Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. I thank members for their speeches but I guess my response is: if not now then when? An Official Information Act document from a briefing Conservation portfolio priorities" released under the Official Information Act—that briefing 2 March this year. The Department of Conservation's advice to the Minister and I quote "We consider the key priorities for the remainder of the term with the biggest impact for conservation and biodiversity outcomes are deliverables relating to no new mines on conservation land the oceans work programme and a number of other matters."The Department of Conservation has listed the no new mines as being a key priority yet we have seen absolutely nothing from the Labour Government on when that priority that comes from the 2017 Speech from the Throne will actually be advanced. So it's well and good for the last speaker Stuart Nash to say that it's coming but it has been coming since 2017 and in this term there's been absolutely no obvious work on it.Other speakers like Angela Roberts claimed that the review and reclassification of stewardship land needed to occur before this bill could proceed and before we could have legislation which protected conservation land from mining. That review is not the answer. It won't deliver the protection which our indigenous biodiversity needs either on the West Coast or in the Hauraki-Coromandel region. That's because on the West Coast 82 percent or some 530000 hectares of stewardship land has been proposed for reclassification by the national panel and that's been recommended for historic reserve or conservation park status. So 82 percent of the land proposed for reclassification is not going to get any additional protection from mining because "conservation park" is the weakest and lowest form of legal protection and Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act doesn't include conservation parks in the lands that are protected from mining.There's 180000 hectares inland from Greymouth near Kōtuku Moana Lake Brunner that's recommended as historic reserve. That historic reserve wouldn't be protected from mining either. So the reclassification of stewardship land that a number of Labour members have referred to in their speeches is not the answer because it doesn't provide adequate legal protection by strengthening the legal status of the land that's being proposed for reclassification.Jamie Strange talked about visiting an underground gold mine in Coromandel and being impressed by remediation. I've been to that mine I've been underground there but that provides no defence for species like Archey's frog threatened with extinction from vibration and blasting under conservation land which is currently being proposed by OceanaGold. Archey's frog has been on the planet as a species for around 200 million years. We in the Greens think that species like that and our biodiversity deserve protection. It's only the northern part of the Coromandel Peninsula which is protected by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act. This bill would ensure that the southern part and the conservation lands there which are just as important ecologically as those on the north of Coromandel Peninsula are also protected.Stuart Smith talked about—well made it sound as if we were trying to stop mining throughout Aotearoa. Two-thirds of New Zealand is outside the conservation estate. The bill does not affect that at all except for no new coal mines and that's important to protect our climate.Labour speakers have also mentioned concerns about pounamu. The bill may make it more expensive to mine pounamu because fewer pounamu boulders would be uncovered in the course of alluvial mining on public conservation land. But there's absolutely nothing in this bill to prevent the mining of pounamu. If the wording needed to be changed to make that clearer we could expect that to happen in the Environment Committee.So Forest and Bird polling has shown that two-thirds of New Zealanders want public conservation land protected from mines. We've been hearing a petition from Coromandel Watchdog in the Environment Committee signed by more than 11000 people. That is seeking if the Government is not going to implement that Speech from the Throne commitment or pass this bill to at least to put a moratorium on all new permits.The Green Party says: if not now then when? The Department of Conservation has said that this is a priority but we've seen no action. We need to see action to protect our biodiversity in a nature crisis from further mining."