Goldsmith Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 20 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16192. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to theMinister for the Environment: What progress is the Government making to ensure that New Zealanders have access to comprehensive environmental information that is independent is easy to understand and relevant?Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment): Today the Environmental Reporting Bill has been introduced to the House. It represents the Government’s commitment to a step change in the way we monitor and report to New Zealanders on the condition of our natural environment and if passed it will create for the very first time a statutorily mandated independent environmental reporting regime. The bill requires the Secretary for the Environment and the Government Statistician to publish a domain report on one of the five environmental domains—air atmosphere and climate fresh water land and marine—every 6 months and a comprehensive state of the environment report once every 3 years. Credible environmental information will allow for accurate tracking of changes over time as well as the monitoring of the impact of policy and changes in land use and will provide a proper understanding of how New Zealand rates internationally.Paul Goldsmith: How will the bill ensure the independence of environmental reporting?Hon AMY ADAMS: Independence from the Government of the day is a key aspect of the proposed system. It will be achieved by clearly defining the roles of all of those involved. The report will be produced by the Government Statistician to provide assurance that it is independent and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment will have an important role in ensuring the quality of reporting by providing independent commentary. The commissioner will have an enhanced legislated mandate to provide analysis of environmental data and reports identification of trends and a discussion of implications and responses along with additional funding to complete this work. I thank those parties that have already indicated their support and I look forward to working with all members.Eugenie Sage: Is not the Government’s poor environmental record with increasing water pollution and 61 percent of monitored swimming sites being unsafe forswimming the reason that the Government has chosen to do a U-turn on National’s election promise to implement fully independent state of the environment reporting?Hon AMY ADAMS: No and the Government has indeed implemented fully independent environmental reporting. What is more we have gone further than what we proposed by ensuring that it will be done every 3 years rather than every 5 years as we originally proposed and every 10 years if at all under the Labour-Greens Government.Eugenie Sage: How can the Minister say that her state of the environment reporting is independent when the bill provides for her to set through regulation the topics that will be reported on?Hon AMY ADAMS: The fact that this House sets primary legislation and that the executive sets tertiary frameworks under which that happens is reasonably well established and any statutory system has to have that. The fact is that it is the Government Statistician who chooses all of the indicators who ensures themselves of the appropriateness of all the data all the methodology and if the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has any concerns she has the full ability to audit it. I am just disappointed that the Green members cannot bring themselves to support New Zealand finally having for the first time an independent system.Eugenie Sage: Is the Minister concerned given that we have a history of the Ministry for the Environment suppressing a chapter of the state of the environment report that by not following through on fully independent state of the environment reporting the measures that are chosen through her regulations will potentially not reflect the state of the environment and the measures will ensure that a full pretty picture is painted of what the Government is doing?Hon AMY ADAMS: No. Actually the very reason we are passing this legislation is to ensure that that sort of interference that we saw in 2007 cannot happen again. The Government does not choose the measures; the Government simply determines through regulation the areas to be covered. The Government Statistician does the rest.