Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker for this opportunity and it may surprise this House that I rise in support of the Hon Scott Simpson—Hon Ruth Dyson: What?SARAH DOWIE: I do. I rise in support of the Hon Scott Simpson's bill the Litter (Increased Infringement Fee) Amendment Bill in the second reading. It's a pleasure to work with the Hon Scott Simpson. He is leading our environment policy team and it is a new team with new ideas based on science. So we looking at scientific solutions to environmental issues and this is no different.I'm not sure actually what the Hon Scott Simpson has done to offend this Government this greenest Government ever that apparently is taking environmental issues very seriously. I mean the scope of this bill is very narrow. In fact it is a teeny-weeny bill but has such wide-reaching ramifications that could really assist in the mitigation of litter in our community. And so I'm just really not sure why this Government—the greenest Government ever the one that takes environmental issues so seriously and calls climate change our nuclear-free moment—is not supporting this teeny-weeny bill that would have wide-reaching ramifications on litter. Could it be simply because it was introduced by a National Party member and if that is the case that is really petty for this country moving forward with regards to litter minimisation.As I said before this is a new team with new ideas in the environmental space and I do want to point out that as part of the Hon Scott Simpson's crusade for waste minimisation we published our first discussion document on 23 February—a National Party environmental discussion document; a starter for six—which included a number of waste minimisation points for discussion.Isn't it amazing when all of a sudden you get a response from the likes of Fish & Game and Greenpeace that they're happy with the National Party's ideas? I think that's something that we are showing leadership in in this space. We have shown leadership in the past and we're showing leadership moving forward in that we want our country—New Zealand—to be a fantastic place for our children and our grandchildren to grow in and enjoy our environment. So to the greenest Government ever: watch this space. National is absolutely gunning for you in this space.Look I said before that this is a narrow scoped bill but it does have wide-reaching ramifications and it is about an infringement system. Interestingly the Government supported the Department of Conservation's (DOC's) infringement system and didn't seem to have any problems with allowing DOC rangers and officers to have that power when it comes to wildlife but when it comes to councils and litter they're not so sure. This is an infringement system that would allow swift justice to be met. It de-clogs the justice system and the courts and looks at a graduated system of an infringement fine raising it from $400 to $1000 for the offence of littering.As we've heard in previous speeches we would let council officers use their discretion to put in place a fine to the offender that was proportionate to the offence. And again the Opposition have even talked about littering acts in their electorates and have shown that there is more offensive-style littering that goes on and then there is quite minimal littering in that graduated system. So it is about looking at how much littering is going on for that one person and then deciding what the appropriate fine should be.Rubbish is a very serious issue in New Zealand and the Invercargill electorate is no different—the southernmost province which I represent—and in fact when it came to Oreti Beach that seems to be one of the places in Invercargill that gets littered the most; our wonderful beach one that you can still drive your motor vehicle on to and enjoy. I ran a beach clean-up in 2017 and in total collected 170 kilograms of rubbish as part of that beach clean-up. We had 150 people show up and it was mainly bottles cans plastic and rope but we even found a burnt out car which is obviously more than littering. But it's quite a significant problem when you have people recreating on the beach and they simply don't pick up their rubbish when they leave.As I said before this infringement system looks to bring about speedy justice to de-clog the court system and to penalise those who don't have a responsible ethic with respect to our environment. And it works; it isn't true that fines don't deter people from offending and that is no different with respect to litter. There was a member opposite who compared the bill to a country in Taiwan and I equally would like to compare it to Singapore. Now many of us have had the privilege of travelling to Singapore. It's obviously a small country but heavily populated and so they have to take their environment very very seriously. Interestingly they have a serious offence regime with respect to littering. For first-time offenders with respect to littering they're actually fined S$2000; for second-time offending S$4000; and for third-time offenders S$10000. That's how serious they take littering and then if it goes beyond that they actually have a scheme where there is a corrective work order and people are actually put to work to clean up rubbish themselves. Now I don't think anyone who has visited Singapore can say to me that it's not a very beautiful country and that litter is at a minimum. So I would say to the members opposite that an infringement system does work that an infringement system is effective and that if we have pride in our country then we would take heed of this bill and vote for it and see it to put into place.Look in 2016 30 councils spent $2.4 million cleaning up illegally dumped rubbish. Now what could we be doing better spending that money if we could deter people from littering? And I think this bill goes to the heart of the problem with respect to litter. Our country is precious our environment is precious and the effects of too much litter on our streets and in our environment need to be dealt with. And as I said before this is a narrow bill but it is an effective one and infringement systems do work just like the Department of Conservation infringement system that that Government voted for to give extra powers to DOC Rangers to get on top of conservation problems swiftly.So I think that this is a very good bill. It is a small bill but it is effective and has wide-ranging ramifications. I can't see why this Government won't support it. If they are so serious about the environment then they should be getting in behind this bill which would have significant effect moving forward for our community and for our environment.