Hughes Gareth: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 20 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16924. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green):Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to support this bill the Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill. The Green Party supports greater marine protection. We think that this is an absolutely stunning and beautiful part of the country. Seeing those seals the other marine life and that trench which is one of only 100 such deep marine sites in the world—this is a beautiful part of our beautiful country. It is somewhere that many New Zealanders love where they go camping they go surfing and they go there to check out the marine life. I think every New Zealander has got their own story about their favourite part of New Zealand but I would not be surprised if this coast the Kaikōura coast was at the top of many Kiwis’ list.It is also a good example of the clean green economy. We call it the smart green economy which is built on enhancing and taking advantage of our natural beauty protecting it so we have got a sustainable income into the future—not this drill it mine it and frack it approach to our natural environment that we see from the Government so often. What you can see in the officials’ advice to the Government is that marine tourism is a huge earner for this country bringing in more than $1.6 billion. More than 500 million international tourists took part in some sort of marine conservation or marine tourism activity so it is a fantastic smart green economic sector. With the fourth-largest exclusive economic zone in the world this is a real area where we could see new jobs new prosperity and a richer New Zealand as a result.So we are supporting marine protection. That is why we are supporting this legislation today. We would like to acknowledge the Minister of Conservation Nick Smith. We would like to acknowledge and thank for the hard work all the people involved over so many years in the Te Korowai o Te Tai o Marokura process—the local iwi Ngāti Kurī obviously Ngāi Tahu and everyone involved. The Government is sort of—you know of course this is election year—trying to pretend like this is something it has come up with and it is acting on. But I really do want to say that over many many years people have been—Maggie Barry: No it took 7 years to organise it. We’ve got substance unlike that member.GARETH HUGHES: Well if Maggie Barry is going to sit there and slag off from the backbenches about this she in fact is backing up my point which is that this bill has been something developed from the community for many many years—longer than this Government in fact. So it is unfair for this Government and the member Maggie Barry—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. Can I just say to members in close proximity to each other—and I go back to Sir Basil Arthur in 1984 for this Speaker’s ruling. When you have close proximity it muffles the microphone. It makes it so much more difficult for the person trying to address the House. Can I just remind the House that courtesy is contagious.GARETH HUGHES: And it is quite unbecoming as well. So I am making the point that people have been working very hard over a number of years and we would like to thank them and acknowledge them. I think that with such collaborative processes we could see more successes like these in the future.We know the bill does a number of things including establishing a new marine reserve the Hikurangi Marine Reserve; a new whale sanctuary; a new fur seal sanctuary; the mātaitai; the taiāpure; and some regulations when it comes to fishing. So it looks like a big package but what I want to do is go into each element of this bill provide a bit of context a bit of analysis and then look at the motivations behind it. But more important I want to look at the Government’s track record when it comes to marine conservation because there very much is an agenda behind this legislation we see today.First off I want to look at the marine reserve because this is what the Minister of Conservation Nick Smith has been trumpeting. He says it is the largest marine reserve to touch mainland New Zealand. Although that is the case in a strict measurable sense in terms of being just slightly larger than 10000 hectares at 104 square kilometres it is important to point out—people watching this on the television or listening on the radio obviously cannot see the maps that are provided in the legislation. What this marine reserve does is have a tiny little bit on land 1.95 kilometres—a tiny bit on land—and then extends out into the waters over the trench. We are not opposed to protecting trenches but we just think if you are going to be talking about making the largest marine reserve that touches land you would not have this almost triangle shape with the smallest point touching land. We think there is a bit of misadvertising there. What we would like to see are greater marine reserves over our beaches over our rocky shores so that people can enjoy the biodiversity and the protection benefits that marine reserves provide.We would note that there is very limited fishing in this area. We would note again the size: 104 square