SpeechHon EUGENIE SAGE (Chairperson of the Environment Committee): I'm pleased to report from the Environment Committee which examined Vote Environment Vote Conversation and Vote Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment but we'll focus on Vote Environment here. There are three very comprehensive reports on the committee's examination of each of these Votes and of course Vote Environment also included Vote Climate Change on Parliament's website.In terms of Vote Environment it's $2.9 billion but the Minister for the Environment who's with us today is responsible for nearly $557 million of that. There has been a significant increase in funding in Vote Environment largely because of the significant programme of work in resource management and water management reform since 2018-19 and quite an increase in this current financial year 2022/23 in funding for waste management water reform and policy advice there and of course for resource management reform. The committee was interested in the significant increase in the staff of the Ministry for the Environment—up to 825 staff compared to 372 in 2018-19. A lot of those staff are working on the resource management reform programme also in the Essential Freshwater programme which of course really got up to speed in 2020. We looked at things like the amendments to the wetlands regulations and the major investment in Budget 2022—some $35.6 million in farm plans for fresh water.One of the other issues the committee considered was the funding for the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and because it relies quite heavily on revenue recovery from its fees the revenue has dipped by half a million dollars in the current year compared to last year and that means it is under some pressure—for example it's got 43 chemicals that it has identified as a priority for reassessment but it can only do one or two of those each year. But we were heartened by the fact that there is a review under way of funding for the EPA which the Ministry for the Environment is involved in.I'm really pleased that there's quite a significant increase in both funding for waste minimisation through the increase in the waste levy which was initiated last term and a lot of work being done on policy in this space in terms of the container return scheme; a long-term infrastructure plan for waste; Government's plans to divert organic waste from landfill; and a new waste strategy. The committee also looked at Jobs for Nature both for Vote Environment and Vote Conservation and heard that some 378 projects have been contracted across the programme and 8000 nature-based jobs created as part of that.In terms of the climate change appropriations there has been quite an increase there and obviously a big programme of work with the emissions reduction plan and the new Climate Emergency Response Fund which takes the proceeds from the emissions trading scheme which are earmarked for spending for action to reduce emissions. We also heard a little of the new Climate Change Chief Executives Board which given the 300 actions in the emissions reduction plan has chief executives across Government agencies working to coordinate that.So a huge body of work is happening both in Vote Environment in Vote Conservation and the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and I do encourage members and the public to look at the committee's reports. Kia ora.