Dowie Sarah: Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDowie Sarah: Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9855. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): I rise in opposition obviously to the Environmental Protection Authority (Protection of Environment) Amendment Bill. In doing so I acknowledge Ms Whaitiri. I acknowledge her conservation ethic; it is of good intention—how she brought this bill to the House—but obviously from this side we believe it to be misguided.It is with some pleasure that I rise and take this call to round off this debate. I have already taken a call on the previous committee on which I sat—the Government Administration Committee. I leave that with sadness I leave my peers there. But I now join the Local Government and Environment Committee team. I am very much looking forward to some robust debate under the chairmanship of Mr Scott Simpson although he did scare me with stories of baking rosters. I do not really think that my baking is a way to career advancement. But nevertheless I am on that committee and I am very pleased to be on the Local Government and Environment Committee because of course I have a strong interest in the environment.That was the pathway to how I entered into politics—it was through the blue-green movement of the National Party that I came to be where I am today. The Bluegreens—the blue-green caucus the blue-green policy advisory group of the National Party—believe in a balance between the use of environment and the protection of environment. That balance is needed to advance not only an environmental cause but also an economic cause to create jobs and create wealth for our people.This bill in particular is in respect of the Environmental Protection Authority and the bill’s sponsor believes that we need to insert the words “to protect and maintain and enhance New Zealand’s environment” into the legislation that governs the Environmental Protection Authority. This is not needed because the authority’s mission statement is clearly set out and it is already doing that job. But primarily the Environmental Protection Authority is at arm’s length from the Government and was set up on purpose to oversee large infrastructure projects of national significance. It was put in place because the Resource Management Act had gone too far.The Resource Management Act in 1991 was revolutionary. It was effects-driven and that is where assessment of different activities in our communities should take place—on an effects-based principle. But it has gone too far it has ballooned outand hence through our phases of reforms the Environmental Protection Authority was put in place to oversee projects of national significance because they were getting bottlenecked. These projects were bottlenecking at the local government level and it was just stifling economic development. We on this side of the House are not interested in raping and pillaging our environment. We know that our environment is a key to providing jobs and wealth but we also need to rely on that environment and protect it.Let us put that into context with say the other pieces of legislation that are in place that create that all-round environmental protection in New Zealand. If you look at Acts on the other side—the more protectionism-type Acts like the Conservation Act—then we are talking about different styles of management; recreational opportunities spectrum is what we use. Then we have designated areas such as wilderness areas where there is no development allowed. That allows us to look at New Zealand as a whole and manage different areas in a way that creates a hierarchy of levels of protectionism and in respect of the Resource Management Act that balance must be afforded. So to add these words into the Environmental Protection Authority’s mandate is not a good idea and we need to maintain that balance.