Chadwick Steve: Marine Reserves (Consultation with Stakeholders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Marine Reserves (Consultation with Stakeholders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 Madam Speaker— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I should have called the member previously so now she will need to seek the leave of the House to correct that. 
STEVE CHADWICK 
: I seek leave to speak on behalf of the Hon Chris Carter who had 8 minutes left to speak at the close of debate on the last members’ day. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker.  
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: It was my fault Dr Smith. I should have called the member previously. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Could you just clarify for the House that when a person has 8 minutes of speaking time left and is not available to be in the House that time can automatically be transferred to another member. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Yes it can be but I was not advised of that. I did not realise. Is there any objection? There appears to be none. Steve Chadwick has 8 minutes of speaking time. 
STEVE CHADWICK 
: I am pleased to notify the Opposition that the Government will be supporting the Marine Reserves (Consultation with Stakeholders) Amendment Bill. How could we not with that word “consultation” in the title? 
New Zealand has a biologically rich and complex marine environment. Our exclusive economic zone is the fourth-largest in the world—15 times larger than our land area and approximately the size of the continent of Australia. In effect we are a marine nation. More than 15000 marine species exist and are found in our waters including more marine mammal species and other marine species than anywhere else in the world. This Labour-led Government is committed to providing better protection to that vast marine landscape. I congratulate Eric Roy on his member’s bill because it seems to be committed to improving the way we seek to provide better mechanisms to do just that—to protect our marine environment. 
The Government has a Marine Reserves Bill before the Local Government and Environment Committee which I chair. The Marine Reserves Bill contains many of the provisions in Mr Roy’s bill. In addition the Minister of Conservation Chris Carter together with the Minister of Fisheries Jim Anderton launched a new Marine Protected Areas Policy last year. Perhaps that fact had escaped the member Nick Smith. The policy is designed to foster more consultation and collaboration between key stakeholders local government iwi recreational and commercial fishers conservationists and central government in determining which marine areas we should protect. Again that is a process that is remarkably similar in idea to this bill. Our committee may well decide to incorporate Mr Roy’s bill with the existing bill. That is an option well worth considering. 
Why are marine reserves so important to us? Well they provide the most comprehensive long-term legal protection of any protection tool for the marine environment. A wide range of human activities and impacts such as fishing discharges structures and pests can be prohibited or managed in an integrated way within marine reserves. Marine reserves aim to protect marine life within them in as natural a way as possible. There are now 28 marine reserves so I take exception to Nick Smith’s allegation that the Government has done nothing. We have 28 marine reserves established in New Zealand waters with a further three reserves having been approved and currently being surveyed prior to being declared marine reserves via Orders in Council. Collectively those reserves protect 7.6 percent of New Zealand’s territorial sea. However 99 percent of that is in two reserves around isolated offshore islands the Auckland Islands and the Kermadec Islands and very little—in fact even less of the area—is in New Zealand’s smallest national park the Abel Tasman National Park in our mainland territorial sea. Of New Zealand’s total marine environment just 0.3 percent is protected in marine reserves. Currently the highest level of protection outside our territorial sea—that is 12 nautical miles offshore—is through Ministry of Fisheries closures on trawling of 18 seamounts. Those closures bring the area of marine protection in New Zealand to just over 3 percent. 
We know that marine reserves work and as the Hon Nick Smith said there are far wider benefits such as educational benefits. Marine reserves are great places for school trips and projects. Marine education centres in Leigh Wellington Auckland Napier and Dunedin are testimony to children’s interest in their maritime heritage. There are research benefits that we are all learning about as we go along and there are also economic benefits. Marine reserves do not just bring back the fish and other marine life; they can also benefit local people. The 200000-plus visitors a year to the marine reserve near Leigh have contributed significantly to the local economy. Everything is connected. 
In conclusion we need marine reserves and other marine protected areas for good marine management but we also need to deal more effectively with land-based impacts such as sediment and pollution. We need to ensure that activities are managed sustainably over the whole of our coastal and marine environment. I will enjoy looking at aspects of Eric Roy’s bill in our select committee particularly that of consultation upfront prior to declaring marine reserves. I am pleased we are supporting the bill.