Hayes Joanne: Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5216. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): I rise to take a short call on the Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill in the name of Meka Whaitiri. I do not really understand why this bill actually came here because at the end of the day the basis of the role of the Environmental Protection Authority is as a regulating body. It does protect and maintain and enhance the New Zealand environment from a number of perspectives. The previous speaker Eugenie Sage talked about what the Environmental Protection Authority actually did as a regulator. I am not going to repeat that because it is pretty much clear: it is the overarching regulatory role that the authority actually carries out.It works with a number of other enforcement agencies because to protect and maintain and do all the things that this bill is purporting to say is actually a shared responsibility. The Environmental Protection Authority is the group that actually looks after and makes sure and monitors that all of these things are actually happening. So the other enforcement agencies that the authority works with are the Ministry for Primary Industries WorkSafe New Zealand the Ministry of Health the Civil Aviation Authority the New Zealand Customs Service Maritime New Zealand the New Zealand Police the New Zealand Transport Agency regional councils and territorial authorities. This is all the responsibility of all of these agencies working together with the Environmental Protection Authority. To make it even more robust in the work that it does it is overseen by the Ministry for the Environment.The Environmental Protection Authority Act as my colleague Scott Simpson said came into force in 2011. The authority is an organisation that is at arm’s length to the Government. It is an organisation that provides a number of oversight reports that many of us in the Local Government and Environment Committee have already received to do with water and to do with air. Those are the things that this organisation does. To change that to put this amendment in and to support this amendment would change the actual role and the function of the Environmental Protection Authority. It would actually change it and make it very different and confusing for everybody who has been working with this authority to do with its objectives. This is not necessary. It is not necessary.I want to just talk a little bit about a project that I was involved in just recently. It was a Business and Parliament Trust placement. I went to an organisation called the 3R Group Ltd. Its prime role beside waste minimisation is key to the protection of the environment. I can tell you that the work that it does in upholding—and this is what I am saying. It is about everyone’s responsibility. Reducing the amount of waste into landfills into the waste—Resene Paints etc.—is actually an example of how we can sit above there at the apex of looking after the environment. And that is why with the Environmental Protection Authority doing its role in making sure that everything is being regulated and everybody is contributing there is no need for Meka Whaitiri’s bill.I think that to allow us to stand and speak about this seems to be a bit of a waste of parliamentary time when we have a lot of other important bills that need to come to this House and go through. Although it might have taken her a little bit of time to put it together and all the people across the other side of the House are all talking and jabbering back to me I can tell you right now that the work that this Government has done for protecting the environment goes a long way—much more than the 9 years of a Labour-led Government that did absolutely nothing. So in wrapping up I am proud of the work that this Government has done to do with protecting the environment. The Environmental Protection Authority does a wonderful job. I do not support this bill. Thank you.