Barry Maggie: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10527. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAGGIE BARRY (Minister of Conservation): It is with great pleasure that I stand to talk about the performance and the achievements of the Department of Conservation (DOC) in this past year. I commend the hard-working Local Government and Environment Committee—in particular its chair Scott Simpson. The member of Parliament from Coromandel has a great sense of humour about the greatness of his own beaches but apart from those small flaws of I suppose bias he is in all other ways an outstanding chair. The select committee members from across the Committee have worked very constructively I think to ensure that there is robust discussion around the key elements of conservation.Conservation is at the heart of who we are as New Zealanders. It is certainly at the heart of why so many visitors want to come here and enjoy what we have to offer. Some 35 percent of the people who come to New Zealand say that they come here because of our nature. DOC’s ambitious aim is to extend that to around 50 percent and I think that is very much within reach.Conservation takes many forms. Partnerships have become something that are an important part of modern conservation and DOC under the visionary leadership of Lou Sanson—DOC is in his DNA—has assembled a stellar senior leadership team which works very collaboratively and involves businesses partnerships around philanthropy and conservation groups throughout the country of which there are many hundreds. Some 400 alone work conscientiously at weekends and on their holidays on for example kiwi conservation.As other members and other speakers have alluded to a lot of what you do when you are trying to save things is to kill the things that kill them before they try to extinguish some of our species. The Battle for our Birds which has had its very successful conclusion was really the first time I think that we did landscape predator control on the scale that we have. It was around 600000 hectares of quite hard-to-reach countryside. Aerial use of 1080 is the best weapon that we have in this battle and as a result of that successful battle we were able to save—certainly—10 species of birds from local extinction and also short and long-tailed bats and our snail species. These species are vitally important if we want to be able to ensure our ecosystems stay in balance.As a department DOC has worked very carefully with the various agencies that have some unease it is fair to say around the use of 1080. It is very interesting again to see the work that is being done in new technology. The Kiwi ingenuity No. 8 wire factor is very much a part of who we are and it is something that we do very successfully. When it comes to finding new and innovative ways to humanely kill creatures such as rats stoats possums weasels and mice DOC does it very well. There are a number of ingenious inventions in New Zealand and we have taken that to the world. When DOC looks at the various ways in which we can cope with the challenges of these eco-invaders—these creatures that have come here and made it more than their home; they have tried to take us over and unfortunately brought many of our key species to the brink of extinction—it is determined to win the fight. I believe that with the team that we have and with the collaborations that we have we will succeed.Some of the partnerships that we have been able to build have achieved some really remarkable results. One that I want to just dwell on briefly tonight in my call here is what has happened in Mount Taranaki with the maunga. There has been a project that has been pulled together with Wild for Taranaki and philanthropic and business interests—a boost to the local economy and a project that will see a major investment of $24 million over 10 years. Essentially that means ridding that extraordinary mountain of its pests and getting rid of the deer the pigs—and now the big challenge is to get rid of the goats. Then there will be a “ring of steel” put around the maunga and that will prevent re-infestation so that the birds that have been driven from that place will come back. These are ambitious goals but when you look at what is happening in Taranaki you have a community that is working together to aspire towards achieving these goals in partnership with DOC. We have the NEXT Foundation to thank for that as well.Genesis Energy has committed to an ongoing partnership with DOC over the next 5 years the main focus of which is the ongoing Whio Forever Partnership. I would have to say that sometimes when you give something you get back more than you gave and that has certainly been my experience in talking to the staff who work for Genesis Energy for example. I have had the privilege of being in the wild and releasing these extraordinary little blue ducks and the reward the enthusiasm and the bonding of the staff—who like each other a lot more for going out on a shared challenge and achieving some goals—are things that business acknowledges and recognises. I do not think some of these partners could pull out because their staff would not let them. The Whio Forever Partnership is one of the great success stories.I think other speakers have spoken about what has happened with Kiwis for Kiwi. We got $11.2 million of new money and that has been very well spent. We have put the money that we have into community groups to do what they have always done but we have removed the struggle that they have had to raise money. So we have launched the programme Kiwi Guardians—which is a new one a partnership with DOC and Toyota—which is involving younger children. If we can get them out and away from their computers television sets and other distractions and get them into nature then we have a great chance I think of igniting an enthusiasm that will be with them for life. Getting children out into nature also involves little inducements like collectable wooden medallions which are very much the thing that young people like at the moment. These have been enabled by our partnership with Toyota. We are raising new generations of conservationists.There are 20 sites around New Zealand that have been focusing on some of the main centres. Kiwi Guardians was launched in my own electorate area of North Head and we have seen significant increases in the number of people going there because when young people go there to a site and like it and enthuse they bring their parents along as well.As Sarah Dowie my colleague who is also on the select committee has indicated Healthy Nature Healthy People was the theme for last year’s Conservation Week and it will be again for this year. I really commend her for the Mud Adventure Discovery Day Out—MAD Day Out—initiative. More than a thousand people took part in that. It was a wonderful collaboration—a local member of Parliament with vision energy and ingenuity working alongside the Department of Conservation and others to achieve a great day out and something that has enriched lives.Our goal—and it is highlighted in this report—is to have 90 percent of New Zealanders’ lives enriched through a connection to nature. Research has shown—and this has been a compelling thing for my colleague the Minister of Health—that for every kilometre walked or cycled the health vote is saved $2.70 in future health costs. So if you extrapolate that out to the Otago Central Rail Trail that is worth about $2.66 million of avoided health costs each year. So on every level this makes sense. It enriches us as a people and it enables us to save money and redirect it into areas where it is better spent.I think that the Good to Grow Partnership which the Department of Conservation signed with the Department of Corrections is also enabling people who have made bad choices in life to get better qualifications and have the ability to earn a living when they get out of jail or when they get through their periodic detention and community service. We will teach them how to grow things—some of them admittedly are quite good at growing things anyway—but we can formalise that with good qualifications.With plants the War on Weeds has been a significant outcome from the last 8 months or so. We are really stepping up and have already started the process of ensuring that wilding pines do not continue with their hideous progress of encroaching on our natural landscape. If we do not do anything now to stop wilding pines—which are basically escapees; these things are too good at breeding—they will take over nearly a quarter of our natural landscape within the next 20 years. So it is my priority as the Minister of Conservation to ensure that that progress is halted and I am working alongside my colleague the Hon Nathan Guy and the Ministry for Primary Industries to achieve that outcome.The Dirty Dozen weeds initiative—we named 12 this year and there will be another 12 next year—is to encourage gardeners and to encourage everybody really to try to take a part in this. It is all very well to sit back and carp about the Government needing to do more—and that is true; we will never resile from it—but it is vitally important I think that people engage and we need to win hearts and minds if we are to win people over to the idea that they need to be part of the solution.Last year $918000 went to weed-busting groups. That was delivered through the DOC Community Fund and it is part of $1.2 million that was committed to combating weeds. As the select committee pointed out the wilding pines are one of the most pressing dangers. I absolutely commend the New Zealand Wilding Conifer Management Strategy.Reports noted.