Russell DeborahEnvironment SectorDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Chairperson of the Environment Committee): I am very proud to stand here as the chair of the Environment Committee and present the annual reviews to the House. Seven entities were reviewed by the Environment Committee: the Ministry for the Environment the Department of Conservation (DOC) the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment the Environmental Protection Authority the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority the New Zealand Walking Access Commission and Predator Free 2050 Ltd. They are of course all important though perhaps some are more important than others—or more equal than others.I'll sort of take a little bit from each of those reports. Predator Free 2050 Ltd has a responsibility to help New Zealand to become predator-free by 2050. They have a strategy to eliminate at least one small mammalian predator from the mainland by 2025—to have research under way for that. It is partly because conservation in New Zealand really is about killing small furry animals. One of the things we've asked them to work on is social attitudes towards the killing of small furry animals. It sounds like a terrible thing to do but it's critical for conservation in this country.The New Zealand Walking Access Commission is involved with negotiating walking access and also cycling and motor vehicle access but primarily walking access over private land. But of particular importance is also increasing the access for Māori communities to wāhi tapu. So it's very important work. Of note is that they are due for a review which will be conducted by the Ministry for Primary Industries.The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority promotes energy efficiency energy conservation and renewable energy. We noted some concerns over the number of retrofits which were due to have been carried out. Their target for 2016-17 was 13000 retrofits of insulation and clean-heating retrofits but in actual fact only 4340 were carried out. There may be some particular reasons for that which are noted in the report.The Environmental Protection Authority administers the emissions trading scheme and it has a particular duty with respect to regulating hazardous waste. Of note is that it is developing a chemical map of New Zealand as to where chemicals are located. This is particularly technical work that will be very valuable when it is completed.But the big entities—the ones that are particularly important to us and that we spent a great deal of time working with—were the Department of Conservation and of course the Ministry for the Environment. I want to draw attention to one particular issue from the Department of Conservation report and that is talking about marine bird populations and the phrase that we've used—that they are particularly at risk. I think this is something we need to continue to pay attention to as a Parliament.Of particular concern to me here in terms of my own electorate—and I note my colleague Chris Penk's electorate—is the issue of kauri dieback. I think that is something again that this House should pay attention to to monitor what the Department of Conservation is doing in that area.We asked about what the Department of Conservation was doing with respect to climate change. Now of course that responsibility is actually held by the Ministry for the Environment. But in particular DOC might have some work to do around cultural change. They told us that they'd been careful to focus their cultural change efforts in priority areas but that had not so far included climate change issues. I think that could be of interest in the future.But the one we've taken real trouble with is the Ministry for the Environment. I wish to draw attention to a particular phrase in our report where the Ministry for the Environment said that Critical boundaries are being reached for many environmental issues"—critical boundaries. Of course one of those critical boundaries is climate change which is the overwhelming moral issue of our time: how we will create a world and sustain a world for our children. It is a particular responsibility for the Ministry for the Environment and I think we need to ask questions about how that responsibility has been addressed in the past.Finally the report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment—an independent officer of our Parliament who reports to us the members of this House. I commend the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment."