Pham Lan; Kuriger Barbara; Williams ArenaLAN PHAM (Green): Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to pick up specifically on the aspect of the bill that seeks to extend the deadline for regional councils to notify plans. As was so accurately pointed out by 50 freshwater experts and leaders in their letter to the Prime Minister just on Monday the health of the country's waterways are already under immense pressure and I'm sure the Minister responsible for RMA Reform is aware of that. In light of this I've tabled an amendment that specifically deletes section 80A from Schedule 2 of the bill which seeks to extend the deadline of regional councils to notify plans. Currently it's at 31 December 2024 but the proposal that the Government have on the table is to extend that to December 2027. Just for some context as to why I've put down this amendment—and I really invite the Minister to respond to this—before entering politics I worked as a freshwater ecologist and it would be remiss of me not to highlight the issue to members of this committee who may not be aware of the current state of freshwater in this country which would be directly impacted by the proposed section. I just want to paint a really brief snapshot of that from our latest freshwater report that the Ministry for the Environment put out. That's things like the fact that 76 percent of our native freshwater fish are endangered; over 40 percent and specifically 46 percent of our lakes are in poor or very poor health; and ecosystem health—and this relates to both the freshwater invertebrates or the bugs that live in our freshwater environments—56 percent of freshwater sites are worsening; and E. coli contamination is worsening at 41 percent of freshwater sites. Through my time again before entering this House I was a councillor for two terms on Environment Canterbury and I heard just the surface of the immeasurable losses that ngā rūnanga and whānau of Ngāi Tahu suffered as mana whenua particularly hearing from those across Waitaha Canterbury but also the wider Te Waipounamu area. I also heard a lot about the heartbreak of tangata Tiriti or non-Māori communities who have experienced the damage and degradation of their local freshwater ways just over the last few decades. For these people they have had over a decade of community processes—planning processes—without national direction that upholds ecological integrity and Te Mana o te Wai. Ultimately when it comes to environmental outcomes this has simply resulted in a lot of talking a lot of money spent but ultimately ongoing environmental decline. So I would really like to hear from the Minister how he would justify his Government's proposed delay of another three years of this deadline for regional councils for communities who really want to see this timely measurable improvement in their freshwater environment and see Te Mana o te Wai enacted in their local areas. I really want to encourage the Minister to consider this amendment that would actually keep freshwater improvement back on track like his Government intends.CHAIRPERSON (Barbara Kuriger): Just before I take the next call I just want to let the committee know that I'm just waiting for some work that's being done so I'm not intending to take some closure motions at this point because we're having a bit of a constructive debate going on here. ARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Madam Chair. I have five questions about my Amendment Paper 9 for the Minister responsible for RMA Reform. I hope we can have a back and forth discussion about these questions and I will be very quick on my feet. The first two questions about Amendment Paper 9 which is to delete all amendments to the Urban Development Act 2020—that's in Part 2 on page 68. These are about the Treaty of Waitangi clause that has changed and there are a number of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in the consequential amendments that do change but it would be helpful to just examine this one amendment here so that the House can get some comfort about all of those Treaty of Waitangi amendments. I hope we can use this as an exemplar. My first question to the Minister is: does the amendment that he proposes create a hierarchy where the purpose of the Urban Development Act subordinates the Treaty of Waitangi principles? My question here is because the amendment that the Minister is proposing inserts the words first in achieving the purpose of this Act" which is new as compared to the Urban Development Act where it simply says all persons performing a function under this Act. So there's a first reference there to the purpose of the Urban Development Act and I want to know whether the amendment that he proposes creates a hierarchy whereby the purpose of the Act comes first in the decision maker's mind and then the effect of the Treaty principles comes in next. As he's considering that I will ask my second question which is about the practical effect of the change that he is proposing and bear in mind that this is a change all throughout the section; it's not just about the Urban Development Act. So this is a major change. The second question to the Minister is: is he aware of any incidences where this provision has had a practical effect in this circumstance in Kāinga Ora's decision making but in the context of other Government decision making? So what I'm asking here is: is there any incidence where after the change was made in 2022-23 where decision makers were not subject to a hierarchy where they were considering the purpose of an Act first before considering the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the Minister aware of any incidences where they made a different sort of decision or any incidences where their policy or procedures were impacted because they had to give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi first before considering the purposes of the Act? Those are two questions of five."