Delahunty Catherine: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: General Debate[Sitting date: 21 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12687. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker.Tēnā koutou e te Whare. “100% Pure New Zealand” is a goal worth fighting for and I urge this Parliament to take every opportunity to play its part in making this real not only in terms of regulation but also in terms of supporting an industry to innovate and clean up its act. This can be done. “100% Pure New Zealand” seems to be 100 percent ambivalent in this Parliament.I want to address a specific opportunity to support a clean-up of a river. We have just heard the previous speaker Maggie Barry say that it is all happening but I challenge this Parliament and every party. What about our rivers? What about the “black drain”? The “black drain” is a name of shame because of this country refusing to deal with an issue that has been going on since 1955. You ask the tangata whenua of theMātaatua waka what they think about their river being called the “black drain”. Above Kawerau imagine a sparkling waterfall from a river that disappears underground for several kilometres from Lake Tarawera and comes out at Kawerau in a sparkling waterfall. That is as close as “100% Pure New Zealand” as we are possibly likely to see. This beautiful river full of fish and life is clean and oxygenated until you reach Kawerau and below the river it is brown. For many many years it was black and covered in contaminated foam and now it is brown and still very very dirty.It is not the only option. We can work towards that “100% Pure New Zealand” by taking the modern opportunity to clean up and work with companies to use new technology not by allowing the courts to give people 25-year consents to contaminatebut to actually stop this kind of gross pollution. I have a bill the Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill that would do that and I challenge the members of this House who are in doubt about their position on this issue to support my bill. I know that National and ACT have no ambivalence; they are simply going to oppose it. I am calling on the other parties. Do the right thing. Show some courage and recognise that the people of the Bay of Plenty and the environment of the Bay of Plenty deserve more than rhetoric about investment in jobs. They deserve to know that that mill will continue and that my bill will protect them from having to clean up for another 25 years and then some. In actual fact there is something we can all do here—those of us with the will and the courage—to clean up that river so that we can make this “100% Pure New Zealand” closer to reality.But will we? Do we have the willingness and the courage to stop gross pollution in the 21st century or are we going to keep going with allowing the name “black drain” to be a shame on our national reputation? I challenge people to work with the mills of the Bay of Plenty to stop the idea that they have to close. They do not have to close; they have to modernise. They have to take those 25 years to invest in clean technology. We do not hear them talking aboutbiochar and activated charcoal. We do not hear them talking about modern filtration. All we hear them saying is “Do not push us. Don’t draw a line in the sand.” Well we are drawing a line with this bill. The Green Party is drawing a line and saying that we know you can do better. We will work for the “100% Pure New Zealand”. We will work with you to do better but we need the other people in this House to support an opportunity to make positive change.Our rivers are not just about a slogan and they are not just about visitors; they are about a commitment to future generations to tamariki and mokopuna. They deserve a clean environment and rivers that sparkle and are full of life. Rivers are not drains. I believe that industry in the 21st century does want to invest in turning rivers into drains. I believe—and that is why I have put my bill up—that there is an opportunity to clean up the anomalies to support the very few that are still abusing and that the courts have not addressed by changing the exceptional circumstances clause and giving them plus their consent another 5 years. That is fair and that is reasonable. I challenge New Zealand First and Labour in particular to step up to this opportunity and support industry to do its best for our environment for the sake of everybody.I would like to mihi to the tangata whenua whom I have worked with for many years on this issue. He mihi nui. Kia kaha. Although it appears that we do not have many days left to keep this alive I know that you are fighting hard. I know that you want this done. I know that you are looking to this Parliament to stand up and start working—