Sage EugenieCONSERVATION (INDIGENOUS FRESHWATER FISH) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 7 August.Hon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Madam Speaker thank you. I was saying previously that the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill will ensure that 57 species of native fish including eels will have the same level of protection on public conservation land as our birds insects geckos and other wildlife. So it will end that double standard that currently applies where native fish don't have any protection.The Environment Committee has recommended that there be some changes here in terms of the authorisation that the Director-General of Conservation can give to go fishing on conservation land where the bed of a stream or river is conservation land. The committee has recommended that there be a one-year transition period to ensure that there are quite careful decisions on what fishing authorisations are to be issued and to ensure that this year's whitebait season isn't affected. And I also welcome the select committee's addition to the bill of an ability for the director-general to authorise fishing not just by one person but to authorise it generally by Gazette notice. I'd also note that the number of rivers and streams where the bed is conservation land is a small proportion of the area where whitebait is fished so I think some of the concerns that we have heard from the Opposition are somewhat erroneous.I think the minority view that is in the select committee's report back also indicates some confusion about the relationship between this bill and the consultation that the Department of Conservation is doing on whitebait management. It started that work last year and it happened earlier this year as well. So the relationship is quite simple. The bill provides a tool box for managing freshwater fisheries. How that tool box is used needs to be decided in consultation with tangata whenua and with stakeholders and the wider public. There will be a discussion document on this released for public comment later this year and then the bill will ensure once it becomes law that whatever comes out of that consultation and review process will be able to be implemented. Without this bill and the changes that it enables to the freshwater fish regulations that would not be possible.There were a large number of submissions from Fish & Game licence holders. They were concerned that the bill would affect the ability of Fish & Game councils to manage sports fisheries such as trout and salmon and so the committee has recommended that clause 5(3) be deleted. Now that clause was all about ensuring that there was certainty if there was any conflict between provisions in a sports fisheries management plan and one for native fish but the deletion of that clause has been supported by the New Zealand Fish & Game Council.But the key issue is that for native fish to thrive—for any fish to thrive whether they're native or sports fish—they need suitable habitat. It's the loss of spawning areas the barriers to fish movement up and down streams the sediment pollution and the loss of habitats such as wetlands that have pushed our native fish towards the brink of extinction. The Government is tackling those issues through the freshwater reform but this bill is also really important in the way that it goes about protecting spawning sites because those spawning sites need to be protected if we are to have productive fisheries. But the existing law was unworkable. The committee has recommended some changes there in that for spawning sites to be protected they actually need to be identified and declared as spawning areas so that people know where they are and before any of the offence provisions could come into play.The hundreds of submissions that the select committee received on the bill highlight the passion that New Zealanders have for our native species for native freshwater fish and the overwhelming public support for protecting them and improving their management. The provisions in the Conservation Act around native fish are old they're incomplete and in many cases they're poorly drafted. This bill as reported back and when enacted will provide me as Minister and the department with a complete tool box for starting to address the serious issues facing our native fish. I want to thank submitters for their views the Environment Committee and the departmental officials for their work and I look forward to a future in which every New Zealander can visit their local stream to either feed a tame eel watch a shoal of īnanga or can eat a whitebait fritter without worrying that they are eating threatened native fish. Thank you.