Barry Maggie: Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9666. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAGGIE BARRY (Minister of Conservation):It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak on this bill as the Minister of Conservation. This does represent one of the most significant achievements of this Government and it is something I think that all New Zealanders should be very proud of. Not all New Zealanders will be able to visit it but I think it is a tremendous and significant step under the visionary leadership of our Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key that we have been able to make this happen.I commend the hard work of Dr Nick Smith; the Pew Charitable Trusts led by Bronwen Golder;World Wide Fund for Nature New Zealand; Forest and Bird; the Department of Conservation; and many others who have made this sanctuary happen. This bill is going to honour our commitment to protect 620000 square kilometres of ocean. Size does count in this case and I will talk a little later in my call about the international response to the naming of this Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary and the international response of others who would seek to follow our lead. It is going to be one of the world’s largest marine reserves and it will make us leaders in international efforts to protect the waters of the Pacific. We will be working alongside the United States Australia Great Britain and Chile. So we are joining forces with other nations in this tremendously significant project.As has been pointed out many times the Kermadecs are a pristine environment but it has not always been that way and they are not totally pristine. Sadly the misguided colonisation that resulted in many eco-invaders taking over New Zealand—the possums the rats the stoats and some of the feral cats—has also devastated the forests and severely depleted the seabird populations that were once so abundant on the islands of the Kermadecs. The Department of Conservation has led the efforts to eradicate the rats and the cats from Raoul Island which is the largest of the chain and the staff who work for the Department of Conservation now run a year-round eradication campaign for weeds and it is ongoing challenge. The logistics are enormous. It is a remote place and so the challenges in that regard cannot be underestimated.When this bill passes twice a year the navy will be involved in sending a ship with supplies and equipment to the island to keep the base there stocked up and safe. Twice a year the Department of Conservation will also charter vessels to transfer staff to and from the islands—staff and volunteers. I commend the extraordinary work that they do and their dedication to the vision of having predator-free—and that is weed-free as well as pest-free—islands.The main focus of the groups that go through is currently weed eradication. They target things that in New Zealand we would not mind too much—or would we—such as black passionfruit yellow guava purple guava Mysore and African olive. These are things that were introduced as I said in less enlightened times and they now need to go because they are upsetting the biodiversity of these wonderful islands.The Department of Conservation staff on Raoul Island play an important role as part of our national scientific network. They collect water samples and they send them to GNS Science. They also take air samples to contribute to the international measurements of carbon dioxide and global warming and to assist with the annual whale survey for Auckland University and the research on the 6 million seabirds that inhabit this general area. But it is really in the ocean and what lies beneath the waves that the truly global significance and importance of the Kermadecs becomes apparent. Many of us will have seen the stunning images—teeming marine life in all its many weird and wonderful form the 30 undersea volcanoes with their billowing plumes of black smoke and the colourful and abundant reef systems.The Kermadecs lie on the migration routes of whales and dolphins including the gigantic blue whale. They support within their waters more than 6 million seabirds 150 species of fish and three out of the seven sea turtle species that are known to science. The Pew Charitable Trusts has described this as the gold standard of reserves and it is correct. That means that nobody can fish there. No yachtie who passes through can stop and throw a line over the side nobody can mine or dredge there and nobody can exploit and degrade the natural beauty of this place.The Department of Conservation will manage the Kermadecs as part of the Auckland Conservation Management Strategy and once the sanctuary is up and running it will work on a new conservation management strategy specifically for the islands and their waters. In the same way that the Auckland Conservation Board and the other boards around the country manage their specific areas we will create—as my colleague Dr Nick Smith has outlined—a new Kermadec conservation board once that sanctuary has been established.We have worked closely with iwi to reach agreement on the governance arrangements. The Department of Conservation will continue to authorise scientific work on the islands themselves and within their coastal waters and the existing marine reserves as well around each of the islands. The Kermadec Biodiscovery Expedition 2011report—it was about 5 years ago now that it was released—has indicated a very exciting frontier of conservation in these waters. We are still discovering more about this region and its extraordinary treasures. There is much to be found. New species of plants and animals are perhaps lurking in the depths of the world’s second-deepest ocean trench—new taonga for all of us as New Zealanders to protect and cherish and be proud of for ever.This is indeed a powerful symbol of New Zealand leading the world in conservation and environmental protection I think when we look at how the world has reacted to this. This weighty tome that Bronwen Golder sent through to my office and I think to Nick Smith’s office last October details the extraordinary response. The media ran out of superlatives really. We had “enormous” “giant” “gigantic” “vast” “huge” and “massive”. We also have announcements in here that compare the size of the Kermadecs with the state of Texas—that was the Americans of course. The Europeans chose to reflect the fact that it was the size of France. These things have not gone unnoticed.Again I commend the spirit—the wairua—and the intention of what the Prime Minister first announced at the United Nations last September as being part of the vision that we have as conservationists and environmentalists on the world stage. We are but a small country this is twice the size of our land mass and it is a remarkable contribution to the way that the world will work and the exciting prospects that lurk beneath the waves which will I think help secure our future. In order to manage what is happening beneath the waves we need to be able to measure and understand it better.As Theodore Roosevelt the President who of course protected more than 230 million acres of land in the United States—and I will conclude my call on this note—once said of the Grand Canyon: “Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” The Kermadecs will be left as they are protected in perpetuity and as a legacy for all of us as New Zealanders to cherish and to value. The ages can continue their work free of human interference. I commend this bill to the House.