Marcroft JennyJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It's very much a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First and take this call but firstly I must do so as we are following the honour of acknowledging Christmas and celebrations and salutations to you Madam Deputy Speaker as well as to all the members of this House as we head off very shortly and we are—some of us—counting down the hours until tomorrow when we head off for Christmas to spend time with our families and as the Minister also noted maybe head out into the great outdoors into the ngahere and spend time communing with nature somewhat. And so too: happy Christmas to you all.My contribution is in support of this the Conservation (Infringement System) Bill. I'd like to acknowledge and congratulate the Minister the Hon Eugenie Sage and also the chair of the Environment Committee Dr Deborah Russell for shepherding this through the select committee process; and to all members of the committee it is a pleasure working with you. You are generally a very collegial team of members from across the House and I do wish you all well too for your festive season.This bill seeks to provide the Department of Conservation with a more effective system of enforcement. That's the aim of it. It's to ensure that the penalties for offences are in line with the seriousness of the offence. So currently offenders at the moment who commit minor offences either will get slapped over the wrist with a damp bus ticket or will end up in the court process. And so really that's not appropriate for the minor-end scale of an offence. This bill actually hits that mid-point with an infringement notice and a fine; therefore it will sit comfortably between the lower end of a warning and the upper end of a prosecution.In New Zealand First we're all about common sense. We think this bill is fair. It's a common-sense approach to dealing with offending at that minor end of the scale. So this infringements system is more efficient. It will be easier for everyone involved. The Department of Conservation won't be tied up with prosecutions and people won't have to go through those really costly court processes for those minor offences and it will actually free up quite a lot of court time as well.Some of the offences that will be looked at in terms of what will be an infringement will be quite a lot of things pointing towards littering. And I'd just like to make note that back in the 1950s the Rotorua tramping club was set up and a couple of years later they decided to add skiing to it. So they built a hut up on the maunga maunga Ruapehu and they had 32 working parties to get all the building materials and to build that hut which is now called the lodge up there on Ruapehu. What they did was they created this great environment—a great family place to go and be in nature to be part of nature's stores—and one of the things in terms of the tramping aspect of that club was to pack in and pack out. Whether it was on a tramp up the mountain or through the Mamakus or the Taraweras any rubbish you took with you you actually brought it back out as well. [Interruption]DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could we just give the speaker a bit of respect on both sides of the House please.JENNY MARCROFT: You packed it in and you packed it out so therefore you weren't littering. So this is something that perhaps we could be reminded of today: that we really should take our rubbish back out with us and therefore we would avoid any form of new infringement system that will come to pass.So my contribution is a short one. I'd just like to finish by saying that much of New Zealand's taonga exist inside nature's stores. It is the lure of New Zealand's environment for many people whether it's Kiwis or those visiting us to enjoy our national parks our reserves our native wildlife and our outdooring culture. It is a part of being a Kiwi. It is our responsibility as kaitiaki of our nature spaces that we look after it and it's the responsibility of all those. Just as the Minister the Hon Eugenie Sage has mentioned the Department of Conservation and Fish & Game will run an infringement system that the public will have confidence in.So on that note happy Christmas; I hope you get plenty of figgy pudding. I commend this bill to the House.