Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. The previous speech was that voice of jealousy and fear that comes when something happens that the National Government cannot control and that it knows is welcomed by the country. I am glad that the previous speaker Maurice Williamson felt he had to devote his speech to us but actually we are here for other reasons and we have got things to talk about that are not based on jealousy and fear.What we want to talk about is clean water. Imagine that a child was born 10 years ago next to a river and in that child's life over the last 10 years that child has never been able to swim in that river. I am talking about the Waikirikiri/Selwyn River where a child has grown up in a beautiful area with an amazing coastal lake and an incredibly significant river to find that they can never swim in it. Every summer there is a sign saying that it is temporary but you cannot swim in this river. That is 10 years of a child's life and 8 years of a Government that has completely failed to fix the problem. That is the legacy for that child at the Waikirikiri/Selwyn River.Imagine being a man in his 60s at the Wairua River in Tai Tokerau who gets up every day gets into his inflatable boat and goes up and down the Wairua River taking photographs of the cows destroying the banks and polluting the water. The industry has impacted so heavily on it that he as a volunteer has to devote his life to cleaning up that river. All his photographs get sent to the regional council and yet it is not listening. Neither the regional council nor the Government is listening.Imagine if you were living in the middle of a city next to a creek that was once full of kayaks and annual swimming events and that the Minister for the Environment says no one wants to swim in and you belonged to a community group that has been fighting for that creek and you heard the Government say: Oh no one wants to swim in Lucas Creek." Imagine being a member of those groups that are still fighting because they believe our children have a birthright to swim in those rivers.Imagine you come from the Waikato and you are a farmer in the lower Waikato planting fencing and desperately trying to clean up water quality while the Government and the regional council refuse to turn the tap off at the top of the catchment. Dairy conversions across the volcanic plateau are pouring diffused nitrogen into your river as you try to fix it. The tap has to be turned off. The Government and the regional council do not have the political will to do so.Imagine you are the young people from my rohe a youth group called Te Mātauranga Tira which is a passionate group of young people who came to me and said "We want one thing for our river."—this one is the Waihou. "And what is that?" I said to them. They said: "We want to be able to swim in it. We cannot swim in our river. Our whakapapa tell us this is our river; we cannot swim it." The Waihou goes into the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana and is full of dairy effluent day after day after day.Imagine if every time a person got up on their marae to do their pepeha to talk about their mountain and then their river their river was the "Black Drain"—Tarawera the most polluted river in the Bay of Plenty where the pulp mills have had free reign at putting their contamination into the river. When the mills improved the colour they added to the toxicity so although the river looks cleaner it is just as toxic in recent years as it has been for quite some time. Those of us who fought for the clean-up know what it means to those people whose whakapapa is still the "Black Drain".Imagine if you came from Waitara and you stood up against sewage and backflow up the Waitara River and you were sued by your regional council. I am talking about Rob Fiona and Pikikore who individually are being sued for standing up for clean water. That is the legacy of the last 8 years—a person can be sued for standing up for clean water in Taranaki.The Manawatū the Ruamāhanga the Mataura and more—we have so many rivers that need to be swimmable that can be swimmable and that the Green Party will fight for alongside community groups. We believe in fresh water. It is not a choice; it is a necessity. We believe in swimmable rivers. The Minister Nick Smith believes that there are too many birds and too much volcanic ash. That is a joke. That is just completely out of touch. We can have swimmable rivers and with us and our leadership we will."