Sage Eugenie: Appointments — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Appointments — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 
[Sitting date: 10 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2179. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
 I congratulate Dr Jan Wright on her appointment and also congratulate the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment because it celebrates its 25th birthday this year. It was established under the Environment Act at the same time that the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for the Environment were established. As Dr Wright noted in a recent speech the parliamentary commissioner’s office at that time was talked about as being an environmental auditor and an environmental ombudsman. Certainly that is what the office has been with its reports which have made a series of recommendations often to Ministers and also her office’s role in providing advice to select committees. One of the more useful reports she has produced recently is the one on 1080 which separated a lot of the myths from the facts and recommended against a moratorium on 1080 use as some hunting interests had sought.  
Another of her useful reports was on water quality. That was a report that did not contain any recommendations but did explain the science around water quality as simply as possible. It highlighted that we have got three major sources of water pollution: sediments nutrients and pathogens. That report was useful in providing an agreed basis of what the major sources of pollution are. But one of the things that the parliamentary commissioner noted when the appropriations for the office were considered before the Local Government and Environment Committee this year is that in the follow-up to this report about the state of environment reporting in New Zealand last August the Minister for the Environment had said that there would be a commitment that her office would take on that function. But the office has only 16 full-time staff it has a budget of $2.67 million and if we are going to get a comprehensive state of the environment report in 2013-14 as the Government is anticipating we need the legislation but also there needs to be an increase in the budget for the office of about $1.35 million. So it will be interesting to see whether there is any provision for that in the upcoming Budget.  
Another of the commissioner’s very useful reports was on mining on the conservation estate and the difficult decisions that she alerted everybody to there. She highlighted that the current mining law and the current Conservation Act give mining an advantage over other commercial users. She recommended too against the Government’s commitment to amend the legislation and make the Minister of Energy and Resources have dual responsibility for mining applications on the conservation estate with the Minister of Conservation. That is a recommendation that the Green Party would strongly like to see implemented.  
The parliamentary commissioner’s office over the three commissioners Dr Helen Hughes Dr Morgan Williams and now Dr Jan Wright has done an enormous body of useful work. We commend her appointment and commend the work that the office does. 
Motion agreed to.