments and the EPA having a duty to really encourage applicants for new chemicals to engage properly with Māori to recognise the concerns that they may have in terms of impacts on Papatūānuku or just their whole perspective.So the bill is a small improvement but we need to go much further in improving the regulation of hazardous substances in Aotearoa. And note also that a number of submitters sought changes to the legislation to allow the use of gene editing technology like CRISPR. That is another whole debate. It's not within the scope of this bill and that is for the Government to pursue elsewhere. So the Green Party supports the bill and I commend it to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Members this debate is interrupted and set down for resumption next sitting day. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. today.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 12.56 p.m.