Turei Metiria: Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
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METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I move  
That the Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill be considered by the Local Government and Environment Committee. Before I begin my talk on this bill let us have a look at what kinds of marine animals we are talking about. The photo I am holding up shows eight dead Hector’s dolphins. They are the second-most endangered species of dolphin in this country. The other side of the photo shows dead sea-mammals a fur seal and a sea lion. Other photos show dead albatross killed by the fishing industry and found by observers on fishing industry boats. 
These are the kinds of marine animals I refer to in my bill. They are absolutely protected species under the Wildlife Act but they fail to get any real protection because of the legislative mess of our Marine Mammals Protection Act. My bill is an attempt to resolve some of that mess so that those animals—albatross Hector’s dolphins Hooker’s sea lions fur seals and Maui’s dolphins—achieve some degree of protection by our community. All of those animals have died as a result of poor industry regulation and failed legislative protection. Those marine animals are not the only kinds at threat. New Zealand has half of the world’s whales and dolphins present in its waters including the rare southern right whale and the endemic dolphin species. New Zealand sea lions are found only in our southern waters as is the more wide-ranging kekeno or New Zealand fur seal. We are known as the seabird capital of the world. A third of the 84 seabird species that breed here are found only in Aotearoa and half of the world’s albatross species circle our waters. The critically endangered Maui’s dolphin numbers just 111. Only 36 fairy tern individuals hang on to survival in this country. Up to 10000 albatross and petrels drown on tuna longlines each year in New Zealand waters. In the last breeding season 600 New Zealand sea-lion females failed to return and a third fewer pups were born as a result. 
With many marine animal populations declining and the eyes of our export markets watching us this is a crucial time to boost biodiversity protection and ensure a sustainable future for our ocean. The international journal  
Conservation Biology 
 recently published a report entitled  
Major Conservation Policy Issues for Biodiversity in Oceania 
. The report was compiled by 14 scientists including two from New Zealand—one from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and one from the Department of Conservation. In that report the lead author Professor Richard Kingsford of the University of New South Wales described the Pacific region as having the notorious distinction of having possibly the worst extinction record on earth. Species are threatened by habitat loss and degradation invasive species climate change overexploitation pollution and wildlife disease. 
Today we will see the National Government allow those threats to continue unabated because National intends to vote against the protection of marine animals. This bill poses a very serious problem for the supposed Bluegreens group within the National Party. Before the 2008 election Dr Nick Smith a key leader of the Bluegreens group said: “Further deterioration in [Hector’s and Maui] populations must be halted … If it is a choice between fishers’ rights and dolphins’ survival the dolphins must come first.” But the Bluegreens whether or not they are led by Nick Smith clearly have no influence over their Government. As a group of environmentalists within National they are clearly impotent. I am truly sorry about that. I have met with Bluegreen members around the country and I know they are passionate and committed to achieving environmental and conservation gains. But they operate within a party that will simply use them for “greenwash” because that is what the Bluegreens have become through National’s failure to protect marine animals. 
There is no doubt that National members tonight will make the false argument of environment versus economy. That is their mantra. It demonstrates an extraordinary economic deficit in their thinking although it is a common one from Governments I must say. One comment from the lead author of the conservation report I referred to stated: “The biggest problem seems to be that the policy challenges are just not being taken up by governments. Conservation policies are just seen as a problem for the economy”. But that is clearly not the case especially in the context of the protection of marine animals. Marine tourism is estimated to generate more than $100 million a year to New Zealand. The fishing industry is under increasing pressure from our markets to reduce its environmental impact. The New Zealand brand itself is at risk. Just last week it was reported that “The upmarket grocery chain Waitrose has refused to stock hoki because the ‘destructive’ method of bottom trawling did not fit with its sustainable suppliers programme.” The hoki fishery is worth $151 million in exports to New Zealand. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Well that’s it isn’t it? 
METIRIA TUREI 
: That is right. 
If we are to sustain our economy in difficult times we must invest now in measures to protect the natural resources on which our economy is based. The green new deal argument for greater conservation measures is clear and even the notably disengaged—I have to say—Minister of Conservation Tim Groser thinks so. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Who? 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Yes. He recently said: “Biodiversity has positive economic value and removing or degrading it threatens the ecosystem it supports … Tourism focused on marine mammal experiences for example must be monitored and controlled to ensure the animals are protected and the business opportunity endures.” Even the Prime Minister has waxed lyrical about this saying: “Our environment is a huge part of our brand … The Government will work to protect the resources that tourism providers rely on—clean air clean water and unique landscapes.” Well I say to the Prime Minister that that may be the case but clearly National believes its own effort will result in clean air without seabirds and albatross clean water without sea lions and Maui’s dolphins and landscapes without little blue penguins and fairy terns. In short it is a nice clean environment completely devoid of unique New Zealand marine species on which that brand is dependent. 
My bill provides just one option for how to reform our legislative tools to provide greater protection for marine animals such as those in the photos I have held up—Hector’s dolphins the albatross and the sea lions. My bill is quite technical in that it alters three different Acts—the Marine Mammals Protection Act the Fisheries Act and the Wildlife Act—in order to strengthen definitions to set clear objectives and principles for protection and to require proper monitoring. It alters the relative powers of the Minister of Conservation and the Minister of Fisheries in developing population management plans. My bill is no threat nor is it perfect but it would have given Parliament the opportunity to tweak the laws that are meant to be protecting our marine mammals and sea birds. It is quite obvious from the photos I have shown that those laws are not working. 
The direct interactions of marine animals with human activities on the sea—like fishing mining and tourism—can be managed directly through legislation. The Marine Mammals Protection Act is designed to do that but unfortunately it has not—in part because it is subservient to the Fisheries Act. The powerful tool of population management plans in the Marine Mammals Protection Act has yet to be used in this country. Too much power lies with the Minister of Fisheries and a Fisheries Act that is biased towards utilisation. This is the position that National clearly favours to the detriment of our $100 million marine tourism industry to the detriment of access to the global markets from industries and to the detriment of vulnerable New Zealand marine species which are at real risk of extinction under a National Government. The Bluegreens should hang their heads in shame. In anticipation of the support of the Labour Party Progressive and the Maori Party I acknowledge that those parties have all agreed to provide their support for this bill and to the marine animals that are so clearly in desperate need of protection. I commend the bill to the House.