Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. What another negative carping speech from the National Party. Typical of National: exaggerating all of the issues around improving our tax system. We need a decent tax system so we can invest in better healthcare services so we can clean up the housing mess—Hon Paul Goldsmith: Revenue-neutral you said.Hon EUGENIE SAGE: —that National left so that we can invest in the environment and that is what this Government is doing. It is delivering Mr Goldsmith.In the last Budget there was $181 million extra investment in the Department of Conservation so that we could invest in protecting our natural capital so that we could grow well-being for New Zealanders. That's an investment that counts. Not like National—not wanting a fair tax system wanting to shred the Department of Conservation and what are we getting for that extra investment? Well I just recently announced the $76 million extra that was going into biodiversity. We are seeing increased investment in our marine reserves more enforcement and monitoring more research more investment in tahr control to protect our fragile alpine lands more work on pest control so that another six islands can be protected from pest incursions and more work on our threatened species. And we see there that when we have the Department of Conservation working alongside communities iwi and hapū investing in our threatened species they can make a difference. They can turn around the status of rowi takahē mohua. That's all improved but we need that investment which National denied in its nine years of Government by its shredding of the Department of Conservation budget. This Government is delivering on the environment. It's an area where National has no credibility. This morning I was delighted to announce that this Government is adding 64400 hectares of land in the Mōkihinui catchment north of Westport to Kahurangi National Park. This is the largest addition to a national park in New Zealand's history. It will increase the size of Kahurangi by 15 percent. It is a landmark day for conservation because it is the first time we've had a big addition to a national park in 17 years. This Government is delivering for the environment. I acknowledge Ngāi Tahu and Kāti Waewae for their generosity and their support. But I really acknowledge the thousands of New Zealanders who spoke out for the Mōkihinui River in 2007 when Meridian was proposing a huge dam that would have created a reservoir 14 kilometres long flooded the Mōkihinui Gorge flooded the beech forest the rimu forest and the habitat of threatened species like bats giant land snails the whio—the river duck. That was public activism—and the work that groups like Whitewater NZ Forest and Bird Fish and Game iwi standing alongside the Department of Conservation did through the whole resource consent process to highlight why the Mōkihinui the river and its catchment is just so valuable. These stunning natural landscapes that are now part of the national park; this decision by the Government is responding to the desire of New Zealanders to protect our special places to protect them for both present and future generations. What does National do with national parks? Well in 2010 under Minister Gerry Brownlee it was proposing to mine in national parks. The first of National's policy documents was about the environment. How can a party which wanted to mine in national parks have any credibility on the environment? This Government is investing in conservation. It's increasing the size of Kahurangi National Park. This will be a major gain for the Buller and West Coast region because we've got the cycle trail—the Mōkihinui-Lyell cycle trail—which is used increasingly by New Zealanders to experience those magic landscapes. Rafting kayaking down the river; the opportunity for visitors to see the gorge to walk up the river experience the drama of its landscapes the earthquake-shaped landscape and to know that this river the third largest on the West Coast can now never be dammed because this Government knows that New Zealanders love our precious wild places want them protected—that's why we're adding 64400 hectares to Kahurangi so that it is permanently protected. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.