kilometres. The Government is making out that this is a huge deal but it is 104 square kilometres. Last year the Government offered oil blocks to the oil industry that were 4000 times larger. So let us put them in contrast: 104 square kilometres of new protections yet 4000 times more oil blocks were offered in a single year. Here you can see the Government’s priority. The Government is again making out like this is a huge marine reserve and we do need some big marine reserves. Less than 0.5 percent—0.41 percent—of our exclusive economic zone and territorial sea is protected in marine reserves. We know that Colmar Brunton surveyed New Zealanders and found they assumed that we had around 30 percent protected—no the truth is 0.41 percent. So what does this new reserve take the total to? From 0.41 percent to 0.41 percent. The size is that small in the global picture that it moves only a couple of decimal points.When it comes to the whale sanctuary we would like to see greater protections for our whales and marine mammals in New Zealand. We have got 55 Māui’s dolphins left nationally our New Zealand sea lions are critically endangered and the Hector’s dolphins just around the corner from this area—a bit south—are again critically endangered. So the whale sanctuary sounds like a great idea does it not? But when you read the legislation and the associated documents you have got to ask yourself what the purpose of the whale sanctuary is. All this whale sanctuary does is make voluntary seismic surveying for oil and gas activities—which are currently voluntary including in the entire exclusive economic zone—apply in this area. This whale sanctuary does not provide much sanctuary if that is the only thing it does. If all it does is to still allow seismic surveying the very weak and permissive voluntary code of conduct should have applied. Basically to sum up the code of conduct you need a couple of people on the ship having a look out to see whether they can see any dolphins or whales. This is far from best practice. For a marine country where our economy depends on and derives much of our income from whale-watching and other tourism I think this is almost laughable.But I guess the biggest threat facing this area which was graphically highlighted by the locals is that while the Government gives on this hand on the other hand it is massively endangering this beautiful part of the country with its risky deep-sea drilling agenda. I would like to thank the work of Ngāti Kurī. I was not at the Bluegreens Forum—surprise surprise I did not get an invitation—but what we saw was in fact more people outside the conference protesting this Government’s agenda than were there inside despite being part of this collaborative process.The Government describes this as the next frontier the oceans. I think what it means is the next frontier for extraction because although there is this new marine reserve which is great and which we support we have got to put it in contrast with all the oil and gas permits it has offered. You know the Government is funding Trans-Tasman Resources $12 million to $25 million to literally suck up 50 million tonnes per annum of the Taranaki and Whanganui seabed. It is still frankly ridiculous that we need legislation in Parliament to get marine reserves passed because this party sat on its hands for the years it has been in Government and has not updated our marine reserves legislation our antiquated 1971 Act. It is still missing its targets. Now two Ministers of Conservation have missed their target—Wilkinson and Smith—and we still do not have modern marine reserves legislation.Although it is seeing new marine reserves created let us not forget that this Government had to be taken to court by the people of the Akaroa community to get that marine reserve created. This Government will not protect all of the waters around the World Heritage - listed Subantarctic Islands. It is still not acting on what the scientists urge us to do to protect the Māui’s dolphins. New Zealand sea lions are still being caught in those lethal indiscriminate fishing nets including earlier this year yet the Government is not requiring we go to sea lion - safe fishing techniques. We are seeing the Government granting minerals exploration and mining permits in benthic protected areas. We are seeing less than 0.5 percent of our oceans protected in marine reserves and a gigantic part of our oceans open to oil drilling.What the Greens in Government would do is take this seriously. This is the smarter greener economy. We would modernise our marine reserves law. We would undertake spatial planning in that exclusive economic zone protecting a great vast area—more than National. We would include protection of the Kermadec Islands overnight taking New Zealand from 0.41 percent to 15 percent of our waters protected. We would act with the urgency and the haste that scientists say we must if we want to give the Māui’s dolphin a shot at survival. We will protect the New Zealand sea lion. When it comes to protecting the marine environment that we Kiwis love it is the Green Party that is the champion not that party with a lick of “greenwash”. When you look at National’s track record it is not the champion of the marine environment.