Sio Su'a William: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
Sio Su'a William: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17580] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour) 
: 
 I will take just a short call on Part 3. I am one of the new members on the Local Government and Environment Committee so I did not have the opportunity to hear a lot of the public submissions on the Waste Minimisation Bill. But in the short time I have been on the committee I have found that it has by and large been very supportive of the aim of the bill. I am happy to say that Labour is also supporting this bill. 
It is important on this occasion to say that we have had a distinguished visitor from the Pacific region the Hon Toke Talagi who is the Premier of Niue. That is significant because we are talking about an issue that is to do with the overall environmental challenges that we now face here and in the Pacific region. Environmental issues are do-or-die issues for the people of the Pacific. 
The Waste Minimisation Bill is a significant issue. The bill shows great leadership from this House in terms of moving the issue forward. It is a starting point; it is not the end. This issue will not just go away. Some members may remember a cartoon that was on TV some years back about a man who kept collecting rubbish. The cartoon showed the rubbish pile getting bigger and bigger and covering the whole Earth. Well that is the reality we are now facing; that is the challenge. 
I come to Part 3 “Waste disposal levy”. Concerns are being raised about that levy by National members of the select committee and no doubt the member in the chair Dr Russel Norman will have a few things to say about that. But this is new territory and I suppose we have to explore places we have not been to before. In respect of the aim of this levy—firstly the levy can be increased so that people will be discouraged from disposing of rubbish or secondly it can be reduced which is what the select committee decided to do. It reduced the levy from $25 a tonne to $10 a tonne in an effort to try to cater for the concerns raised by some members of that committee. There will be a review by the Minister after 2 years. We have to have the kahunas—if I am able to say that—to take some leadership to go with this and to review it at the end of the 2 years. There is also the opportunity to review it every 3 years thereafter. 
I think that the beauty of this levy for me personally is that an amount of money will be made available for community organisations and local government to encourage the community and our local governments to look at ways in which we can minimise the rubbish we are creating. An assessment was made by Local Government New Zealand that on a 50-50 share the money could amount to about $50 million. That is not something to sneer about; it is a significant amount of money when we consider that some community organisations working in this area are already doing that work on the smell of an oily rag and by putting in their own resources. 
I fail to see why concerns have been raised; nevertheless they are concerns that need to be addressed. At the end of the day the select committee has agreed that this Waste Minimisation Bill needs to go forward and I for one join with my Labour colleagues in supporting it. As I said it is a starting point. We need to pursue this area for the sake of the future of our nation and for the region as well. Thank you.