Dyson RuthHon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): I am really pleased to lend my voice to the support of the Wildlife (Powers) Amendment Bill during the Committee stage. But before I make a contribution on that can I just pay a tribute to the many personnel volunteers and professionals who have lent so much support to the people who have been affected by the quakes. I also pay a tribute as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives and give support to their families. As many people pointed out in the contributions earlier today it really shows the New Zealand spirit when people are in need—people who have been affected by a natural disaster—and the first thing most New Zealanders do is say: What can I do to help?". That is something that we should treasure as part of our culture and it is also something that our systems should support. We know from lessons learnt in Canterbury that that was not always the case.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.Hon RUTH DYSON: I am delighted to continue my contribution in support of the Wildlife (Powers) Amendment Bill. When we adjourned for the dinner break just after I had started my contribution I was commending the amazing work done by both professionals and volunteers to help all those impacted by the Kaikōura earthquakes and to extend my sympathy and condolences to the families of the two people who have lost their lives. We have seen more and more photos coming through of this tragedy and it is great to feel the response of New Zealanders which is not to sit in shock but to say "What can we do to help?". That really needs to be commended.This bill has been substantially improved by the work of the select committee and I want to commend the chairperson of the committee who is gazing longingly at the swaying—Scott Simpson: No no you're making the earth move.Hon RUTH DYSON: All right. I will not wander down that path but I want to commend the member for his leadership in improving this bill—in fact most of the bill has been rewritten. I also want to commend the work of my colleague the Hon David Parker and urge support for his Supplementary Order Paper 243. I heard his contribution prior to the dinner break and it is really a sensible straightforward amendment. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the National Party would not say: "This is sensible. This is a really good move and we will support it." I am urging the Minister to take the opportunity to explain her opposition to this Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) or to risk looking a little churlish actually—that it is a SOP put up by a Labour member and therefore should be opposed. I do not agree with that sort of politics and I hope the Minister does not either.So this Supplementary Order Paper 243 fixes an omission in the current legislation that means that when fish and game rangers try to get a prosecution against somebody who has broken the law they are not able to not because they have not got a high level of proof not because the person did not do it not because they have not been rigorous in following their job and doing their job but because of a simple bit of information that they are required by law to present and that is the alleged offender's date of birth. If the alleged offender says "No I am not going to give you my date of birth." there is nothing at all that the fish and game ranger can do about it so the prosecution lapses. People who are breaking the law who are doing the very sorts of things that this bill wants to make harsher in terms of prosecution against those offences—those prosecutions lapse because of a foolish omission in the law made years and years and years ago that requires the fish and game rangers to present the alleged offender's date of birth. That is what this Supplementary Order Paper hopes to fix. It just takes out that provision which as I say is stopping prosecutions. David Parker sat on the select committee. Scott Simpson will I know support my view that he is a very hard-working and diligent member and would have taken a lot of time looking at the detail of this legislation. I am sure that Scott Simpson actually and other members of the National Party who would have sat on this committee and heard the evidence would be supportive of David Parker's SOP as well.So the primary purpose of this bill is to give greater powers to the full-time DOC rangers. I think that is a very good thing. We all care about our environment. We care about the species that are particularly endangered. Of course where the law has not kept up with the passage of time and where the powers of the rangers are too weak or the prosecution levels are too high then of course we would support improving it and that is what this bill does.There is the ability for the rangers to seize a wider range of evidence and there is the power to stop a person. Currently the DOC rangers do not have that. They can temporarily stop somebody whom they suspect of causing an offence and they can do an investigation while at the same time being allowed to stop that person. They can seize evidence which they have not been allowed to up until now—it might be laptops it might be cameras it might be mobile phones or something that they believe has evidence that would aid the prosecution—and they would have powers of arrest. So we support these measures.I am anxious that the Department of Conservation is yet again being asked to perform more work and yet again has seen a budget with less money in. In 2009 we had 803 DOC rangers in New Zealand; today we have 637. That is a big drop in the number of rangers and at the same time we have had annual cuts in DOC's budget. In 2009 its budget was cut by $46 million and in 2013 by another $8 million and a bit. This year it was cut further again. We cannot expect our dedicated DOC rangers or any other public servants to do more with less year after year after year. Sooner or later it gets to the point that is literally a tipping point and they say "No we just can't do all that." This is important work that we want them to do. This is important work that I think every party in Parliament is going to support being progressed—giving our rangers the DOC rangers and the Fish and Game rangers greater power. The only further improvement that I can see in this bill is that we support David Parker's SOP. So I urge the Minister to either stand and take a call and explain why she is not supporting that SOP to give us the benefit of her wisdom on this matter or otherwise vote in support of it. Thank you."