Parker DavidHon DAVID PARKER (Labour): There are two issues I want to raise in this contribution. The first is why the legislative framework no longer sets up a levy; it's now tax. Levies are collected for purposes for which the activity is related. So if you take a levy from the solid waste sector you should be spending it in that sector. You shouldn't be using it for other purposes that are unrelated—for example for dealing with agricultural pollution from non-point source discharges or for riparian planting and that sort of thing which are unrelated to landfills.CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): And is this related to the title and commencement?Hon DAVID PARKER: Yes absolutely.CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): OK.Hon DAVID PARKER: This is the difference between a levy and a tax which I'm trying to explain. A levy is collected for purposes that are related to the activity for which it is collected which in this case is waste. Waste" is defined in the Waste Minimisation Act Madam Chair and I'm happy to read that out to you because that definition does not change. It's set out in the definition clause clause 5: "waste"—(a) means any thing that is disposed of or discarded; and (b) includes a type of waste that is defined by its composition or source (for example organic waste electronic waste or construction and demolition waste) and (c) to avoid doubt includes any component of the element of diversion material if the component or element is disposed of or discarded". So it's clearly intended to cover with the sorts of things that you dispose of in the various sorts of landfills that we have—not general pollution into the air or general pollution into the water not greenhouse gas emissions not water pollution—and yet the changes that have been made by the House at the request of the Minister have changed this legislation. We tried to put amendments to limit the purpose of this could be put to to waste and those amendments were voted down by the House essentially by the Government members. So that's why this should not be called a levy.The second point is that because of that we're not going to fool local government on this. Local government put up with their citizens paying at municipal dumps because that's where all the money is collected essentially—every cent that is collected under this levy—and already it's a big step for them to give up half of it over to the spending of central government. They put up with that because there are some things that need central government contribution like facilities that you only have one of in the whole of New Zealand like—Hon Rachel Brooking: Like glass.Hon DAVID PARKER: Yeah and glass schemes throughout the country and things or some of this expensive kit. But they want it all spent on waste. Now I previously addressed the House as to how we got to the point where local government asked for this to be imposed on their local citizens with the knowledge that it was going to be recycled into waste minimisation including by the Government. You be a councillor now and come along and tell your local communities "Oh we're going to put this up and by the way it's not going to be spent on waste minimisation. We're going to spend it down the other end of the country on a bit of agricultural runoff which is unrelated"—Andy Foster: It could still be spent down the other end of the country but on waste.Hon DAVID PARKER: Well yes to the extent that you have facilities that are centralised they have to be centralised somewhere and they should be centralised in different parts of the country actually. But the idea that local councils are now going to put their hand up and say "We want to give more money over to the Government from our people to spend on things unrelated to us." is just complete nonsense and they'll see through the fact that this is no longer a waste levy. It's a taxation to fill in holes that have been created in the same Budget through the Freshwater Improvement Fund because otherwise the Government's got no money to spend on the freshwater improvements that this country needs.So that's why we will be voting against this title because it is neither a levy nor is it now about waste as defined in this very Act. It's going to broader purposes which are going to in the end undermine the consensus that we have achieved which I think we should be proud of as a country to do something on solid waste."