Delahunty Catherine: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: General Debate[Sitting date: 18 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2370. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Before I start my general debate speech I would just like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the people of Vanuatu. I have not had that chance yet. I acknowledge my friends in Parliamentover there who are doing their absolute best for their people under dreadful circumstances. I acknowledge them for facing the front line of climate change the front line of no resources and the destruction that has come from a mismanaged planet.I would also just like to correct the previous speaker Ian McKelvie on his unfortunate tirade on Metiria’s question. In fact the name of the school is—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Can I just ask the member—I know it is a habit that people have developed with the familiarity with the name of the co-leader of the Green Party but I think that even if one addresses someone in a particular way outside the House the formality should stay in the House.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. I do hope I have not offended Metiria Turei. Somehow I feel I may not have but I do take your point. We should maintain the rules of the House.I would just like to refer to the National Party member who said that Metiria Turei was wrong about “Kelvin Grove School”. I think he misheard the name of the school. I have rechecked the question. It is Kelvin Road School and it is a school that both Metiria and I are familiar with. I have visited it. It is in Papatoetoe not in his electorate.Tim Macindoe: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Hon Annette King: How can this be a point of order?Tim Macindoe: For the deputy leader of the Labour Party I say that the member has just offended in exactly the same way that she was asked not to by the Assistant Speaker a moment ago. I completely agree with the Assistant Speaker and would ask—CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: What? I called her “Turei.”Tim Macindoe: No on that occasion again the member’s first name only was used.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: I am sorry Mr Assistant Speaker—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Catherine Delahunty are you replying to the point of order?CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: Yes. I am not actually replying to the point of order as such. I cannot remember whether I said “Metiria” or “Metiria Turei”. I am afraid that I am attempting to stick to the rules of the House and perhaps to talk about important subjects if that member would allow me to continue.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): OK and I apologise if I missed it because I did too.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: So if we could get on with the business of the day water is the subject of the general debate for me because no matter how many bridges you build in Northland it is what goes underneath the bridge that really matters. I recently visited the Tai Tokerau in the middle north and I stood on the bridges with a wonderful man called Millan Ruka who runs the environmental river patrol. I stood on those bridges and I saw slimy dirty algae-ridden grey water because of the excessive amount of effluent that was coming into those rivers from badly managed farms in the area of the Hikurangi Swamp. It is that kind of problem that we saw today in question time when the Prime Minister was unable to answer my questions about the very reasonable call that Federated Farmers put out that we end dairy conversions in the upper Waikato. When Federated Farmers tell the country that we have gone too far with dairying and that Landcorp should stop converting their farms we know there is a big problem.Chris Lewis from Federated Farmers Waikato made it very clear this week that a moratorium was a really good idea not because he is anti-dairying—he is no more anti-dairying than the Green Party is—but because he can see that downstream the efforts that farmers are making across the Waikato to clean up water quality are being undermined by a Government-owned State-owned enterprise Landcorp which is proposing to put another 29500 dairy cows in the upper catchment. The catchment cannot take it. That is in the next 5 years. It is proposing to do this not over 30 years or even 40 years but in the next 5 years because the Government unlike Federated Farmers has gone crazy with milk-fed greed. And while that takes place every waterway downstream is at risk. The point that Chris Lewis was making is a very valid point because he was saying that the farming community has put a lot of effort into riparian planting into fencing and into trying to manage nutrients in the Waikato. I would say there is a lot more work to go having been up along the Waihou River and other such rivers that are still in a parlous state. But it is very disturbing to see the Government-owned enterprise Landcorp ignoring the calls of farmers and attacking Federated Farmers for daring to suggest that enough was enough.So we are saying to Federated Farmers that we are going to stand beside you in this call for a halt. We think it is a very reasonable call because the people who have made the effort who are trying to meet a decent standard of water quality are being undermined by their own Government. The Government set a quality standard for fresh water—its National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management—that is incredibly low. It is completely low and it is pretty much useless because it is all about wading and boating not swimming. If you cannot swim in a river like I could swim in a river when I was young we have lost—I beg your pardon Mr Assistant Speaker; not you. If we cannot swim in rivers any more we have lost something really precious.We should listen to Federated Farmers. They are telling the Government:“Stop doing this. There are much more positive ways of managing water quality.” We can protect the land but there is no point in the Government’s policy of retiring adjacent waterways to land if upstream it is putting thousands more cows—thousands and thousands—into those catchments and destroying the work of farmers downstream. The Government should listen to the Green Party and listen to Federated Farmers. It is in everyone’s interest to protect water. There will not be any wonderful economy and there will not be any fantastic community great lifestyle and all the rest that it spouts on about year after year coming from its policies if it does not protect water. Water is life and we must protect it. Kia ora tātou.