Sio Su'a William: Environmental Protection Authority Bill — In Committee 
Sio Su'a William: Environmental Protection Authority Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18507] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 I follow on from my colleague the Hon Damien O’Connor by saying I too was shocked to see that the Government is transferring the terms and conditions of employees into the new organisation. Frankly I have to ask questions. It just sounds too good to be true. I ask the Minister for the Environment whether he consulted the New Zealand Public Service Association before finalising this part of the Environmental Protection Authority Bill. I ask that because clause 42 on KiwiSaver states that the transfer of an employee “does not constitute new employment for the purposes of the KiwiSaver Act 2006.” I ask myself why it was necessary to specify that. I then ask myself about the 90-days bill that the Government passed. Will the employees who are being transferred over also come under that particular legislation? Why have we not specified in this legislation that for all employees transferred over to the new organisation the conditions of the 90-days law will not be forced upon them? 
I ask again—and I hope the Minister will take a call—whether the union representatives of those staff were involved in the discussions of the bill. I also ask the Minister because of the belief I have and that many will have that this is too good to be true how many staff have left as a result of it being highlighted that the old organisation will be disestablished and a new organisation will be established. It seems to me that in disestablishing the old Environmental Protection Authority—set up only in 1991 which is not too far off—I need to ask why it is that we are doing this again. In looking to the Auckland region for lessons to be learnt I ask the Minister whether a cost-benefit analysis was undertaken before the decision was made to disestablish the 1991 Environmental Protection Authority and to establish the new organisation. I also ask the Minister what that cost-benefit analysis would reveal in terms of any cost savings to the community or to the Government as we are talking about cost savings at this particular time. 
I raise those questions because I treat the protection of our environment very very seriously. In fact it is an issue that the Hon Pete Hodgson and I raised recently at the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference. Many of the world’s countries have a view that New Zealand has a clean and green image. I say that the disestablishment of the Environmental Protection Authority and the new organisation being set up to replace it does not focus on the protection of our environment. What is the purpose of our doing this if we are not focused on the protection of our environment? 
I want to be quite honest with the Minister. The Minister introducing this bill is the last Minister who should be introducing such a bill because he does not have a good reputation with the wider community. We can look at the way he got rid of the Canterbury Regional Council—an organisation set up for the protection of the environment of Canterbury. How can we have a Minister who did that to our environment saying to the New Zealand public that this legislation will protect our environment? It will not protect our environment. I would like the Minister to take a call in that regard. 
I really find it hard to believe that the bill states that these workers will receive the same terms and conditions in the new organisation. It is important then that the Minister answers the question of how many staff have already left because they are under pressure and under stress because of the changes that are about to come. How many staff have gone? How many staff are going to be affected? Why has the Minister specified clause 42 and what does it mean for staff who will go over to the new organisation under the 90-day law? 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 241 in the name of the Hon Dr Nick Smith to clause 28 be agreed to.