Warren-Clark AngieASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The House is resumed. When the House rose for the dinner break we were considering the Adverse Weather-affected Timber Recovery on Conservation Lands Bill.ANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Look it is a real pleasure to rise and speak on this—long name—Adverse Weather-affected Timber Recovery on Conservation Lands Bill. I want to acknowledge and congratulate my colleague across the floor—Maureen Pugh—for bringing this bill through the House. I think I'd really like to acknowledge you for the thought and the effort in bringing this bill. However I think you've probably come now to realise that Labour does not support this bill to select committee.I do want to acknowledge the advocacy for your community that you have put in place. I guess for me that is perhaps one of the faults with the bill in that you talked about conservation land in the context of the entire country. What I really feel you were focusing on here—perhaps if I may suggest—is the community of the West Coast of the South Island. Now Maureen Pugh the member Greg O'Connor has spoken of his community connection and I too will speak of my community connection to the West Coast of the South Island. So my family comes from the West Coast of the South Island both sides of the family. So we were miners we were publicans—you'll like that Kieran McAnulty: we were publicans—and we were millers so we owned mills. So forestry and the milling of the beautiful beach forests etc. is something that has a long history in my family. I think the member Greg O'Connor also said this: that we don't need to be ashamed of where we've come from even if we ourselves would not make those choices going forward now.So the bill itself is specifically for the entire conservation estate in this country. I've heard lots of arguments—and I particularly want to acknowledge the member the Hon Eugenie Sage for her statements—but I want to talk a little bit about the fact that New Zealand had a really long period of geological isolation. So 80 percent of New Zealand plant species are endemic or only found in New Zealand.I also want to talk about the ecology of the forest and what happens when a tree falls in the forest and if no one's there to—no I'm not going to say that joke—Hon Michael Woodhouse: Go on just say it!ANGIE WARREN-CLARK: Ha ha! I'm not going to say that joke. So essentially we have heard arguments that talk about trees as being an economic unit something to be taken from and taken across and made into an economic unit and supporting industry. However what hasn't been talked about is the flora and fauna that a fallen tree creates and the cycle of life that the trees when they fall—even in a large adverse weather event—create for the regrowth of the environment. If we take away those systems and those structures what happens is that we lose the biodiversity we lose the fungi the animals the plants that grow on that rotten log. So the ecology of the environment is so very important. So by taking these logs out of these areas we cause a change to the environment and the ecology that we are not sure is a positive thing—in fact science is telling us that it is less and less positive.There is also the opportunity should we have a massive adverse weather event—winds etc.—that we can actually do a small time-limited area-specific bill which will enable and support the clearing of some of this land. It really does support a better ecology and a moving forward. The Labour Party is trying to fight climate change and the adverse weather events; we're not trying to make money out of those events. So as a consequence we won't be supporting this bill. But I do want to acknowledge the member for bringing it up to the House. Thank you.