Barry Maggie: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9259. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAGGIE BARRY (Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Just a couple of weeks ago I was with many of my esteemed colleagues who are gathered around me here tonight at the Bluegreens Forum in Tekapō. It is a wonderful part of the country and I think it is good for politicians to get out of the rarefied atmosphere of the Beehive. Having heard several of the calls from Opposition members tonight I think it would behove them well to get out and about a little bit more into the community because far from sitting braying about what might have been and fantasising about what they are not doing it would be useful if they got together as we did a few weeks ago. My colleague here Alfred Ngaro is of course an ardent Bluegreen as are many of my colleagues here because what we tend to do as a Government is unite behind our Prime Minister behind our leader in stark contrast to Labour. We do more for the environmental and conservation movements than the Greens would ever imagine and I also think David Seymour made a couple of excellent points.There seems to be a bit of braying. Maybe some of the people across the other side of the House might have had a little bit too much sun in the dinner break. They are a little flushed and unreasoned. I have heard tonight about the struggles some of my colleagues have had to be heard above the cacophony so I am going to rise above it because I do feel that there are some important things to say about the vision that we have around conservation in particular. I am sure David Seymour will be paying close attention with his new-found love for sanctuaries and eliminating pests and ensuring that the things we love—the taonga species—are protected.Let me talk to you about a broad big hairy stretch vision—that is a predator-free New Zealand. I am not talking about the Opposition at this time. I am focused instead on rats stoats and possums primarily. Aerial drops of 1080 are working and will continue to be used. I would request that the Greens stand up and actually come out a little bit on this one and support—Eugenie Sage: We have.Hon MAGGIE BARRY: —1080 in an obvious way. Keep up the work then Ms Sage. It would be really useful if you joined the chorus of approval rather than carping from the sidelines. We will leave carp to another time of course in their substance.The thing about having a predator-free New Zealand is that what you need to do is kill the things that are killing the things you love. So we take pre-emptive strikes. We have the technology to rid a valley or a peninsula of pests as at Zealandia here and in other parts of the country but we do need to have a longer-term vision that really is about eradicating these exotic pests. They have come here from different lands made this place their own and now of course they need to be dispatched. It is costing the economy $3.3 billion a year the eradication of these exotic pests. I hope I am not disturbing any of my colleagues who are a little squeamish about extermination but I do think it is important to address these issues.The vast habitats our native animals need will be heightened and they will be safe and the regions will also enjoy better tourism if we can embrace this vision. Take Taranaki—the Project Taranaki Mounga partnership which was announced in December is an example of how big goals can be achieved region by region and you need to involve several partners. The Department of Conservation is contributing about a third of the cost of the $24 million project in Taranaki. I was there on Thursday for a very exciting launch along with my colleagues the Hon Chester Borrows and Jonathan Young—if he is here—as well and Barbara Kuriger and others. We were talking about biodiversity in Taranaki. It is a very important thing to think about collaboration—an unknown for the Opposition of course. Project Taranaki Mounga with its biodiversity vision has the ability to change the face of conservation in New Zealand. I think that it is incredibly encouraging and it will be the start of what we hope to roll out over the next few years.Wilding pines—and I commend my friend and colleague Nathan Guy on this. The Ministry for Primary Industries is leading the charge and we are very focused on getting rid of these wilding pines because we cannot afford to back away from the problem. The Government regional authorities community groups businesses philanthropists and the forestry sector itself need to combine forces. Wildings for those of you who are not up to speed with it already cover about 1.7 million hectares of land and they are advancing at a rate of around 6 percent a year. If we sit back and do nothing wildings will cover about 22 percent of our country within the next 20 years and that is totally unacceptable. Most of the land that they would colonise is arable land. It is good productive farming land and it is land that we need to use for other things.The wilding conifers do not respect the boundaries. They seed widely and freely—up to 20 kilometres in fact with some of this very fine pollen—so we really need to be on top of this issue and the New Zealand Wilding Conifer Management Strategy is something that we as a Government have bought into. We at central government level will take a leadership role