Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. This bill is about common sense. It is an excellent bill and it's simply around not using a hammer when a fly swat will do. Most New Zealanders are decent law-abiding citizens and it starts from that premise there which is an excellent premise to start from. The objectives of the bill as we know are number one to improve the effectiveness of conservation compliance and law enforcement to better protect conservation values; number two to ensure that penalties for offences are commensurate with the seriousness of the offence; number three to ensure that people do not risk criminal convictions if they commit minor offences; number four to make the treatment of offences consistent with those in similar regimes such as fisheries; number five is around removing unnecessary costs to the court system; and number six is about contributing to the Government's objectives of improving government interaction with New Zealanders and delivering better public services for less cost.The Conservation (Infringement System) Amendment Bill updates eight separate Acts to allow the Department of Conservation (DOC) to issue infringement notices instead of prosecuting for minor offences. One of the minor offences that's talked about in this bill is around whitebait—maybe someone taking extra whitebait. While I was reading that it certainly brought back memories of my father. He told me that he used to catch whitebait; he used to have sackloads of whitebait back in the day but I don't think you get that any more unfortunately.If we look at the first point there which is around conservation values some of the key conservation values are biological ecological social and cultural values of outstanding significance. In my area in the Waikato there are a number of excellent examples of this—for example Mount Pirongia where I grew up where there is a strong community passion for preserving the conservation of that mountain saving the kākāpō being one of the key aspects. You also look at my region in Pūtāruru around the Blue Springs and again there's a sense of community.However there are some tweaks that need to be made and one of them is around the offences because some offences are quite minor and for a minor offence we don't need to throw the full book of the law at the person. So it's just about treating the offence as it should be treated depending on what that is—for example we may have some teenagers who at times maybe make silly choices but there's no point them having a criminal conviction for something that is just minor. So that's where the aspect around common sense comes in on this bill which is excellent.There is another aspect here I'd like to talk to which is around removing unnecessary costs to the court system. Our court systems at times are under a lot of pressure so like I said going back to that keyword around common sense you know this is an example of taking some of the pressure off the court system so people are not going to court when they don't have to. The cost to the Department of Conservation around court costs includes staff time preparing the file travelling to court attendance at court hearings the cost of serving the information and in contested hearings the cost of conducting the case all of which is at times unnecessary. The cost to the court system includes registrar and judge time and in some instances offenders may receive legal aid.Our national parks public conservation lands and indigenous plants and wildlife need to be kept safe from illegal human activities but I don't want to see people prosecuted and get a criminal conviction for a minor breach of the whitebaiting regulations for example like I mentioned before—for example dropping litter in a park. Offences in the current law have covered a wide range of offending but this law is simply narrowing it to make it more nuanced which in my opinion is good legislation. Like I said before you don't always need a hammer when a fly swat will do.These changes bring DOC's powers into line with how low-level offences are dealt with in fisheries management biosecurity dog control resource management traffic and parking which are good examples to follow. So thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for the time and I commend this bill to the House.