Mahuta NanaiaHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Associate Minister for the Environment): I like other Government members am really proud about Budget 2018 because it sends a signal of hope that we have a Government who has a plan for the environment and to protect our conservation estate. But more than that our goal as a Government is to improve the well-being and living standards of all New Zealanders through the productive sustainable and inclusive growth of our country and its natural resources but with environmental limits in mind. I listened very carefully to the contribution that's been made in this section and I want to pick up a few things from a number of members: firstly Sarah Dowie who criticised the Minister of Conservation around her role and the job that she's doing. I think she's doing a very fine job. The nature of that criticism was that the Minister wasn't working hard enough around partnerships around ensuring that people were being engaged and the like. Well that's simply not true. I'm really pleased that the Minister took the chance to stand up in the committee and point to some of the partnerships that will mean in areas like Taranaki an emphasis on predator control. Building in partnerships with the local community and iwi we're seeing real gains delivered on the ground. Similarly working with regional council in the Hawke's Bay and local stakeholders to ensure that the issues of pest eradication could be delivered in a way that was sustainable for that community—the Minister stood in the committee and pointed to that issue and I think the criticism of her not turning up to a select committee was a little bit churlish—a little bit churlish—because she's doing the work on the ground.More importantly a number of issues that were raised in relation to her portfolio were in the area of waste. Now what I know is that Minister Sage has delegated responsibilities for the issues of waste and resource efficiency and is working with the Ministry for the Environment to achieve better implementation of the Waste Minimisation Act. We know that more can be done here but more importantly the work that she's doing to reduce waste to landfill I think will see over time a real effort being made across regions and within communities so that we can better utilise waste as a resource. She is also talking about a circular economy. Now she is not short of work—that's for sure—but she is definitely making a huge impact.We also heard similar issues around climate change from Todd Muller. Now many of the issues that Todd raised were actually the subject of the zero-carbon bill that's being consulted on and those consultations came to a conclusion on the 19th of this month. Minister Shaw has canvassed a range of issues through that consultation and already the select committee will be receiving a huge number of submissions on all the issues in terms of how emissions across various sectors and the subsequent cost benefits will be impacted on by introducing the three options that are proposed in the zero-carbon bill. I know that Minister Parker who is working very hard on freshwater issues would want to further highlight that when we say swimmable" we mean swimmable—not wadeable; not anything less than swimmable. His effort to ensure that we will be working hard around the water-quality issues around nutrient limits will be a significant step forward to assure all New Zealanders that no matter where they are they can go to their local river waterway or stream and swim in their local taonga and that's a really important aspect of where the Government sees the contribution of its efforts.Now for my own part I'm responsible for indigenous biodiversity and a national policy statement (NPS). We have a collaborative working group who will be presenting a draft on that NPS. It's the first time that we've had a working group work in such a way and we will consult on that draft strategy for indigenous biodiversity because we know that the biggest challenge will be to encourage and incentivise private land owners towards doing more to protect our indigenous biodiversity. That is about collaboration that is about partnership and that is about working with private landowners to achieve a greater outcome. The way that this Government is working will show hope that we have a vision and a plan to ensure that our environment is protected and that we have economic growth but not at the cost of our environmental principles."