Sage Eugenie: Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4910. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Speaker. I am very pleased to take a short call on the Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill. It could be called the “Tarawera Black Drain Bill” because this bill would limit to 5 years the duration of a coastal permit or a discharge permit that was issued under the “exceptional circumstances” section in the Resource Management Act. Section 107(2) of the Resource Management Act is the section that allows the discharge even if it impacts on fish and other aquatic life and even if it causes a conspicuous change in the colour of the river.  
At present in the Act there is no limit to how long the exceptional circumstances that might justify a regional council allowing a discharge could last for nor is there any definition in the Act of “exceptional circumstances”. So the bill would improve the Resource Management Act by making it more precise. It is not picking off a single issue as Dr Nick Smith claimed. It would apply to all polluters who sought to use this provision. It is not addressing just one river the Tarawera one place or one mill but it would certainly constrain the ability of Tasman Pulp and Paper mills to use this “exceptional circumstances” section to continue to grossly pollute the Tarawera River. 
The bill is needed because in 2009 Bay of Plenty Regional Council commissioners granted consent to Carter Holt Harvey and NorskeSkog to continue to discharge effluent from the mills into the river for another 25 years and they granted that permit renewal because of exceptional circumstances. Where the Tarawera River flows out of Lake Tarawera it is a beautiful river. The water is clear enough to see the stones to see the weed and to see the occasional trout. It is a beautiful river to walk beside to see the Tarawera Falls but lower down near the sea the river changes and that is because of the burden of pollution that has been going into the river for 70 years—70 years—from the pulp and paper mills in Kawerau. 
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright identified the Tarawera River in its lower reaches as the second most polluted river in Aotearoa. I congratulate Catherine Delahunty on bringing this bill to the House. I congratulate her and the Bay of Plenty iwi Ngati Awa NgatiRangitihi and NgatiTuwharetoa on all of their mahi over many decades to respect the mauri of this river and to restore it to health so that it is a river that provides them with mana and a river that can provide them with kai. We have a long way to go but this bill is a step along that path. 
One might expect a council to use the “exceptional circumstances” section to justify a stormwater overflow in an extreme weather event or a sewage treatment plant that malfunctions but it should not be used to justify ongoing discharges over decades. The Tasman Pulp and Paper mills need to invest more in clean technology to clean up their discharges. This bill by limiting that “exceptional circumstances” provision to 5 years would provide the encouragement for them to do that when the next consent is applied for. I commend this bill to the House because it is about having clean technology to provide jobs not abusing the environment to provide jobs. Thank you.