Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:624;Page:19521] 
5.  
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for the Environment 
: How many times did the Prime Minister use the word “environment” in the Prime Minister’s statement at the start of this year? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 The actual word does not appear but actions speak louder than words. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Does the Minister agree that the Prime Minister’s speech and the Government’s economic strategy are risking the future of our children and grandchildren by ignoring the importance of maintaining environmental services given the findings of yesterday’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No. 
David Parker 
: Could the Minister name some of the environmental actions this Government has undertaken that do speak louder than words? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: In the interests of brevity I will name just some. In relation to air we have approved the first-ever national environment standards and we are undertaking the warm homes programme. In respect of water we have the Water Programme of Action under way specifically working on water quality issues in Taupo and Rotoiti. There is the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord the flood review the Waitaki water allocation plan the contaminated sites clean-up as in Mapua the Agrichemical collection in almost all regions and 21 contaminated sites in eight regions being funded. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Does the Minister agree with the report’s author Dr Walter Reid that: “There are steps we could take that really would reverse the degradation of some of these services but they are very significant steps and much more than the action that is being taken today.”; therefore does she agree that her Water Programme of Action which contains no actions and her waste strategy and packaging accord which are entirely voluntary are woefully inadequate to deal with the magnitude of the problem? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Yes I do agree that there has to be some solutions. In terms of one of them I take note that in a speech that the member used in response to the Prime Minister’s speech she said: “Look at the solutions that there are out there. I went to a sustainable living expo in Christchurch where there was clean-burning wood fires.” Why is somebody exhibiting clean-burning wood fires? It is in response to a national environment standard established by this Government. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Does the Minister see any similarity between the millennium report’s finding that sudden and unprecedented releases of nitrogen and other nutrients have triggered massive drops in freshwater quality and our own Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report  
Growing for Good: Intensive farming sustainability and New Zealand’s environment 
 which documented a 160 percent increase in nitrogen fertiliser application in just 6 years and what is her Government proposing to do to limit the amount of nitrogen that runs off into the freshwater we all depend on? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Yes I do and in terms of actions speaking louder than words we have committed $36.7 million to Taupo to address the question of nitrates flying into water. We have allocated $7 million to Rotorua lakes and on both occasions we are involved in negotiations with the landholders there so that they can grow their economies and their farms and reduce nitrates. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Does the Minister agree with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report that the value of ecosystem services provided by free-flowing rivers and intact wetlands is often greater than their immediate economic value such as for hydro and irrigation; if so how will she change provisions for water allocation in the Resource Management Act to reflect this? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I refer to a question asked previously by Jeannette Fitzsimons when she said that all we are doing in the Water Programme of Action is talking. We are talking prior to developing the policy so that we can work out the property issues around water allocation and water re-allocation because they are severe and serious issues and also issues around hydro-electric planning versus irrigation. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: In light of the report’s finding that the biggest cause of the problems is growth in economic activity beyond what the planet’s resources can sustain when will her Government reorient its primary economic goal away from simplistic growth in GDP and towards improvement in human wellbeing within the limits of the planet? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: There are a number of reports on these issues and I refer back to Agenda 21 in the Rio accord which argued for growth in economics growth in social development and protection of the environment. It is not a question of “either or”; it is a question of “both and”.