Upston Louise: Antarctica (Environmental Protection: Liability Annex) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Upston Louise: Antarctica (Environmental Protection: Liability Annex) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 I stand in support of the Antarctica (Environmental Protection: Liability Annex) Amendment Bill in the name of Minister McCully. The bill implements many of New Zealand’s international treaty obligations regarding a liability for environmental emergencies in Antarctica. As the previous speaker Steve Chadwick said the bill will implement New Zealand’s obligations under annex VI to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. I will touch on three key issues. The first is around the significance of Antarctica tourism to the region and its impact. I will also talk about penguins. 
Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent and has 10 percent of the earth’s land area. It is 14 million square kilometres and interestingly enough it is the windiest place on earth. It is also the driest place on earth. Antarctica is the continent that has the least information known about it. That is why it is critical not only to protect this pristine environment but also to learn more about it. Antarctica is the world’s finest laboratory. Scientists from all over the world and a significant number from New Zealand go there to study a whole range of things including the organisms that live in that unspoilt ecosystem. Some things that are important are the consequences of climate change and the clues to the origins of the universe. It is very timely that just yesterday members of the Education and Science Committee visited GNS Science and were able to get very close to some of the polar ice that our New Zealand scientists are studying in a whole range of mechanisms. We were fortunate enough to stand in the chilly bin of minus 35 degrees and only a few moments in that chilly bin gave us a small taste of what it is like for the scientists who work in Antarctica for months on end. 
The second thing I want to touch on is tourism. We obviously have a lot of scientists who travel to Antarctica to do very significant national Antarctic programmes but they are less than 10 percent of the people who visit Antarctica each year. Depending on which analysis one looks at one finds the figures are 46000 to 48000 tourist visitors to Antarctica per year—and they are having an impact. I think of 46000 and that is twice the population of Taupo visiting Antarctica on an annual basis. That is a huge number of people. Of course they visit for a short time but their impact on the environment is high. One example we have heard about today which my colleague Mr Auchinvole talked about was that of people getting there in large and small ships and if any of those ships get grounded—a high risk—the consequence is devastating for the environment with oil spills. 
The other thing I want to touch on is penguins. Who can think of Antarctica without thinking about penguins? No I am not talking about the enclosed ones in Auckland at Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World I am specifically talking about the Adélie penguins. They are the longest-studied Antarctic organism around and also the most abundant population of penguins; there are over 10 million of them. The significance of those Adélie penguins is that by studying penguin populations we are able to get early indicators of the impact of global climate change. The significance of the penguins is the ability for scientists to look at what is happening with global climate change. 
Let us look for a moment at annex VI which is what this bill is about; the bill enables New Zealand to formally approve that annex. I want to look at some of the releases that came out following the 2005 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Sweden where the annex was passed. One of the issues dealt with that took up a lot of time was as I have mentioned the ability to better manage the flow of tourists to Antarctica. At that stage in 2005 the number was 30000. In 2009 we are already talking 46000 to 48000 so there has been a significant increase in a short period of time. That is why it is so vital that New Zealand signs up to formally adopt this annex. One of the quotes from the Swedish Minister for the Environment said: “We need a strategy for how we can secure the environmentally sustainable management of Antarctica. The strategy will deal with how we can manage future environmental challenges in Antarctica both in the short and in the long term.” That is where a lot of the work has carried on. 
Some other things that the bill focuses on are around environmental emergencies. The definition of an environmental emergency is very broad so it is very important that this bill is passed. I am proud to stand and commend this bill to the House.