Brown Peter: Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3581] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 The member who has just resumed his seat Dr Nick Smith has made a very valuable contribution. He has certainly highlighted some concerns that New Zealand First shares. Having said that we are prepared conditionally—and I emphasise that—to send the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill to the select committee. We are not prepared even to suggest that we will support the bill going any further than the select committee stage because the member opposite has identified some concerns that we share. 
The penalties for the offences in a range of areas are horrendous. Clause 32(1) states: “Every Waste Control Authority that contravenes section 21(b)”—whatever that states—“is liable … to a fine of $10000 and a further fine of $10000 for each month that the offence continues.” Clause 32(2) states: “Every Waste Control Authority that contravenes section 27(3)(b) or (c)”—whatever that is—is fined $10000 plus $10000 for each day that the offence continues. I do not know where these waste control authorities will get that money if not by levying the consumer or increasing the levy on a regular basis. We think a large portion of the bill indicates that bureaucracy is about to go mad. I do not want to be unkind to the member but we believe that this bill represents to some reasonable degree bureaucracy going off the rails. 
Having said that we recognise there is a problem in this country in dealing with waste and in the creation of waste. Only very recently I personally found out that there is a 15000-tonne stockpile of glass bottles in this country which is likely to grow to 17000 tonnes by the end of this year. That is a problem and for a member just to say that this bill is stupid or ridiculous and to hope to dismiss the problem—as the honourable member did earlier—is not being responsible. One of my colleagues says it is downright irresponsible. 
However New Zealand First members believe that in the first instance this bill should go to a select committee. We believe that the issue is important enough to discuss so we will support the bill going to a select committee. We want to get to the depth of the problem facing New Zealand when it comes to waste and we think this is an opportunity to achieve that. We believe that the levy which is being set at $25 per tonne is far too high. That equates to 2.5c per kilo if my mathematics is correct and that is far too high. I have to say that it seems to New Zealand First to be in large measure just a levy geared around supporting a bureaucracy that is as I said earlier somewhat out of control. 
Having said that I believe that this is the first bill to come before the House that has actually touched on the issue of controlling waste. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Makes more waste. 
PETER BROWN 
: The member said that it makes more waste. This is the first opportunity New Zealanders will have to come before Parliament by way of making submissions to the select committee to outline their concerns on how the problem should be addressed. New Zealand First’s position is that to simply dismiss this bill and throw it in the wastepaper basket right from the onset—which is what the Hon Nick Smith has indicated he thinks should happen with it—would be the wrong approach. We should be prepared to say that there is an issue out there when it comes to the handling and disposal of waste. This bill is a vehicle for identifying the depth of the problem and is a methodology of how to handle it. 
However—and I want to emphasise this—New Zealand First thinks this bill is over the top. It is very complex legislation; it is far more complex than the average member’s bill that comes before the House. We believe that the select committee will have quite a task in slimming it down and making it workable and practical but that is the task that New Zealand First believes that Parliament has to come to grips with. We have to acknowledge that there are concerns about waste in New Zealand and this bill is a vehicle to address the issue in the first instance. 
New Zealand First members debated this bill at some length. We came to the conclusion that it is worth supporting the bill going to a select committee but we have strong reservations in a number of areas which I have endeavoured to illustrate in my contribution this evening. New Zealand First will support this bill going to a select committee but we cannot guarantee to support it any farther than that.