Blumsky Mark: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
Blumsky Mark: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:650;Page:18717] 
MARK BLUMSKY (National) 
: 
 I was disappointed to hear Mr Norman say he is not going to support this name change because I believe he gave an assurance to our member Nicky Wagner that he would and I find that lack of integrity disappointing. I also find it interesting that Mr Norman stood up and said that it was sad the bill never made it through on a members’ day because I can remember sitting here not too long ago on a members’ night and hearing both him and a certain Minister in the chair filibustering quite obviously through that members’ night to prevent us from getting through the Committee stage. That was disappointing and is probably why we are here now still in the Committee stage of the bill and not debating the third reading and completing its passage. 
It is interesting also that Mr Norman talked about the fact that the bill is now a Government bill. It was probably damn near a year ago—it seems like it was forever ago—that we on this side of the Chamber suggested that the bill should be a Government bill. That was probably the time when the big changes were made. From memory that was in 2006—no that was the first reading. It was the time when the changes were made so dramatically that we suggested it should become a Government bill. We felt there was a lot of work that should be done on the bill including cost benefits and so on. To be honest when a bill is a Government bill it has a lot more resource thrown at it than a member’s bill has and we felt this legislation was important enough to have that resource thrown at it. 
All that aside I actually thoroughly enjoyed the process of this bill. I enjoyed working with the bill and the interaction with the other members on the Local Government and Environment Committee. I enjoyed the way the public became so involved in the bill and the fact that we went out and about and saw and learnt so much. We learnt a heck of a lot about waste and waste minimisation. As I said I applaud the public who are so passionate about this area and about the environment. It was a pleasure to meet and see them. I suppose it is because of the passion and commitment of those who came before the select committee that I totally buy into the fact that Supplementary Order Paper 217 put forward by Nicky Wagner should be voted on and approved. 
Most of the people who came before the select committee talked about the recovery of waste and how a resource once used should be ready to be used again. So many of those people talked about ways they could reuse the waste and do something constructive with it—how they could utilise the waste and even make money out of the waste rather than the waste going into the big bad landfill. National members on the committee took significant notice of the way those people talked about waste. The submitters were using the word “recovery”; they wanted to recover the waste and reuse it. Hence the Supplementary Order Paper put forward that should I hope be supported by the Committee. In going through my notes from the select committee I found I had a comment from a gentleman by the name of Professor Storey from Victoria University who came before the select committee. I wrote his words down and they were: “Waste is just a resource in the wrong space. The trick is to find a way to divert and support it.” Waste is just a resource in the wrong space and when we think about waste in that way we understand the power of the word “recovery” and the need therefore to support Nicky Wagner’s Supplementary Order Paper. 
Also whilst we were out and about looking at various submitters’ and other waste minimisation sources and uses we visited the factory that Nicky Wagner referred to. It is called Astron Plastics in Christchurch or maybe it was Auckland. Anyway it collects waste plastic smashes it granulates it and separates it out. It was fascinating to see how it could take plastic in many different forms granulate it pack it up and ship it off. The fascinating part of that was that the factory had to buy it from Australia because not enough plastic was being collected and recovered from the streets in New Zealand. So it buys plastic from Australia processes it then lo and behold sells it to China. So here we have this factory in New Zealand buying plastic from Australia granulating it then selling it to China. Now if that is not helping the carbon credits I do not know what is. That is just superb. 
The other factory that led us to support the name change Nicky Wagner proposes on her Supplementary Order Paper is a company in Christchurch called TerraNova. This is an incredible company that literally collects waste in the big trucks and after it arrives at the factory big metal-crunchers and machines very cleverly separate out various parts of the waste. The factory sorts the plastic utilises it and literally makes money out of it. It recovers an asset out of the waste and uses it to make itself a fine profit. 
The examples of those three who came before the select committee gave us the confidence if you like to propose a name change to put the Supplementary Order Paper forward and to say that the bill is all about recovery. It is what the public the Waiheke Islanders the small community set-ups and the passionate people who were doing it for their community were calling it. They were doing their bit—putting their mark in the sand if you like—for the environment. They were so proud of the fact that they were recovering household and other commercial rubbish and using it. They were so proud of it. Our support for those people is in the amendment on the Supplementary Order Paper put forward by Nicky Wagner which I hope will be picked up by the other side and voted on accordingly. And I hope that Mr Norman sees the error of his ways and actually understands the trade-off and the deal that was done and the integrity that should be shown in respect of Nicky Wagner. Nicky has dealt with this bill in a very positive way. She has been positive and has tried to find a path through this bill—which has been complicated—that actually meets the requirements of all of us. So I think the Greens’ support for this would be more than fitting. Thank you Madam Chair.