Williams Andrew: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19371. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First):I am pleased to take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill. Having sat on the Local Government and Environment Committee for this legislation can I just say that this is one of the more pleasing pieces of legislation that we have had to consider in the last 3 years. Across all parties there was a real commitment to ensure that this bill progressed and it progressed positively for the best outcome of the marine environment of Kaikōura that special place and down the coast of the Kaikōura area.As a select committee we visited Kaikōura to hear submissions and we were all incredibly impressed with what the community had done there. Across whole areas of the community over 7 years Te Korowai o Te Tai Marokura the marine group had put it together—7 years of consultation. I was impressed to see submissions there from the local cray fishermen and from the pāua divers who are directly affected by all of this of course with their livelihood and their income. They were on board with it as well. So at the end of the day this will improve the whole marine environment down the coast there for the mutual benefit of everyone.The tourism aspect is immense in Kaikōura now with the whale-watching and the New Zealand fur seals there and people are just wanting to go there to see the marvels of nature and see what is so abundant there. There is a significant underwater canyon out off the Kaikōura Coast that is so abundant with fish life and all sorts of marine life and what that offers—and it is the breeding ground for the whales which stay there because of the abundance of plankton and the abundance of food—and that incredibly deep canyon provides such a marvellous area for New Zealand to cherish. We were a little disappointed of course that there were comments about the extent of the boundaries of that canyon and whether they went far enough. However New Zealand First is certainly of the belief that they are sufficient. They do represent a very very significant area of ocean out off the coast and by having that it certainly will provide the basis of ensuring that the whales and other marine life in the area there are given an incredibly important area of water.Similarly we went as a select committee to the breeding ground—or not so much the breeding ground but the creche as they call it—for the fur seal pups. It was marvellous to go up the inlet and up the stream—it is about a 5-minute walk off the main highway there—to see 40 or 50 pups or maybe more frolicking in several pools there. Apparently what the pups do is they leave the mothers they leave the parents and they go up the stream during the day while the parents are off getting food and all that sort of thing. The young pups were all playing around and jumping around and having a great time. It was just marvellous—marvellous—to see and that is all included in the sanctuary. It is amazing. So the whole area of the New Zealand fur seal colony there is protected under this bill as well. Again that is just such a marvellous thing which New Zealand can cherish.Can I also pay homage to Ngāi Tahu and local iwi and hapū who under the leadership of Sir Mark Solomon and many other leaders in the Māori community there have put so much effort into this legislation. Again it was very heartening to see how much they were involved in it and how there was so much buy-in from them working in with the cray fishermen working in with the pāua divers working in with the tourist operators and working in with all sorts of other interests there.Can I especially pay tribute to the Department of Conservation people in Kaikōura who took us and showed us the various areas of the sanctuaries and the marine colonies. What a marvellous job the Department of Conservation is doing in that area. I also pay tribute to the fisheries inspectors in the area. They are just tremendous people they were great hosts that day and they really are dedicated to what they are doing in the area and they are locals. You know they are working with the locals and they are locals. They are part of the local community but they are very much providing that Government input that legislative regulatory input and ensuring that it all works well for everyone. So I was very very pleased about the collaboration.As we have heard from other speakers this would probably be the most significant collaboration across a community in terms of developing a marine reserve a whale sanctuary and other things such as customary fishing areas and an advisory committee to oversee it. This would probably be the most comprehensive ever marine reserve in New Zealand and it was very very heartening to see.New Zealand First absolutely does support those initiatives and we were very pleased that the select committee was very collaborative in being able to work through it. However there was one area that we questioned and it was about those coordinates under the GPS. I think officials are still looking into that matter because there is no real reason why those coordinates could not go to three decimal places to ensure—Hon Ruth Dyson: Absolutely.ANDREW WILLIAMS: What was that?Hon Ruth Dyson: No you’re right—absolutely.ANDREW WILLIAMS: Yes—to ensure that there are no anomalies or errors or that certain rock areas or whatever fall just outside the area simply because we did not go to a third digit. I hope that common sense would prevail. As we all know New Zealand First’s policies are common sense—it is just common sense. As you will see on the billboards around New Zealand in the coming weeks it is common sense that we apply common sense and in this case it would be common sense to just simply add one more decimal place and make sure that these particular boundaries in these particular designated areas are not 20 30 or 50 metres away from the area they are supposed to be protecting.In saying all this we are increasingly aware of the fact that we are the guardians. Humans are the guardians of our planet the guardians of our oceans and the guardians of our land. In this case it is most important that we do all we can to ensure that what we are guardians of is taken care of. The number of marine reserves around New Zealand are increasing from the very first one at Goat Island up on the Leigh coast north of Auckland which is now a marvellous area to inner-city urban ones such as at Long Bay on the North Shore—which again has been marvellous in the Long Bay area—and many others around the coast. I visited the one in Akaroa which was established and extended just in the last year. Again it is very very significant.But it is important that at the same time we do not neglect other issues that are outside the marine reserves. Such an issue has been raised in this House today with the Māui’s dolphins. I am very very disheartened by the snail pace progress that has been made to protect the wonderful little Māui’s dolphins. When you look at these beautiful little creatures there are only 55 left of them in the world. They are all in New Zealand and they are mainly off the west coast of the North Island running down from Manukau Harbour down to Taranaki and indeed perhaps some are even down as far as Whanganui. When we are looking at marine reserves and at what we are doing here the onus is also on us to look at the wider impact on our oceans. We need to ensure that with beautiful little creatures like this and there are only 55 left of them left we have got to do something to protect them.So similarly in New Zealand First will be working and doing our darnedest post-election if we are in any position to influence the Government of the day to ensure that a much faster pace is taken in terms of protecting the Māui’s dolphins. Indeed we will extend that protection to the Hector’s dolphins too—they are under threat but not under the same level of threat—and ensure that New Zealand does play its part internationally in terms of protecting our marine species and our marine life.The last dolphins that went into extinction were in China on the Yangtze River—the round-nosed dolphin I think it was called. It would be devastating for New Zealand’s image if the next species of dolphin that was to become extinct was in New Zealand after China. That would be a terrible message. We cannot allow that.Today I was very pleased to meet with Professor Elizabeth Slooten and Gemma McGrath—and indeed in the past it was Christine Rose—who are doing a marvellous job on working to protect the Māui’s dolphins. In their survey we hear that New Zealanders overwhelmingly—80-something percent of New Zealanders—say that we have do something about this and that we have do something about it very soon. So New Zealand First commends this bill to the House.