Doocey Matt: Environmental Reporting Bill — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionDoocey Matt: Environmental Reporting Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4550. Text is subject to correction.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri):I just want to follow on from that member Megan Woods and talk about political interference independence and accountability. I think it is right that the Minister is involved with the domain reports and the synthesis reports for that mere fact of accountability. I would point out in clause 18 “Regulations” subclause (3) says: “Before recommending the making of regulations under subsection (1) the Ministers must consult (a) the Government Statistician; and (b) the Commissioner; and (c) the public; and (d) iwi authorities; and (e) local authorities.” So there is consultation and there is accountability. With that clause in there I think it does exactly that. It stops that political interference. It means the Ministers have to go through that consultation to speak with the Government Statistician the commissioner and the public especially. So the public will be involved in the domains and I think that very much answers that question around political interference.I can understand the calls for independence but equally what we want is accountability. That is why under this Government the Ministers will stand up and take accountability. I also draw reference to clause 15 about reports being fair and accurate. One thing that was not discussed in the previous stage around purpose is that the purpose of this bill—yes we are reporting on domains every 6 months and a synthesis report I think every 3 years but underneath that is trust and confidence.What this bill is doing through clause 15—we need to ensure that the public has trust and confidence in our environmental reporting. At the moment they quite rightly probably have very little trust and confidence. We are hardly on a par with other OECD countries and yet again it takes a National Government to stand up in the environmental space and deliver. So with the trust and confidence I think the public is sick of hearing half-truths and misinformation. We know that when we had the experience of the Green Party putting out around our primary industries having a high carbon emission rate.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume his seat. We are not having a good night tonight. The member is making a speech that might have been relevant at the second reading. We are now debating Part 2 as reported by the Local Government and Environment Committee and I want the member to come back to why or why not this particular part meets the objectives that the House has accepted at second reading.MATT DOOCEY: There is just one final clause I would like to refer to clause 13 “Roles of Secretary and Government Statistician”. Subclause (3) is about the Government Statistician understanding and being satisfied that best-practice principles are at play here. That is because we need to ensure that we have data quality. In the sense of measuring the reports of the domain reports we need to ensure that the quality of the data is rigorous and has value. So that is why I am happy to support this bill.