Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Thank you. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that we're not getting any support from the other side of the House for this excellent bill that will tidy up right away what we can before we make the real overhaul that's needed to fix up the mess that's been left by the National Government. The National Party accepts—we heard it just then—that this work needs to be done. They accept that the Resource Management Act isn't working. They accept that it's 500-odd pages of utterly complex and laden with legalese that really no normal person can work through. And yet what do they say? Do nothing." They were a do-nothing lot in Government and they're a do-nothing Opposition now. You know it's the usual story: "Oh fresh water's fine." They deny the problem—"No no fresh water's fine. We don't need to worry about fencing our streams any further. We don't need another freshwater plan. No problem at all."—whilst our indigenous species are dying in the streams; whilst they're full of algae. You know they deny the problem.And then—what do they do then? Deflect. Usual story usual technique: "Oh no don't look over here; look over there. Why are you harassing the farmers?" The Minister did not mention did not harass did not attack farmers once in his speech—very careful to recognise that this is a problem for all of New Zealand. They say "Look at the urbanites. Look at their rivers. Look over there. Don't look at where the problem is." And then what do they say: "Delay. Please don't do this now. Let's do it a bit later on."Tamati Coffey: Hold off.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: "Hold off. Let's just put it on pause and have a hui have a working group." No well you know what? We're going to do what needs to be done and what can be done now right now and we've got a piece of legislation in front of us from a hard-working Minister who's right over this detail and we're going to get that through.The Act as it stands is simply not fit for purpose—and we only have to look around us. You're quite right that we've got a problem with housing in New Zealand and this Government is attacking it. We heard it in question time: we're building houses but we also want to have an Act which can address those issues. And we've got a national policy statement on urban development under way right now to clear those blockages to get that work under way. And in respect of these changes let's look for a moment at the subdivision rule—the idea that you can subdivide land without any consent. That was a silly rule from the start and in fact Fulton Hogan one of our biggest contractors and developers opposed it from the get-go. And there's very good reason for them. It is not simply because a subdivision is a large development that really should have a consent or should be presumed to require a consent in the normal course of things; but also because you had the perverse incentives we heard of—that in fact developers want consent rules so that onerous conditions aren't put on them by planners and local councils. So they actually want—good developers good operators want a robust process so that they can get to the right result through an effective process. And of course then there's the other operators—the people who are engaging in other businesses. Whether it be quarrying or operating an airport or a shopping mall down the road they want to be sure that they're not going to have their activities curtailed by suburbs springing up around them through reverse sensitivity issues saying "Well we've arrived in the neighbourhood. So now you've got to stop quarrying your gravel or operating your aircraft at 11 o'clock at night or whatever it might be." So it was a silly rule. Business knew it was silly and we're going to change it. And look can I just say—and I say it again—I'm not surprised but really disappointed that the other side of the House is not supporting this because as I was looking through the commentary on this the support across the board for these reforms is really quite astounding. From Kirk Hope of Business New Zealand: "This is a great chance to move towards improved environmental economic and social wellbeing outcomes." he said. Well you know it's great to see that support. And then we've got Fish & Game again saying "Great let's get on with it." and they agree it's time to discuss moving on with the Resource Management Act. Local Government New Zealand—right on board and then we have the outliers again. Even I see Mr Seymour supports us working on this. And yet the National Party's opposing this it appears at first reading and standing back whilst we get on and help sort out our environmental issues.You know what? For this Government—for this Government—the environment is absolutely at the heart of everything we do. I think sometimes that's been forgotten—that other priorities were first and foremost for the last Government and our environment has slipped behind woefully slipped behind. We can see that this isn't fit for purpose by the state of our waterways. The fact is that our waterways as has been documented have been falling behind year in year out. Even though we had lip-service towards making our rivers perhaps wadeable—the shifting standard of swimmability and wadeability—the fact is that when you look at the science when you look at the quality of the water when you look at what's actually happening in that microenvironment it's been slipping behind and we absolutely need freshwater plans that are plans for now; not plans for 2027 or 2035 but plans for now. And that's what this is going to do and it's going to enable it. It's going to bring science to bear by having an expert panel to put those plans in place so that's great work.So really we've got to remember that this is absolutely about putting front and centre the quality of our environment. And can I just say that this isn't about singling out rural and urban. We're going to have freshwater plans and urban plans which will be universal. So the freshwater rules will apply as much to the Avon River as it should and the Heathcote River and the Styx River—all of which are in my electorate—and I must say absolutely we need to clean up those rivers. Now how we clean them up is going to be different but the standards that apply the policies that apply will be the same and absolutely need to be the same.When you look at it this piece of legislation this amendment bill by getting rid of some of the fatuous and useless changes made by the last Government will reduce the length of the Act. But also what's more it gets rid of some of the entirely unnecessary rules like the regulation-making power that enabled the Minister to override councils' decisions. That's not consultation that's not leaving communities to decide what's best for themselves.And of course there is making sure that compliance works. Absolutely don't apologise for increasing penalties. Those penalties are really important because we need to send the right incentives. Look if you discharge pollutants into a stream the size of the fines which may come down upon you are enormous. They can be crippling in some circumstances. A trivial fine for letting livestock wander through water doesn't send the right incentive. We've got to absolutely—and even at its increased level I must say it's relatively modest and we know that in terms of enforcement that what we want—we don't want to fine people; we want people to obey the law so in terms of enforcement education's always the first step and a bit of encouragement and actually imposing these fines and prosecuting through the courts is a very much a last resort.So look this is a fantastic piece of legislation and we know of course that it's a first step towards making the Resource Management Act what it should be which is a workable piece of legislation that enables development in a sustainable and appropriate manner and that contributes to our wellbeing whilst protecting our environment. This is a first step. There is much work to do but unlike the last Government we're not sitting on our hands this Minister isn't sitting on his hands and I commend this bill to the House."