Sage Eugenie: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11264. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Here in Aotearoa New Zealand we have got the know-how and we have got the resources to reduce climate pollution to clean up our rivers and lakes and to stop intensive farming making them any dirtier. We can protect our wild places and the threatened species that we love but that is not what we will get in National’s Budget tomorrow. We have got climate change—the greatest issue facing humanity—yet in the last 7 Budgets the Minister of Finance has not mentioned it once and I doubt that it will be any different tomorrow.And that is because National takes nature for granted. It fails to recognise that a healthy environment is the basis of life itself is the basis of our economy here in Aotearoa and is a key part of our identity for so many New Zealanders. National’s agenda which we will see in the Budget is one of extractivisim. It is handing out millions of dollars to irrigators subsidising the deep-sea oil drillers but just giving crumbs to conservation. We have got legislation like the Resource Management Act which is supposed to protect the environment while allowing use and development. Yet here is National gutting the Resource Management Act throttling public participation and overriding councils with the new ministerial powers to make it easier for high-impact development.And National is also failing to protect the environment by failing to enforce our laws. We have seen that just in the last week with the release of the Simmons report which showed massive dumping and misreporting and wastage of fish in the commercial fishing industry. It showed that by 2013 New Zealand commercial fishing boats were dumping around 20 percent of their catch on average and foreign-flagged vessels around 50 percent of their catch. What did the Minister for Primary Industries say? He said he was “very very sceptical” of the Simmons report and that is despite three top-flight universities being involved in that report over 300 interviews with stakeholders industry experts and official information contributing to that. So we had the Minister saying he was sceptical.That means he must have been mightily embarrassed when Operation Achilles and Operation Hippocamp—and the reports of those two investigations—were released to the media because they showed that between 20 and 100 percent of the catches in the inshore trawl and set-net fisheries were being dumped overboard. The reports talked about substantial quantities of quota fish being discarded in those boats operating out of Timaru and Ōāmaru—in excess of 30 percent of elephant fish and all of the small gurnard.Fisheries are a precious resource. We have got a $1.7 billion industry. To safeguard that to safeguard our oceans and their health the law needs to be enforced. The Ministry for Primary Industries had clear evidence of substantial dumping. It should have rung alarm bells. Yet what happened? It was just dismissed. Certainly the Minister has announced an inquiry but he and the ministry have got very deep questions to answer. What is the point of speeding up the roll-out of video cameras on fishing vessels when there was video evidence in both Operation Achilles and Hippocamp that would have allowed those fishers who were dumping substantial quantities of fish to be prosecuted? No prosecutions were done. What is the point of having observers if the information they see is not used to enforce the law?So what we have got is the Ministry for Primary Industries either shutting its eyes to illegal activity or being too close to the fishing industry and just not wanting to enforce the law. The Green Party if it was in Government tomorrow with opportunities to have a Budget would make sure that there was more research into how a marine system functions so that we have thriving oceans. It would ensure there was deep-sea marine protection—not like this Government preventing that happening through its changes to the marine protection legislation—and it would ensure that it was enforcing the law so that we have a thriving fishery not one where the Ministry for Primary Industries ignores illegal dumping.Mr SPEAKER: The time for this debate has expired. Honourable members the Wednesday general debate is meant to be a debate not an opportunity to come into the House and read speeches. We are now halfway through this parliamentary term and I think everybody has had a fair chance to become accustomed to delivering a speech in the general debate without having to read it. If members want some guidance I suggest they refer to Speaker’s ruling 53/4 and 53/5. This is the second occasion that I have mentioned that I want the general debate to be a debate so I am issuing a warning to all members and particularly to party whips that if any member comes into the House and simply stands to read a speech throughout that 5 minutes I will be terse tempted to terminate the speech immediately and simply invite the member to seek leave to table his speech if it might be of information to the members. I hope we can see the general debate now become indeed what it is designed for—a general debate.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.