Clendon David: West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is subject to correctionClendon David: West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 June 2014. Volume:702;Page:18941. Text is subject to correction.]DAVID CLENDON (Green):Thank you Mr Heatley for taking your seat. Here we are a mere few hours after this non-debate began and we are already debating the title clause of the West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill. It is unfortunate that the Government does not have the courage of its convictions and that the Minister in the chair the Minister of Conservation is content to sit in the chair and smile benignly at the Committee. At no point is he defending this appalling piece of legislation. He is not endeavouring to rationalise it or to justify it because it is beyond rationalisation and the justification is not one that I believe the Minister is willing to voice openly.The title of this bill is the West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill. It could more correctly be called the “National Government’s Assault on Conservation Bill”. That would be an honest label for this bill. It would reveal in fact what is going on here. This bill has no rationalisation other than that it is chipping away at conservation values. It is chipping away at the legislation. Every member of the public who has ever stood up for conservation in New Zealand should be offended by this bill and they will be in large numbers.I am grateful to our colleague Rino Tirikatene for reminding us of that interesting kōrero from back in the day about the fellow who entered the forest and just mindlessly began cutting a tree in order to carve a waka. He worked hard all day. He went back to his village. The next morning he came and discovered that his work had been undone by the kaitiaki of that place by those who genuinely cared for it. The teaching within that simple story is about respect for nature because only through respecting nature and caring for nature can we respect and care for ourselves.We are living at a greater distance from the natural environment in one sense than our tūpuna Māori lived but the principles remain to the extent that when we inflict damage on the natural earth when we degrade what is left of our wilderness areas we reduce our own well-being—our spiritual our social and indeed our economic well-being. That is what this legislation will affect. That was a simple story and I am grateful to Rino for reminding us of the learning and the teaching that is embedded in it.So we could just as well call this bill the “Turning Our Backs on Sustainable Management Bill” because there is a clause in the bill that suggests that the director-general can allow or authorise any removal of timber only if “the effects of activities within the specified site ... are not contrary to the purpose of the Resource Management Act ...”. I remind people that the purpose of that legislation the Resource Management Act is the promotion of sustainable management of natural and physical resources while among other things “safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air water soil and ecosystems;”. We have delivered ample evidence tonight. We have argued and revealed and we have based that on information from the Department of Conservation and elsewhere that there is no way that this intervention this removal of timber can possibly do other than almost wipe out the life-supporting capacity of ecosystems. We have the evidence before us even in the very flimsy document that is available to us. I have no idea what the Minister in the chair is trying to indicate to me but I will let that moment pass.It is undeniable that this will destroy the ability of this ecosystem to restore itself to the canopy forest that was there before the cyclone hit. We have evidence in the information sparse though it be that the resilience of that ecosystem is dependent on it being allowed to restore itself. Nature will do that—it will restore itself. This bill could also be called the “Assault on Natural Values and the Assault on Nature Bill” because that is what it is doing. We pride ourselves and we base our economic well-being on this notion of being a clean green country. It is an image that we enjoy and that enables us to meet our needs. It is only an image. This bill is a step towards destroying that image.