Muller ToddTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): I rise to speak against this legislation. There is an affliction that political commentators believe occurs with Governments that have been around for a long long time which is that they start developing a tin ear and they mix hubris with arrogance and they put forward legislation that doesn't in any way reflect what the community would expect. This piece of legislation fits that hubris and arrogance because one of the core elements of the legislation that we're discussing here this afternoon is a requirement for regional councils to notify the changes that this Government proposes through their freshwater reforms by 2023 and to have them operative by 2025. Right now across the country those freshwater proposals including that suggestion are out for consultation initially for six weeks but after rural New Zealand reacted with understandable disdain given a two-week extension. The very issue of the role of regional councils and the time frame that they would need to stand up to these proposals are in that document and this Government is standing and saying We want your feedback." No they don't. They have already decided what they want and this is what's in this legislation. This is a ridiculous consultation process. It's a fraud. It's a farce. There are people out there who are hugely engaged in trying to work out what this means for their businesses and this Government has already put the key components of its expectation of regional councils in this legislation. Three days ago the leaders of regional councils and local government met in this city to reflect on the proposals that the Government have put forward in their freshwater plans including the obligation on them to notify by 2023 and to have them operative at 2025 and they are hugely concerned at what is proposed. They are participating in a good-faith process where the Government has said "This is a proposal. Give us your feedback." and while they're asking that question with one hand they're legislating the answer with the other. It is disgraceful. This Government has lost its way. It is full of hubris and arrogance. They are putting in this legislation its expectations around what it expects of regional councils whilst at the same time running a pretence of a consultation process and they wonder why in rural New Zealand they've all had a gutsful. They've had a gutsful because that type of arrogance is now endemic. So why has it been rushed through? Well one of the reasons it's being rushed through is that David Parker is determined to finish what he started in 2005. He has a fundamental belief that rural New Zealand's activities need to be constrained because he stood shoulder to shoulder with Prime Minister Clark when she stood up at the Knowledge Wave conference and said "Rural New Zealand provincial businesses—sunset industries. Their best days are behind them." Well this party rejects that fundamentally. David Parker doesn't and we are in a fight for who will win on behalf of the farmers. I look directly across to New Zealand First. There's another reason why this has been put here. It is because your leader has made it clear that he wants all this sort of stuff dealt with this year to try and get a bit of clear air for next year. Well let me tell you pushing through a process which is a complete sham of a consultation including legislating for what you've already decided on whilst at the same time asking regional councils for their feedback—Mark Patterson: Nothing's decided. TODD MULLER: —that is outrageous. It's legislated—it's in here. It's in here. Why do you do a consultation if you're already putting the legislation forward? It's because you've already made the decision and you want to progress it. I tell you rural New Zealand will not forget this. They will not forget it. The last comment I'd like to make just quickly is that there has been a lot of talk particularly by the Government side around the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and the fact that it needs to be amended. Those same regional councils have made it very clear that they have run a process on the back of Nick Smith's national policy statement for fresh water—new regulations promulgated just simply two years ago. They're running a process that is consultative that is collaborative and that is community by community looking at rivers and streams and making sure that over time they improve to the communities' expectations. All that collaborative process is lost if you run—as this legislation assumes—a process which needs to be notified by 2023 and operative in 2025. To all those listening this reflects a Government that is lost in hubris and arrogance. It consults on the one hand and has already made up its mind on the other and I tell you that New Zealanders won't forget."