Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Kia ora Madam Speaker. Thank you. I'm pleased to stand for the Green Party and support the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill. I've noticed that Opposition members are raising concerns about the cost and the previous speaker Erica Stanford highlighted the decades of underinvestment in infrastructure. That is what this Government is fixing and this bill is part of our whole approach to ensuring that New Zealanders can trust the water that comes out of their taps.The Hon Willie Jackson painted the picture of what happened in Havelock North in August 2016: the four deaths there; the 5000 people who got sick. But while the Opposition is talking about cost I hope they also note that the cost of that outbreak with four people dying—the impacts in terms of human impacts but also the economic impacts—it's estimated that the outbreak cost the town $21 million in lost economic activity. So not tackling this issue of drinking-water quality has serious consequences for individuals communities and also the economy. So the costs are well worth it and as the Minister the Hon Nanaia Mahuta has signalled this Government is working with local authorities to address the significant costs of dealing with underinvestment in infrastructure.What is the problem we're trying to fix? It's not just Havelock North. There have been a number of incidents from Springston from Darfield where people have got seriously sick because of contamination of water supplies. And as other speakers have noted a number of smaller communities have got boil-water notices in place.We have got drinking-water standards and an earlier bill this year that the Minister of Health introduced was to ensure that those drinking-water standards can be amended more quickly and effectively. But one of the problems that MartinJenkins identified in a comprehensive review making the case for a new regulator was that that is a relatively high tolerance across New Zealand for low compliance with drinking-water standards. The report noted—and I quote No formal enforcement action has been taken since the current drinking-water regime was introduced in 2007 despite widespread annual non-compliance with a range of regulatory requirements that could have a material impact on water quality and safety."The fact that these standards the drinking-water standards aren't in force means that there are an estimated 866000 people annually who are getting water from plants that don't comply with either bacterial protozoal or chemical standards. That is what this new regulator Taumata Arowai is going to help address because the bill sets out its objectives its functions as an independent Crown agency in which the public can have confidence. One of those functions is in the compliance and enforcement space so that the drinking-water standards are actually implemented and where they are not there can be enforcement action taken.It also sets out quite comprehensively the functions and as others have noted there'll be a further bill introduced early next year which will deal with that more comprehensively. So the bill also sets out the governance regime the number of people that will be on the agency and ensures that there is a Māori advisory board to deal with Te Mana o te Wai in ensuring that the regulator implements and has regard to that concept.The other thing that's really important is the work that this Government is doing led by Minister Parker as environment Minister around protecting drinking-water supplies because we have seen a major change in land use across New Zealand in the last several decades and that has compromised water quality in our lakes in our rivers and our aquifers. So it's the measures that are being put in place through a stronger national policy statement on fresh water to ensure that we better control those land uses that lead to nutrients that lead to E. coli that lead to sediment contaminating water sources and then increasing the costs of treatment of water supply.So this bill is part of this Government's much wider response to ensuring that New Zealanders can be confident that their drinking water from the tap is safe is reliable; and that rivers lakes and other water sources—that we can swim in them safely without the risk of getting sick. So the Green Party is pleased to support this bill."