Sio William: Environmental Reporting Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Environmental Reporting Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 23 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4689. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere):The Green member Eugenie Sage has put in a range of amendments that the Labour Party supports. Eugenie Sage also said that those amendments were in response to submissions made by the public. I simply make reference to one group that made a submission on a range of clauses—clauses 7 12 13 and 16—and that is a group called the Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand. This is a group that has existed since 1972. It is an umbrella body for environmental organisations the length and breadth of New Zealand.I know that the Minister has responded and rejected the point made by Eugenie Sage which was that there is a need for independence and I will tell you why. If you look at clause 7(2) with regard to choosing the national and international standards to measure against the Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa made this point: who gets to choose these international standards? By all the evidence based on this bill it will be the Minister or it will be the Secretary for the Environment who will make this decision. This organisation feels—and I believe the mood that it was in—that whenever the Minister or the head of the department is involved it is a political environment and invariably it is susceptible to the political pressures that could be put upon it.Clauses 12 and 18 talk about choosing the topics to be reported. Again this organisation submitted that it felt there was no independence and in order for this reporting to be independent and to have some integrity so that the public can believe the information that is contained in these reports it requires an independent assessment. One of the things these scientists submitted was that scientists have other scientists who critique their work so independence is necessary. What they are saying is that the way the bill is drafted as it stands there is too much room for political independence so that there is no oversight as to what topics will be reported upon and the contents of those reports. I think the Committee fails to recognise that these are simply reports; these are reports that get tabled.The real crux of the matter comes whether the Government of the day acts on the contents of that particular report. But presently as it stands it is simply a report. So those in the environmental community do not feel that the way that the bill sits at the moment provides sufficient confidence to them in order for the public to have confidence that this is genuine real substantial information and that the follow-up work by the Government of the day is to act upon that information. If the information is not provided then the Government can rightly say: “Well why should we act on it if that information is not provided?”.So in terms of the submissions made by the Supplementary Order Paper put forward by Eugenie Sage I absolutely agree and we support it on this side of the Chamber because the big question that remains to be answered is how do we guarantee that the information reported on can be independent accurate and trusted by the New Zealand public? When the Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand or ECO made its submission it felt that there were just too many loopholes in the legislation as it sits for the relevant Minister to provide political pressure even political pressure not to report or not to provide the information that may assist the Government of the day in making decisions. It then followed that those decisions will be aimed at protecting our environment.Even the Ombudsman’s office in a letter agrees that there is a need to preserve the independence of the reporting process from Ministers. That was the submission made. In relation to clause 12 clause 18 and clause 7(2) I want to restate that point: that for that reason this side of the Chamber would not be prepared to support this because without the freedom and without the independent nature of that reporting the Government of the day can choose for itself what gets reported and the context of that report.I want to just come back to a comment that Mr Paul Foster-Bell made earlier. He said he believed that the activities of New Zealand and the way that those activities might contribute to the climate impacts in the Pacific region will be minuscule I think—Paul Foster-Bell: Negligible.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: Negligible OK. Let me just say that in a report by the World Bank which is called Turn Down the Heat—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to ask the member to sit down. I draw his attention to the fact that he is now wandering way out into the substance of climate change further than the member did and much less about measuring in New Zealand which is the substance of this bill.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I seek the leave of the Committee given the length of time we have had on this Committee stage and our nearly approaching the vote for at the conclusion of the member’s speech all of the votes to be taken on the Committee stage so that the votes can logically follow on from—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): I am just going to point out to the member the obvious problem with that which is that the member’s speech will not conclude tonight unless he sits down of course.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: I merely wanted to come back to my amendment which is still in Part 2 which is adding on that particular clause and that is the point that I want to say—that—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): I regret that the time has come for me to report progress and for that reason I have to interrupt the member. I will therefore report progress.Progress to be reported presently.House resumed.The Chairperson reported the Harmful Digital Communications Bill with amendment progress on the Environmental Reporting Bill and no progress on the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill.Report adopted.