Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Chairperson of the Environment Committee): Oh thank you Madam Chair. I must say this is the first time I've had an opportunity to stand and speak as chair of this committee and it's a real pleasure. It's an excellent committee that's doing fantastic work. These Estimates of course are an important part of that work and I report now on behalf of the committee. Turning first to conservation it's very clear that a large funding boost was needed. I note that $105 million in extra funding has been appropriated for conservation and it's interesting to see where that will go. Obviously protecting threatened species is an important part of the work that's done. And I want to say that I'm reporting for the committee but was not lucky enough to be at these hearings. But there's important work being done. It's always hard I understand the Minister reported—always hard to have targets in respect of protection of threatened species because of things that may happen. The kākāpō and the fungal infection that actually caused considerable damage there is a good example of that which was reported to the committee. I do want to also touch on a couple of other things. One is the predator control Predator Free 2050 and the important work being done there and the real need to use 1080 which the Minister explained. I say that for a couple of reasons: first because of the progress that is being made as a result of that work including the very careful use of that which the Minister outlined. I'm saying at one point that a teaspoon is used across several acres rather than the kind of much wider use of it previously.The other thing I wanted to talk about though was the unfortunate use of Crown funds which have been appropriated to protecting DOC staff from people who feel very strongly about the use of 1080 and the fact is that there's some $4 million for a security team that's been appropriated $5 million for health safety systems and staffing levels and $1.6 million spent on physical security. Now that's unfortunate and it's unfortunate that there are people out there who hold political views which they're entitled to but they choose to express them in a way that places others at risk. I note there that the whitebaiting community has also been guilty of that as the Minister reported. Improving education about 1080 is another thing that the Minister spoke about and that's important work as well.Turning briefly to environment as well—and I must say this is a very important piece of the vote and the work that is being done and essentially a lot of the appropriations are looking forward to the prevention of denigration of fresh water. The fact is that the Minister spoke about the significant work being done on that including $15.5 million to the Freshwater Improvement Fund including work for example on the Waikato River clean-up. But he did note that it's far better to address river pollution at source rather than trying to clean up a river because a river ultimately will clean itself up if the pollution at source is stopped. So it's good to see the Minister using funds for that.Also prefaced was the significant Resource Management Act reforms that are contemplated and it's noted that this will come in two parts and we are likely to see soon a bill to make technical changes including changes to assist with freshwater protection and also some aspects of urban development including work on planning standards. It was observed that there were significant inconsistencies across the country in terms of planning standards and new planning standards will address this without imposing any additional costs. It was also noted of course the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill and the work being done on that—Chlöe Swarbrick: A great piece of legislation.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: A great piece of legislation that James Shaw is the Minister in charge of which is currently working its way through the select committee. The committee is working very hard on that I must say. And there was some discussion around the targets adopted noting that there is a 1.5 degree target as opposed to the 2 degrees that some have suggested and it was observed that if it were 2 degrees then we would lose neighbours such as Tuvalu and Kiribati and we would likely lose 90 percent of our coral reefs in the Pacific. We also heard from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment who's doing good work. I look forward to the work he mentioned coming up on estuaries because that's obviously an important part of our environment. An excellent report from the committee.