Carter KahurangiKAHURANGI CARTER (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well it looks like I am the last speaker for the night so I thought that I could talk a little bit about circular economies and I know that you all love to learn things. So let's talk about some of these finite resources that we're talking about with this extractive exploitive system that we currently have and why we need to be serious about waste minimisation in New Zealand. We need to be serious about investing in waste minimisation because the waste problem in this country is horrific. There is a major waste problem and we need this Government to be serious about waste minimisation.So like I said in my first reading the infrastructure for waste minimisation has a deficit of $2.4 billion over the next 10 years. That is outrageous when you're thinking of taking money from the Waste Minimisation Fund from this waste levy and putting it into places that you've decided weren't good enough to fund. These are things like clean rivers because we know Kiwis care about clean rivers. We want our kids to be able to swim in those rivers and learn from the river. We care about community solutions and about people who have been doing this work for generations—the people who are on the ground who are best placed to come up with these solutions and to deliver these solutions. A few days ago Minister Simmonds spoke at the waste minimisation conference and repeated the words industry-led". Now this is what waste levies are about. The other side of the House wants to leave it up to industry up to the biggest polluters to do the right thing. Well it's actually our job as the Government to make sure that our biggest polluters are actually paying the price because otherwise the people that are going to be paying the price are our future generations. This is absolute greenwashing at its finest. You are slashing funding for clean rivers you are slashing funding for the Community Environment Fund you are slashing funding for environmental action and climate action and then you're coming over and taking money from these waste levies. These waste levies are also—can I remind the other side of the House—less than half of what they are in New South Wales and in Victoria and in the UK.So there's a lot of things going on here. Firstly we need to increase the waste levy more because we have got a massive waste problem in this country. We need to be moving that towards about $20 a year increase. Hon Penny Simmonds: Cost of living crisis.KAHURANGI CARTER: Well industries actually aren't feeling that cost of living crisis. So if we if we actually look at industry paying that extra and leaving households who are doing what they can with what they have—and our households are doing a good job because they do care about the future generations. They do care about waste minimisation. That's why we saw the uptake in recycling. That's why we see people repairing things. That's why we see people wanting to know how to repair their things so that they're not just having to send them to landfill which is the current system we've got. Do you know the amazing thing about having a waste levy that actually—actually—invests in waste solutions like the Plastics Innovation Fund? But oh no—that's gone too. When we actually invest in our communities the ones who are doing the work on the ground—now I know that we didn't get a chance to talk to community but that's OK because I did it for you. Today I went and spoke to Para Kore. Para Kore are the only national Māori-led organisation who work on waste minimisation in New Zealand. They work with over 800 organisations around New Zealand at the flaxroots to implement systems to reconnect and to deepen connection with Papatūānuku and Ranginui and to ensure that our future generations can breathe fresh air from our mountains and they can swim in the moana and not be swimming in pollution. So with the help of Para Kore at the school in Māhia they were growing their own food working on food sovereignty and then using that food for the Food in Schools project and then at the end of that there was zero waste going to landfill. So that is how effective Para Kore is. But unfortunately because of decisions from the other side of the House you've decided to actually slash and burn their funding. So those 800 organisations across Aotearoa who are learning about a te ao Māori world view of waste minimisation and living in harmony with nature—that is gone. Now we're talking about environment centres. So for Environment Hubs Aotearoa their funding has been slashed as well—environment hubs who became these amazing resources and sanctuaries in our climate emergencies. We saw them stepping up. We saw civil defence using those hubs as distribution centres because those hubs are known to the community. But what's happening? We're cutting—well not "we're". You're cutting that funding as well. So I want to see local solutions. We want to see local solutions—Andy Foster: Point of order Mr Speaker. The point of order is that in the last debate that we were having this side was instructed very clearly to stick exactly to the bill. We are not hearing about the bill. We're hearing quite a wide discussion there but it's not about the bill itself and we were instructed to stick specifically to the bill. I don't think the member there is doing that.SPEAKER: Well it is a second reading and I'm sure there are aspects of this—in fact I know there are aspects of this—that were covered in that first reading. I've watched all the proceedings for the day and then we'll carry on. But keep it as tight to the bill as you possibly can in the next minute and a half.KAHURANGI CARTER: Sure thing—thank you. So Para Kore literally translates to "para" which is "waste" and "kore" which is "nothing"—to zero waste. Para Kore is about solutions for zero waste but their funding is being cut and this comes from the waste—Simon Court: Because it doesn't work.KAHURANGI CARTER: Well the 800 organisations that they work with who are growing food in schools and feeding the tamariki and having zero waste going to landfill—it's incredible and inspiring and I'm sorry that the other side isn't ambitious and that they can't see that vision for a better future for our tamariki. But we over here can. We can see a world where we live in harmony with nature. Now EHA is the Environment Hubs Aotearoa. Like I said they were havens in these climate emergencies and their funding is being slashed as well. Then what's happening is the biggest greenwashing that there is which is that because you're not funding the environmental initiatives and funding environmental and climate action what you're doing is you are not taking waste minimisation seriously.So let's talk about those finite resources. Basically pretty much everything in here is comes from five main resources. Those are bauxite which makes our aluminium; it is iron which is making our steel; it is the silica sand which makes our glass; and it is our oil which is making our plastic. The fifth one is trees—now that is the only renewable resource out of all of those that we have. I don't think you're quite grasping that these resources are finite. We don't have millions of years for them to come back into being. So once we use those resources up they are gone and it's going to be up to our children and the future generations to be cleaning up our mess. I want us to live by that mantra of "Waste not want not." because that's what our kids deserve. I want to make sure that those people who are on the ground—well this Government talks about being about localism. Well you are slashing funding for the communities who are on the ground doing this work and taking funding away from the people who are the most well placed to actually do this mahi because they understand their communities like that school in Māhia and like Roma Marae in the Far North who have a food forest that will feed generations to come. That reduces our waste because if you understand waste you understand that there is so much embodied energy in anything we do. So when you are—Simon Court: Kahurangi come back tomorrow. KAHURANGI CARTER: Oh we've got 30 seconds to go. Well let's talk about some things that I want for my children and for my future generations. I want my children to live in a world where we treasure the precious finite resources that have been gifted to us by nature instead of slashing and burning—slashing and burning—them. Then they can live with a legacy of abundance that they deserve because that is what they deserve. Kia ora. SPEAKER: The time has come for me to leave the Chair. The House will resume at 9 a.m.Debate interrupted.Sitting suspended from 12.03 a.m. to 9 a.m. (Saturday)"