Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Kia orana Madam Chair. Thank you. And I thank the two previous speakers and note their comments about aquaculture. I was pleased last week to be visiting some of the salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds and I recognise too the commitment of this Government to tackling climate change because of course with rising sea temperatures as a result of a changing climate it makes it incredibly difficult for aquaculture particularly salmon which are very sensitive to water temperatures and it can cause quite significant mortality.What I'd like to speak briefly on tonight is Vote Lands which I am responsible for. And it's been a real pleasure taking on this portfolio and the significant work that Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) does because we have over two million properties in New Zealand—a trillion dollars' worth of property—and Landonline and the work that LINZ does with the issuing of several hundred thousand titles each year is absolutely central to people's security of title and to the basis of our economy with people able to buy and sell properties with security knowing that the title means that they actually own the land. And there's quite a lot of work going on there.There's also considerable work going on across the Crown sector. LINZ increasingly is responsible for the disposal of surplus Crown properties and it surprised me as a new Minister to learn that we did not have a register of all Crown-owned properties. So that is being developed across the State sector—whether it's education properties district health boards and other properties—so that there is a comprehensive register and we actually have a bit more of an inventory and understanding of the property and the assets that the Crown owns. Some of those significant properties are of course the Crown pastoral leases in the South Island high country and it is my ambition as Minister to ensure that we have a sustainable farming regime in the high country and one that protects the outstanding landscapes which are the basis of our tourism industry in the South Island and also the significant biodiversity values. So there's a lot of work being done in that space to look at how we can improve the management of Crown pastoral lands how we can improve decisions around discretionary consents.There's been a significant investment in this Budget in the Overseas Investment Office—an additional $7 million—to enable the office to do more work in the compliance and enforcement space. And that follows on from the major change which this Government introduced with the new ministerial directive to the Overseas Investment Office to make sure that the provisions of the Overseas Investment Act applied to all sales of rural land over five hectares rather than just to the large farms which occurred under the previous Government when many rural land sales were put outside the purview and the decisions of the Overseas Investment Office. We're ensuring that there is much greater attention to the substantial and identifiable benefits that are required because it is a privilege for an overseas person to buy land in New Zealand. If they are going to get that privilege they need to ensure that there are substantial and identifiable benefits to the New Zealand economy.Some of the other work that LINZ is doing is in the area of light detection and ranging surveys to give a much better handle on the land and the proneness to things like sea-level rise and a lot of that mapping work was very useful after both the Christchurch and the Hurunui/Kaikōura earthquakes. And so there's a lot of work being done to ensure that we have got more up-to-date mapping data that it's digitised—not just the topographic data but looking at applications in the biosecurity space with wilding control for example so that there can be better mapping of the spread and control of wildings; and similarly with the rabbit calicivirus—the effective release of that and where it has worked.So LINZ is definitely a digital organisation. It's investing a lot in information management. It's investing a lot in maintaining Landonline in our property database ensuring that we have got a better register of Crown properties and with the Overseas Investment Office making sure that conditions of consent are monitored and complied with. Thank you Madam Chair.