Sage EugenieEUGENIE SAGE (Green): E te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. There were cows on Parliament's lawn today—cut-out cows so they did not defecate there. They were there to mark the release of a Greenpeace report that highlights the increasing impact on New Zealanders' health of intensive livestock farming particularly dairying. It is the National Government's preoccupation with increasing intensive farming—increasing the volume rather than the value and not constraining the industry's desire to increase milk supply—that is helping make New Zealanders sick. We have seen a 90 percent increase in dairy cow numbers between 1990 and 2014.Hon Nathan Guy: What rubbish. The report is full of maybes.EUGENIE SAGE: The Minister Nathan Guy is saying rubbish". The Minister should actually read some of the health reports—Hon Nathan Guy: I've read it.EUGENIE SAGE: From the medical officer of health? I do not think so. We know what impact the increasing number of cows and agricultural intensification is having on our rivers our lakes and our aquifers—that so many of those are now unfit for swimming because of high E. coli levels and that high levels of nutrient pollution mean they are clogged with algae and are unsuitable for swimming.But it is the impacts on human health that deserve much more attention. For the Minister's education zoonoses are diseases that are passed from animals to human. Pathogenic bacteria viruses and protozoa in the gut of ruminants like cows and deer can pass from animals to humans through human contact with faecal material either directly or through contact with faecal material that ends up in our waterways. Minister New Zealand has one of the highest reported rates of zoonotic diseases in the developed world. Our rates of cryptosporidiosis are higher than in Australia the United Kingdom Germany and the United States of America. Things like cryptosporidiosis mean that you get violent attacks of vomiting stomach cramps and diarrhoea. Those are serious health impacts.Public health experts—obviously not the Minister—are also really concerned about the rise in Shiga toxin - producing E. coli 3. That is a really serious pathogen that can cause severe gastrointestinal illness and can potentially lead to kidney problems. Public health experts are concerned about that because it is ruminants like cows that shed that pathogen in their faeces.One of the most memorable and searing public meetings that I have attended was in Springston in 2008. Springston is a small town near Lincoln. There were issues with the town water supply but the extent of the illness that had been caused by people drinking contaminated water was not obvious until that meeting in March 2008. Having to listen to stories of mothers who were not prepared to bathe their children because of the risk of them getting sick is one of the reasons why I and many others in the Green Party are campaigning for clean water.That was back in 2008 but it has got worse not better. In 2012 we had a major incident in Darfield—again a contaminated water supply. Twelve-hundred people got sick before the council put in a boil-water notice. In 2016 of course there was the massive outbreak in Havelock North. Over 5000 people got sick and several premature deaths were associated with that. That was traced back to sheep faecal effluent contaminating a pond which contaminated the water supply.Hon Nathan Guy: Yeah Greenpeace said it was cows.EUGENIE SAGE: It was sheep Minister. Sheep are livestock Minister. It is the increased intensive livestock farming that is contributing to these health effects. And it is not only gastrointestinal illnesses. In Canterbury we have the medical officer of health having to arrange for testing of water supplies of pregnant mothers who are getting their water from private bores because of elevated levels of nitrate in groundwater.The Green Party believes it is unacceptable for people to be getting drinking water out of their taps that they cannot trust and for having rivers and lakes where they cannot trust water quality. We would ensure that there are controls on intensive land use to protect the catchments of drinking-water supplies to ensure that councils are getting water from areas where they know the water is safe and protected from intensive livestock farming. It is critical that we have safe drinking water and rivers that are clean enough to swim in. The Green Party will do that."