Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): E mihi ana ki a Ranginui rāua ko Papatūānuku te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. [I acknowledge Ranginui and Papatūānuku the Speaker greetings to you.]We'll turn now from people's health and the comprehensive investment the Labour Government is making in response to COVID-19 and in dealing with the mental health challenges which have been neglected for too long to dealing with the health of the oceans.Yesterday we had the launch of Revitalising the Gulf by the Hon David Parker and the Hon Ayesha Verrall. That was the Government's response to Sea Change a report that was released back in 2017. The Green Party strongly supports the outcomes that the Government wants to achieve through Revitalising the Gulf—locally abundant fish stocks protection of ecologically important habitats stronger fisheries management and better understanding of fish stocks fisheries and ecosystems. It was really positive to see the proposals for 18 new protected areas some restrictions on trawling and some proposals to significantly improve fisheries management. But the challenges in the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Te Moananui a Toi are enormous. It is a taonga not just for Aucklanders but for all New Zealanders. That is why we have the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act and the Hauraki Gulf Forum an integrated management body involving councils mana whenua and central government looking at how we better manage the Hauraki Gulf. The report that came out yesterday has had a genesis in the work of the ministerial advisory committee which was co-chaired by Catherine Harland and Paul Majurey. That committee was set up by myself and Minister Nash back in November 2019. They had about 10 months did their work finished that report in about mid-2020 and then the Government response has come out yesterday. One of the things the Green Party is concerned about is the lack of urgency by agencies. So you had the Sea Change report released in 2017 but revitalising the gulf its restrictions on trawling the proposal that there be trawl corridors where trawling is allowed—those trawl corridors had not yet been identified. It's proposed that there be a collaborative process with mana whenua agencies and stakeholders to do that. Yet in those four or more years surely Fisheries New Zealand particularly with GPS monitoring on fishing vessels now could identify where trawling currently occurs and could have at least identified the draft trawling corridors. But no they're not yet identified. Similarly with marine protected areas the proposals for the new 18 areas will increase the no-take protection except for customary use in the gulf to about 6 percent of the gulf up from less than a percent at the moment and yet the legislation to implement those areas is not proposed to be introduced until 2024. The contrast is that the Government is proposing to remove the obstacles to the expansion of aquaculture by 2023. So once again despite nature being in crisis we're pushing ahead with use and development but we've put protection on the slow track.Now there was certainly work that was begun last term to reform the Marine Reserves Act 1971. Because it doesn't have a Treaty commitment or any Treaty principles it's too narrow in being restricted to our protection for scientific purposes. It needs to have a much broader range of marine protection initiatives. But the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Te Moananui a Toi deserves special legislation to proceed with protection urgently. We need that protection because the Hauraki Gulf Forum in each of its State of the Environment reports on the gulf has charted that continuing decline: the fact that crayfish kōura are functionally extinct; the fact that snapper numbers have declined; kina barrens are increasing. We have in areas like Te Hauturu-o-Toi Little Barrier—one of our most important protected areas on land with its nature reserve status home to tīeke to kākā to kākāriki and yet in the waters around Hauturu it's kina barrens.There's certainly a proposal for a new protected area to the north and some seabed protected area to the east but we're not getting that happening until 2024 and we're seeing a major increase in recreational pressure through the increasing population in Auckland people buying more boats getting more sophisticated fishing gear with things like sonar. We need that protection now.