Hague Kevin: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHague Kevin: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 01 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11556. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.KEVIN HAGUE (Green) to the Minister of Conservation: How will the Department of Conservation fund the annual Cook Strait whale survey this year now that its contract with OMV has ended?Hon MAGGIE BARRY (Minister of Conservation): This survey was never intended to be an indefinite project and it has achieved what it set out to do which is to give accurate trend figures of the humpback whales. Surveys done over the past 12 years have shown a significant improvement in the whale population from 25 back in 2004 to 137 last year. So we now have 12 years of field work and biopsies. We will analyse those review and reframe and although we have finished the boat-based work—that phase is complete—there is also a land-based component.A dedicated group of retired whalers and the Department of Conservation (DOC) will assist them to continue in their work.Kevin Hague: Can the Minister confirm that the project that has been cut is the one that DOC has described as “A great piece of work and a really exciting research project” and indeed used as a flagship for the department’s partnership programme in presentations up and down the country?Hon MAGGIE BARRY: The particular Cook Strait project has finished what it needed to do and we are analysing it. Not all projects last for all time. It has been very successful.It has given us a lot of information and at the risk of repeating the information that I gave in my last answer I think it is important for the Greens to understand that the data that has been gathered is very useful but it has now come to an end as far as the boat-based part is concerned. We may review that once we analyse the statistics but at the moment we are very satisfied with it.Kevin Hague: What work with native species has DOC had to cut to fill the gap in kākāpō recovery and research that was left when corporate sponsorship for that species recently ended?Hon MAGGIE BARRY: Mr Speaker that question is a long way from the primary question.Mr SPEAKER: I accept that but the mention was around corporate sponsorship. On that basis I have allowed the question.Hon MAGGIE BARRY: We have had a bumper breeding season for the kākāpō. While one sponsor has finished there are many others queuing up to take its place. In a couple of weeks’ time I will be in a position to announce another sponsor. Kiwibank and other banks are no longer involved in Kiwis for Kiwi but you will note that from last year we had $11.2 million of new money that has gone into kiwi recovery which has proved very successful. The ongoing programmes are matched by Crown funding and they are matched by volunteer and community groups. They are very successful and not dependent on corporate sponsorship but it is a very nice-to-have element of it.Kevin Hague: How many species of snail or weta or ground beetle which have had their threat status slide closer to extinction under National’s watch have had corporate sponsorship money found for them by the Department of Conservation?Hon MAGGIE BARRY: What the member is failing to join up the dots on is that when we get corporate sponsorship it enables DOC to do work that is perhaps less attractive to corporate sponsors. So instead of taking away from our capacity it enhances it. All of our species are very important. We protect ecosystems in a way that no previous Labour Government had the courage to do. We deal with landscape predator control and ecosystem protection and that is at the heart of species protection in New Zealand.Kevin Hague: What did OMV New Zealand’s largest producer in the oil industry—an industry that threatens whale habitat—get in return for sponsoring the annual whale survey?Hon MAGGIE BARRY: I think that it probably has the satisfaction of knowing that it was participating in something that was very helpful. The Cook Strait whale survey was needed at the time of the aftermath of Japanese whaling to ensure that the trend was accurately measured as to the humpback whale numbers going through the Cook Strait. That is a responsible corporate response and I think if the member wants to know any more he could contact them and find out further detail.