McClay Todd: Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4907. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 As the member of Parliament for Rotorua the Kawerau river and the mills which Mrs Delahunty the mover of this bill the Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill has mentioned fall in my electorate so I felt duty-bound to stand and speak on this issue. Can I start by saying to the people of Kawerau that I know how very much they rely upon the mills and what an important part of their lives they are. 
Having said that I want to make a few comments about the importance of these mills to Kawerau and to the wider Bay of Plenty and then about some of the challenges we face around the environment and why I believe that as the Hon Nick Smith said earlier the very best place to have this debate and look to make changes to legislation would be in a wider reform of the Resource Management Act as opposed to singling out in a piece of legislation like this one river one mill one area. I think there are some things we need to talk about without doubt but a wider review and reform of the Resource Management Act is the best place for that. 
The mills in Kawerau have a great deal of history. Indeed without them the town of Kawerau would not exist. It is probably fair to say that if you were to build mills of that size today you would not build them on a river the size of the one in question. Nevertheless that was done many years ago when we did not have the same focus on the environment as we importantly have today. 
The Carter Holt Harvey pulp and paper mill directly employs 210 people and approximately 140 dedicated onsite contracting staff on top of that. It produces 290000 tonnes of market kraft paper per year; 40 percent of that is exported to Asia and 30 percent to Australia and 30 percent is used domestically. Its chemical pulp exports from New Zealand in the year ending 2009 were valued at about $450 million and 39 percent of them derived from the Tasman mill—a value of about $176 million in exports for New Zealand. It also sells locally in New Zealand. Therefore the value of the work of this mill to New Zealand and the local economy is about $260 million. 
There are two mills there. There is also the NorskeSkog mill. They share the consent that Mrs Delahunty has mentioned. Collectively they directly employ 830 people and contractors and they are responsible for effectively creating an additional 3500 jobs in the wider Bay of Plenty economy. They contribute about $890 million of indirect impact $169 million to household incomes in the Bay of Plenty $1.5 billion to the New Zealand economy and $306 million to New Zealand households with 7345 fulltime-equivalent jobs. 
The challenge that we have around this resource consent which was issued a couple of years ago is that the owners of the mill needed to upgrade the mill. They needed to upgrade it for a number of reasons including the environmental impact that it was having in its current state. They needed to invest $60 million in a new boiler and other facilities there. They went for a resource consent and our regional council at the time looked at it. There was an understanding that without this investment the mill would not be able to continue to function as it was and many of those jobs would be lost. 
At the same time there was recognition of the challenges we face in the environment. I think our regional council did a very good job in balancing some of the concerns of the community about the needs of the environment against the need for investment in a plant that is of absolute importance to the Bay of Plenty and to much of my electorate. So the council was faced with a difficulty there. Indeed the resource consent was issued. It was challenged. It went to the Environment Court. I think the process did work as was intended when the law was originally written and put in place. All parties had an opportunity to have their say. Since then the companies concerned have entered into agreements contracts with local iwi to provide assistance and funding to make sure that the waterways are kept as clean as they can be. 
What I want to do in the moment I have left is just to say that one of the conditions of the consent was that the company needed to continue to reduce the pollution that might be being put into the river. Indeed if we look at 2004 compared with today what is being put into the river today is only 30 percent of what was being put in at that period of time. At the end of this consent period there will be one-eighth of the amount going into the river that was the case before. 
So I would say that the mills are good corporate citizens. They do have the environment at heart. They work closely with the community. National members will not be supporting this bill although I do think a debate is important when it comes to the wider Resource Management Act reforms. But to the people of Kawerau who I know support the mills and the work they do to the council and to others there it is very important that if this bill does go to the Local Government and Environment Committee they have the opportunity to have their say. Thank you.