in this and we will work with others to achieve the goals. That is what this John Key - led Government is all about: fine leadership a strong united caucus and Cabinet and strong united thinking and philosophies that will deliver a vision.Sue Moroney: That got leaked eh Maggie?Hon MAGGIE BARRY: Again the Opposition members are incredulous. These are unknown territories for them.War on Weeds is another element of our vision that is not to be underestimated. It seems to me that while we focus on the birds and while we focus on our creatures—a very important part of our biodiversity—we cannot forget the plants. The War on Weeds which we declared about 6 months ago has rolled out the dirty dozen which are common or garden plants that have got away on us a bit and we need to pull them back—“a bit” is actually understating it. We spent something like $1.2 million from the Department of Conservation Community Fund to help community weed control groups with Weedbusters and the Queen Elizabeth the Second National Trust and I commend a lot of these smaller groups. Up and down the country they are united.I was visiting a place in Taranaki on Friday as the Minister for Senior Citizens and I would have to say that it was incredibly heartening to see a group of about 40 people in their 70s getting together to weed to plant to destroy pests and to create habitats for our creatures. It gets them together doing something with great purpose and meaning and it is good exercise. That is another of our programmes which we call Healthy Nature Healthy People which is where you get people into the great outdoors. They are doing something for themselves but also—in the case of the people in Taranaki and so many groups up and down the country I have seen in the last year—they are working for the good of our nature. They are working together in a cause that they believe in. We help them out with funding.We also encourage through the Kiwi Conservation Club and a successful bid for new money that we got across the line in last year’s Budget of over $11.2 million—we have invested that in the future of our national bird. The number of our national birds is declining at about minus 2 percent a year. That is a decline that we need to reverse. We have a target we have a name and we have a vision. That is how you measure what you do and that is how you manage the problem—again unknown territory to the Opposition members who have fallen very silent because they are completely at sea with these notions.When it comes to Kiwis for Kiwi the turn-round has begun. We are working with New Zealander of the Year nominee Rob Fenwick to help community groups to protect the birds and protect their habitats. We are boosting the Department of Conservation’s own funding by more than $6 million a year—and that will be from 2018 onwards—expanding breeding programmes such as Kiwi Creches Kōhanga Kiwi and pest control as well as monitoring all of the existing populations. The whole game really around this is to protect the birds—the kiwis in particular—so that they get to a stage where they can help themselves and at the time when they are about a kilogram in weight they are then able to. They can fight off anything actually kiwis. That is why they are our national bird I think. They are fierce. They may not look the most elegant birds. They do not fly but they have commendable character. They are extraordinary birds at looking after themselves but they need a bit of help along the way.So if we turn that minus 2 percent decline into a plus 2 percent increase we will have about 7000 more birds and that means they will be able to proliferate in the wild. My dream is to ensure that they are audible—that they keep people awake at night in the suburbs around New Zealand. We want the bird numbers to go up. We need to be able to work with the tools that we have in nature and conservation.Just going through some of the issues that we have been dealing with in the arts culture and heritage area tonight I signed a co-production agreement with the Israeli Government so that we can have films and television—shared projects and shared collaboration between our countries. That is the 17th co-production agreement we have signed over the past few years and it means that the ties that bind the countries that we have cultural links with will only increase at a stronger level.The Ministry for Culture and Heritage is working with a lot of different regions to mark the anniversary as well—WW100. This year we are moving away from Gallipoli and into commemorating the battle sites of Europe and we are opening plinths and telling the New Zealand story internationally.I would like to finish my call tonight on seniors which is the third portfolio responsibility that I have. Leading the fight against social isolation—which is a newfangled way maybe of describing loneliness—we need to get rid of that corrosive element and stop the lead and decline of loneliness and social isolation into elder abuse which is a big problem in New Zealand. Around 2000 cases are reported currently and that is probably a real underestimation. There are closer to 18000. So the challenges continue but I think this Government under John Key’s strong leadership is well up for the programme.You will see that I am wearing the alternative flagon my lapel. I will be voting for that and I would urge others to look beyond the—