Sio William: Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17634. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere):Malo lesoifua Mr Assistant Speaker. I apologise for that. I will not take too much of the House’s time in terms of this particular bill the Resource Management (Restricted Duration of Certain Discharge and Coastal Permits) Amendment Bill. I want to acknowledge the author of the bill Catherine Delahunty and accept the fact that the view she is advocating through this bill is genuine. I think that on this side of the House Labour is also of the view that it is important that as a country we do protect our nation’s rivers and our waterways and that we ought to be aiming to ensure that the quality of our water is improved. This is one of the reasons why Labour supported this bill going to the Local Government and Environment Committee.I note that a total of 147 submissions were made from industry from Māori organisations from NGOs and from professional groups. A significant number of those submissions were from individuals but we also had submissions from five local government regional councils. By and large the two areas of concern that were raised in those submissions were the Tarawera River and the Tasman Pulp and Paper mill. The Tasman Pulp and Paper mill which this bill focuses directly on received resource consents under the Resource Management Act under section 107(2)(a) on two occasions: first in 1995 and again in 2009. In 2009 the consent went to the Environment Court and the High Court. I just want to read from the report: “The Environment Court’s decision took into account the assessment of the effects of a discharge on the river the long-held and positive economic and social importance of the pulp and paper mill both regionally and nationally the critical dependence of the mill on the river for water and as a discharge medium the significant capital outlay in the industry including measures to improve the volume and quality of discharges to the river and that the initial setting up of the industry on that site had been under a special enabling Act of Parliament.”It seems to me that although there is general agreement on most parts of the bill the one area that seems to be a bone of contention is really the term or the years that the bill attempts to try to address. Although it argues that it should limit the discharge rights to 5 years the present situation with the bill is that the pulp and paper mill is able to discharge for 35 years and that has been approved through the courts. So from a Labour Party perspective I totally agree with the aim of the need to protect our rivers and our waterways but we also need to balance that out with the needs of the communities in terms of jobs. That is why Labour is proposing a compromised option of a limit of 15 years and has submitted Supplementary Order Paper 422 to reflect this.As this bill is not retrospective it will not deliver in our view the result that most people in favour of the bill were seeking—that is a restriction of the Tasman Pulp and Paper mill permit which will still have 22 years left to go on its permit if this bill is passed. As I said earlier presently there is a limit of 35 years on the amount of time this permit may be issued for in exceptional circumstances under section 107(2)(a). It does not seem in keeping with the intention of this section that exceptional circumstances include permits of 35 years. However as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment said when she submitted on this bill 5 years would not be a sufficient period of time for all potential users of this section. Although we would regret it if a compromise of 15 years is not accepted through the Supplementary Order Paper we would obviously then vote against the bill.Finally I just want to say that Labour supports the comprehensive adoption of the Land and Water Forum recommendations to improve water quality throughout New Zealand along with looking at resource rentals to ensure that our rivers throughout New Zealand are improved. Thank you very much.