10. Question No. 10—EnvironmentDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central) to the Minister for the EnvironmentQuestion No. 10—Environment10. Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central) to the Minister for the Environment: What recent reports has he seen on the state of New Zealand's waterways? Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I've seen the latest Land Air Water Aotearoa—the LAWA—river quality trends results which were published this week. It shows that there are more sites with degrading rather than improving trends for five out of the nine parameters tested. A major concern is that about twice as many sites are getting worse than are getting better on the Macroinvertebrate Community Index measure—that's macroinvertebrates those little critters that are normally the best measure of the health of a waterway. It's also important to remember that the data only shows trends. Rivers that are in a degraded but stable state do not show up. The data unambiguously shows more work is needed to be done by all of us to protect our rivers. The problems are not fixed and defenders of the status quo are wrong.Dr Duncan Webb: What has the Government done to address the swimmability of our rivers?Hon DAVID PARKER: The Government believes local rivers and lakes should be clean enough for our children to swim in in summer to put their heads under without the risk of getting crook and healthy enough for us to gather fish and kai. Under the proposals we released earlier this month we're lifting the bar on freshwater health at the places people swim or want to swim. Regional councils will be required to identify and monitor these sites. It won't be sufficient just to put up a sign saying the water's not suitable for swimming. The national policy statement will require the councils to target the activities that are causing the water to be unswimmable and to improve it to a level where the health risk is very low. Right now regional councils monitor 292 sites for E. coli during summer. For the sites with sufficient data to assess quality about half are below safe swimming levels some of the time. It's not good enough which is why we're taking action.Dr Duncan Webb: Do we also have a problem with wetlands declining in both quality and quantity?Hon DAVID PARKER: Sadly we do. New Zealand lost 90 percent of our wetlands long ago when land was cleared for cities and farms but sadly in recent years we've continued to lose them. Under our proposals for natural wetlands over 500 square metres no further loss is permitted and any activities that contribute to the loss or degradation are deemed non-complying. Regional councils are also directed to identify wetlands to avoid their loss or degradation and to monitor their health and restorations. Filling in of streams is also going to be restricted. I think that this has actually had almost universal acclaim. I think New Zealanders are at the point where they want very strong protection for their remaining wetlands in no small part because they know that they are an important habitat for whitebait.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Has the Minister seen any other reports on attitudes towards the state of New Zealand wetlands?Hon DAVID PARKER: Well yes I have. I mean it's obvious that there are some extraction activities—for example extracting kauri logs from wetlands—and this doesn't help the state of wetlands. Neither does it help when people who are questioned about this say things like I don't [care about] wetlands—they're swamps … Go and find someone who actually cares about this because I don't." That is a quote from the Hon Judith Collins when in Government in 2014 about these important ecological areas. We have a different view on this side of the House and we're going to do our utmost to protect our remaining wetlands.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was looking for some intervention because that was clearly a set-up question designed to attack a member of the Opposition. I know the Government's under a bit of pressure but they've spent a good part of question time—SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat.Hon Dr Nick Smith: —simply attacking Opposition members.SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat when I stand up. He didn't. He will stand withdraw and apologise.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I withdraw and apologise.SPEAKER: Right and I'm not going to rule on his point of order because he gave it away in the second half."