Simpson Scott: Environmental Reporting Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Environmental Reporting Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3343. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel):It is a pleasure to rise and speak in the second reading of the Environmental Reporting Bill in the name of the Hon Nick Smith. I do so in my capacity as chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee. The select committee did I think good work on this bill during the submission stage and through the process of the select committee.I noted with interest the comments made by the previous speaker Megan Woods who leads the Labour team on the select committee on this subject. I got a sense today from listening to her speech that she was opposing for the sake of opposing. There is a cloud of politics being played here that is so obvious. It is kind of sad in a way that a party that really should be supporting the bill—wants to support it wants to be part of a good piece of legislation wants to be supportive—is not going to do so because it feels that it needs to oppose for the sake of opposing.This is a bill that creates a national-level environmental reporting system and puts that in place. The objective is to ensure that reporting happens on a regular basis and that the reports that are created and generated will be able to be trusted by the public as being independent fair and accurate. I think that the bill in its current form will neatly achieve that.This bill has its origins back in National’s Bluegreen policy initiatives that are so well based and that are so well liked by National Party supporters and indeed by the wider community. People who have a green streak actually understand mostly that there needs to be policy that is tempered with common sense with reality and with a measure of brand awareness that is something more than just absolutes.This is a Bluegreens initiative and the Hon Nick Smith made reference to that during his second reading speech only the other night. It was as Megan Woods indicated part of a policy that we put to the electorate and I am very pleased now to be part of a Government that is bringing that to fruition.We are actually as a nation an outlier in terms of the OECD. We are probably the only member of the OECD that does not currently have a statutory framework for environmental reporting and this bill puts that to right. It is an anomaly that we are out of step and it goes against what we like to know as our clean green image so this bill will ensure that we get into line in a way that is meaningful and purposeful.We should not as a Parliament underestimate for one minute the power of reporting systems to improve performance in a whole range of areas so this bill seeks to do that. This is an area that I think New Zealanders actually want us to achieve more in and to perform better in. So by having standardised reporting in a way that is clear and transparent and formulaic it will actually not only improve our standing in an environmental sense as New Zealanders but it will also improve our standing in terms of where we sit in world best practice.By having standardised reporting in areas like water quality air quality how well we are doing on protecting our biodiversity and on the survival of our most important species like kiwi and what sort of job we are doing of managing our oceans we will have a much better view and it will be a good step along the way to ensuring that future generations have the same access to the quality environment that we enjoy today. It is part of a broader role that this Government is taking and part of what we have been doing as Government. It is part of strengthening the institutions of government and public office.This particular piece of legislation really supports three heads—if I can put it that way. Firstly the Ministry for the Environment as the policy maker is supported and encouraged. It is the Treasury equivalent of what occurs in the economic space in terms of our legislation. Secondly the Environmental Protection Authority acts as the agency created by this Government to act as the effective and independent regulator in this area and that is not too much different to the role that for instance the Reserve Bank plays in the financial sector. Thirdly just as we have an auditor we also have an important role with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment acting in the environmental audit capacity. Her job is to provide overall independence of the system and provide environmental management. It is my view that we will be actually strengthening the role of the independent Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment by passing this legislation.A great deal was made of clause 18 at the Local Government and Environment Committee and also by speakers in the first reading and most recently earlier in this debate. This is the provision that sets down which topics will be reported. The controversy that members of the Green Party and the Labour Party tend to make out of this is something of a nonsense. They seem to think that there is something wrong with having the Minister of Statistics and the Minister for the Environment setting the topics. Well I do not see any issue or problem in that area at all and nor did the majority of the select committee.The first thing I would like to point out is that this legislation makes plain the five domain areas that the topics must cover. They are going to be set out in the legislation. There will not be any ability to wriggle out of those. There will not be any ability to change those unless it is by further amendment to this statute so those five domains are cast in stone. The bill goes further and requires the process of public consultation with the Government Statistician and with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. It goes further in requiring consultation with the public with iwi and with local authorities. Each of those subjects will be discussed with those various stakeholders.But the problem for members of the Opposition who are wanting to hang their hats on clause 18 is that these provisions that are in this piece of legislation are exactly the same as exist in our financial legislation—and that is not for 1 minute considered by them as something that we would want to change. Why is it good enough for our financial institutions and our financial ministries to have the reporting of financial matters and the dollars and cents of State perfectly adequately governed and monitored by the appropriate Ministers but not so the environmental area?I cannot see the logic of that and I think it goes to the point that actually Opposition members on this matter are really just playing politics. They are opposing really just for the sake of opposing. In their hearts they know that the position they have taken on this bill is actually right in terms of the main thrust of it but the point they are hanging their hat on in terms of opposing it is actually dancing on the head of a pin. They just cannot bring themselves to support the Government in this very good piece of legislation. In any other arena they probably would support it because the detail of it would be of such small consequence that they in fact would not be willing to cast it asunder in order to oppose it. As Nick Smith said the other night it is just crude oppositional politics and I concur with him on that.This is a bill that will ensure that New Zealand does not just brand itself internationally as being clean and green but that in fact we now report and monitor on our status in that term of being clean and green. What this bill will do is it will provide an honest open reporting environment on the environment and show just how we are doing. It is the sort of bill that a National Government will always support and will champion because it is pragmatic it is sensible and it goes to the heart of the blue-green philosophy that we have as a Government.We are a practical Government that wants New Zealanders to achieve economically but at the same time we want to support and encourage and conserve our very precious natural environment. This bill and the reporting mechanisms that are established in it go a very long way to ensuring that we come to be world best practice in terms of our OECD role. This is also because we want to make sure that future generations of New Zealanders have the same access to the beautiful clean and wonderful pristine environments that we make so much of and enjoy so much as a nation. How we manage those resources is important to us as a nation. This is a good bill. I encourage members to support it and not to play politics with it. It is too important for that. I commend it to the House.