Shaw James; Pugh MaureenNEW ZEALAND BILL OF RIGHTS (RIGHT TO SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon JAMES SHAW (Green): I move That the New Zealand Bill of Rights (Right to Sustainable Environment) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill.Ten years ago Patrick Gower the former Newshub political editor pilloried my maiden speech as a call for human rights for snails because in that speech I had pointed out that in my lifetime fully half of all of the planet's wildlife has been extinguished. This is ecocide: the destruction not just of species but of the habitats and the ecosystems that they need to survive. My proposition then was that legal personhood be extended to the natural world around us. If corporations have legal personhood why not actual living things?Te Urewera Te Awa Tupua and as of yesterday Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua settlements do exactly that for Te Urewera Whanganui River and Taranaki maunga. I had hoped that we might be able to build on those remarkable settlements for a more universal law a law protecting nature's general right not to be polluted the right not to be degraded the right to exist—inherent fundamental and inalienable—just like us.E tangi ana ngā reanga o uta e mahara ana ngā reanga a taima ta aha rā e whakamahana taku ora kia tina. When the creatures of the land river and sea are in distress then I have nothing to be proud of. In the decade since I gave that speech I fear that we have made little to no progress in protecting the natural world from our predations at home or abroad. If anything we seem to be going backwards. If you witness the current drive to repeal unwind and override nearly 40 years of environmental legislation regulation and jurisprudence it appears to me that in the current moment there is actually less political consensus on even the most basic environmental protections than there has been for most of my lifetime.This bill explicitly frames the state of the environment as a human rights issue for which I would hope there would be more social licence and political consensus because we are in the midst of a planetary crisis: of climate change; wilderness wildlife and biodiversity loss; and pollution. It is simply a statement of fact that each and every one of us depends on clean air fresh water healthy soils and a stable climate for our very survival. You take any one of those away and our own human rights become untenable. The right to peaceful assembly the right to freedom of expression or freedom of movement all become less and less possible without a safe environment within which those rights may be exercised.This bill creates a new provision in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act: section 18A. This will provide that Everyone has the right to a clean healthy and sustainable environment." All the other features of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act will remain unchanged. This means that the right to a clean healthy and sustainable environment will be subject to the same test of justified limitation as other protected rights. Now some will argue no doubt that creating this new right will enable the courts to interfere with parliamentary sovereignty. It does no such thing any more than the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act does today.It would mean under section 6 that existing legislation would be interpreted consistently with the new right to a clean healthy and sustainable environment. And under section 7 new legislation would be vetted for compliance with that right. The bill will have other considerations as well. For example it will assist the courts in interpreting ambiguous environmental legislation. It will also become an element of administrative decision-making which means that Government bodies would be required to consider the implications of their decisions on the right of New Zealanders to live in a sustainable environment.Including the right to a sustainable environment as an express right within the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act is important for a number of reasons. First it would require lawmakers to consider and to squarely confront the impacts of new legislation on our climate commitments on our environment and on future generations. Second it requires Parliament to be honest and transparent with the public about the climate and environmental implications of new legislation. If the Government introduces legislation that is inconsistent with the Paris Agreement commitments or legislation that is actively going to cause environmental harm this right will simply require the Government to be honest about that.Hon Marama Davidson: This is great James.Hon JAMES SHAW: Third a standalone—I know; tell me right? A standalone right recognises the implicit value of the environment rather than having its value depend on the sphere of already existing human rights. It equalises human interests with those of the environment making clear that when we protect the environment we protect people and communities now and into the future. It reminds us that we humans are not superior to or separate from the natural world. We do not exist independently of other life on Earth. We depend on it.Finally in this way this right is consistent with tikanga Māori concepts around the connection between ngā tāngata and te taiao. And on this last point I do need to point out that the bill is written in a way to be consistent with the existing language and style of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. And as such the operative part of the bill does not explicitly acknowledge the Māori world view in which humans whakapapa ultimately back to Papatūānuku. So in the general policy statement there is a clause that refers to the tikanga Māori concepts of the connection between ngā tāngata and te taiao. Whakapapa kaitiakitanga mana ki uta ki tai taonga tuku iho te ao tūroa mauri ritenga wairua wairuatanga—these concepts carry so much meaning and would add so much to our understanding of what the right to a sustainable environment looks like to us here in Aotearoa. And if this bill is referred I would hope that the select committee further develops the general policy statement in order to assist the courts in their interpretation of the right.This bill is not a radical or even a new idea. While it is in my name I do not consider it my bill so to speak. I may be shepherding it through the House but it was originally proposed by Lawyers for Climate Action NZ back in 2019 and supported by 59 then Queens Counsel in an open letter. We're hearing about the respect that the members of the Government have for the courts and for the judicial system and they're heckling. It was proposed on an explicitly non-partisan basis and that was out of a concern that the right to an environment that is capable of sustaining human life is so fundamental to our society that it should be explicitly recognised as a standalone right within the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.Now New Zealand is in a shrinking minority of countries that do not legally recognise the right to a clean and healthy and sustainable environment. In fact about 80 percent of countries around the world already recognise this right in their domestic legal systems. That means that New Zealand is amongst the 20 percent of nations that do not. But it is a right that we have recognised internationally because in 2022 it was the subject of a historic UN resolution and New Zealand voted in favour of that resolution. We know that the window of opportunity to preserve or restore what little is left of our wildernesses and our native wildlife the forests and rivers and oceans and air that we depend on for our very survival is closing fast. All human rights ultimately depend on a clean healthy and sustainable environment. The consequences if we fail are serious. This bill represents a simple legislative change but an important one and it is time for New Zealand to join the rest of the world and recognise the right to a sustainable environment. Whatu ngarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua. When the humans have left the world the land will remain.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The question is that the motion be agreed to."