Shanks Katrina: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
Shanks Katrina: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
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KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to stand and speak tonight on the Waste Minimisation Bill. I have just joined this debate and I would firstly acknowledge the officials who are sitting here tonight. I realise that it is quarter to nine on a Wednesday night and I thank them very much for coming along and listening to what we have to say. I also thank them for the hard work they put into the Local Government and Environment Committee because their work has given us the legislation before us for debate tonight. I thank them very much; we appreciate the time and effort they have put in. 
When I was reading the commentary on this bill I was interested to see that there were only 125 submitters on it which I found interesting. Waste is something that people are very emotional about and it is very topical globally not just in New Zealand. I would have thought that hundreds of submitters would be coming to the select committee or putting forward a written submission about their views on waste. I was surprised to see there were only 125 submitters on this bill— 
Hon Member 
: On the second bill; not the first one. 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: I have just been corrected. This is the second round. There were 300 submitters on the first bill. I would expect 400 submitters in total to come to the select committee and talk to this type of bill. It is a very emotive issue for many New Zealanders who are very passionate about preserving this clean green beautiful country that we live in as we are its custodians for future generations. 
Of the second lot of submitters who spoke to this bill I was interested to see that 8 percent opposed the bill 22 percent supported it outright and 61 percent supported it with some amendments. This bill has been well supported by submitters to the select committee. The local government sector and community groups were unanimous in their support and even 85 percent of businesses gave their cautious support. I think that is a great step forward for New Zealand and for where our mindset is with regard to our waste. 
I understand that Part 4 talks about local authorities and the role they have to play in waste in New Zealand. I am not a member of the select committee so I have not had the inside run on what has been happening or what submitters have said but when I was asked to speak on the bill tonight all I could think about for some reason was New Zealand’s tips dumps and landfills. When many people like me think of waste that is what we actually think about—the tips the dumps and the landfills. In fact we have reduced the number that we have in New Zealand. About 30 years ago we had about 300 or 400 tips and today we have about 60 landfills throughout New Zealand. Naturally New Zealand is becoming more and more aware of its waste and over a long period of time we have reduced the number of places where we can take it. That has been driven to a large extent by the local authorities themselves. It is a great step forward without central government even interfering in this process. We are putting up bills and local authorities have gone naturally in this direction. 
It was interesting to read in Part 4 about strategies and waste strategies in terms of reducing reusing recycling and the recovery of energy. When we talk about waste we talk about a pyramid of waste—about what we should do first as our priority to reduce the amount of waste we have. This bill goes a long way towards reducing the amount of waste and also towards encouraging recycling as opposed to everything going straight into waste. The waste we renew is obviously the second tier down which is talked about in Part 4. It talks about reusing our waste—what is waste to one person is not waste to another. Recycling is very important and the recovery of energy which is the fourth tier is also extremely important. I think this is a great bill and it is my pleasure to stand here tonight in support of Part 4.