Shearer David: Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15816. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert): It gives me great pleasure to also support this bill the Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill and to commend to the House the work of both the Minister of Conservation and the Local Government and Environment Committee in getting this bill through. It was actually started back in Labour’s time and it has been good to see that this has been continued and processed through so that we do actually have a piece of legislation as many of the speakers have said up to now that we can be rightfully proud of.New Zealanders do care about their environment. They do very much feel a distinct link to our environment. It is something that you feel a certain longing for when you are on the other side of the world and you see a New Zealand environment or a New Zealand landscape. I recall just a few years ago an advertising agency that was looking into what stimulates New Zealanders what sells goods found that the environment was one of the most important things that it could use to help sell products. When it asked New Zealanders what they thought about the environment or how to describe it they talked about recreation in and around it caring for it being part of it and looking after it—those were the main values. It did the same thing in Australia and the response was totally different. The response in Australia was that it was a harsh environment you needed to tame it you needed to control it you dug it up and basically you dominated it. New Zealanders had a very different approach and an approach that I think comes through in this piece of legislation the Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Bill.We have wanted—and I think there is a real appetite in New Zealand—to protect our broad areas our natural areas and this goes to the hearts of many New Zealanders. It will mean now that in addition to the Auckland Islands the Antipodes Islands group the Bounty Islands and Campbell Island will be protected. We have already hadprotection on the terrestrial part of the islands but this now extends to the marine areas around those islands and expands as was just said the area up to about 450000 hectares. A novel part of this is that the rangers who are going to be looking after this are actually going to be from the Defence Force. Because they frequent these areas more frequently than others they will be able to do that.The process by which this has gone through has been a very collaborative one and that is very good. There has been wide-ranging exploration of various people’s feelings about it. There were no real issues around mining. There was little interest in petroleum that might be there. And Ngāi Tahu the iwi of the South Island was very comfortable with the progression of this bill as well. So in many ways it ticks a lot of boxes. In return for that in terms of economic benefit there is actually a significant tourism benefit to New Zealand from the tourist boats that do go down there. It is a niche type of industry but nevertheless one that looks at natural environments and sees them in their most natural and most pristine state. But it also of course enhances New Zealand’s overall reputation a reputation of looking after our environment even though in some cases this is not exactly what I would call warranted.I want to just pick up on two points in this regard. One is the absolute shambles around trying to bring New Zealand into the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. We were offered a partnership with the United States which we refused and then belatedly took up. The shambles that resulted meant that that convention flopped when it could have actually come to pass and we could have had greater protection over the Ross Sea.In addition to that I also want to pick up what my colleague Ruth Dyson was talking about in terms ofMāui’s and Hector’s dolphins but particularly Māui’s dolphins. I mentioned in the second reading of this bill that I was out surfing one day when a couple of surfers around me called out “Shark! Shark!” disappeared off a wave and paddled frantically to shore. I was a bit slower to get off the mark but what I did manage to see were two Māui’s dolphins—only very very small but with a beautiful rounded fin—swimming around my board and disappearing out to sea. There are only 55 of these left in existence and I saw two in one go while sitting on the back of a board. I have to say I came in feeling absolutely enthralled that I had actually seen these two wonderful animals while out on a surfboard all alone.We have got an absolute responsibility to protect those dolphins. They are the most endangered in the world. There are only 55 of them. They live only to the age of 23. The females do not breed until the age of 9 and then they have a calf only between every 2 and 4 years. Therefore they are incredibly endangered in terms of their ability to fight back and we have to make absolutely sure that we do. Unfortunately I do not believe that Nick Smith—perhaps his Cabinet colleagues rolled him on this one—has done enough in order to actually protect them.The other issue that I wanted to just point out as we are pushing through this special piece of legislation—this good piece of legislation which we do have quite widespread agreement on—is that the 1971 Marine Reserves Act which my colleague across the House Nicky Wagner was just talking about was brought in in 1971. It was world leading in its time but that was a long time ago. We now need to look at updating that legislation so that we do not have to go through the same procedure every time we want to make a particular area like the Subantarctic Islands a marine reserve. We want to be able to have an efficient piece of legislation that looks at and facilitates the creation of marine reserves within our territorial waters and beyond into our economic zone in addition to that.I would like to see many more marine reserves enacted and brought into place. They do have a real role in the ability to regenerate fisheries. Anybody who has gone up toGoat Island or any of the other marine reserves or the Poor Knights Islands and who has seen the proliferation of fish and marine life in those areas knows that these areas are valuable not only in terms of the information the education and the wonder they can provide us with when we are in those areas but also in terms of helping those areas regenerate and the fish stocks regenerate as well.I am not going to continue any further on this. I just wanted to say once again that the Labour Party has been behind this bill and supported the Government on it. It was something that we felt strongly about during our time in office. This Government is taking it on further. The work of the Local Government and Environment Committee has been very good. I commend once again the Minister of Conservation for pushing this through. I think it is a very good point for this Parliament to be agreeing to the protection of a particularly important part of our ecosystem around New Zealand through the Subantarctic Marine Reserves Bill. So with that I commend this bill to the House.