Dyson Ruth: Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19776. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour - Port Hills):Mr Chairman can I first of all briefly take the opportunity to acknowledge you and your role in this Parliament as you head into the last few hours of your time and say how your fairness guidance and gentle sense of humour have been greatly appreciated by this House as has your sense of dress. Your pink shirts show leadership as a Southern Man and I particularly want to acknowledge that.I agree with the Minister of Conservation who has just resumed his seat that the Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Bill is a very good note as Parliament moves towards the end of this 50th session—it is not the last bill; there is another one on the Order Paper after this—to nearly end this session of Parliament on. Can I acknowledge the four Ministers of Conservation who have progressed this legislation: the Hon Chris Carter the Hon Steve Chadwick the Hon Kate Wilkinson and the Hon Nick Smith who is now seeing it into the final stages before it concludes in its third reading.I also want to add my acknowledgment of Colin King who has as the local member of Parliament for Kaikōura—prior to being dumped by the National Party—strongly supported this legislation. I think it is a good thing that the Minister urged other parties in Parliament to support its progress so that Colin King could still be a member of Parliament during the third and final reading of this legislation. I was very happy to support this initiative by that MP.I want to acknowledge the Kaikōura Coastal Marine Guardians who for 7 years have worked following a request from the Minister of Conservation at the start of that time to make this perhaps unthinkable agreement a reality. The Minister is right that such areas of proposed protections are often the cause of huge division in a community. In this instance through a lot of goodwill a lot of common sense and a lot of hard work the agreement has been reached and we are now able to progress a large area of marine protection. It is not perhaps what best practice would have dictated if it had been done from central direction rather than from a locally driven agreement but it is a huge step forward and the fact that it has got the agreement of all parties means that it is more likely to be enduring.The fact that the Minister supported through his Supplementary Order Paper 481 a change to the length of time for the review from 25 years to 10 years was I think a good thing and I assume that the guardians are supportive of that as well. I think that the general provision of review of marine protection is good as long as it is not one that then opens up that division again. The Minister nodded as I gently requested confirmation that the guardians are in agreement with that review. I think that it is a very good step and we will be supporting it.I also want to acknowledge the Local Government and Environment Committee. We held hearings on this legislation in Kaikōura. I think it was great that we went to the local area. We were obviously surrounded by the beauty of that part of New Zealand but we were also very much aware of the passion the energy and the commitment the local people who made submissions on this bill have for their coastline. The pride the understanding the knowledge and the commitment they had made to put aside many differences and work collaboratively together were very obvious during our day of hearings. I want to acknowledge the select committee for the respectful way we heard the submissions and the contributions made by the submitters.I also want to acknowledge the officials. They worked hard; I think they enjoyed it. We are probably one of the most satisfying committees to work with because we put quite a lot of energy into our consideration. The officials were very responsive to our requests some of which they might have felt were a little bit obscure. For example we were very puzzled by the differences—and I know this is one that exercised the mind of my colleague Moana Mackey—in the measurements that are undertaken by different departments and whether the measurements go to two or three decimal points or one and what difference that makes to the actual measurement of the coverage of the marine protected area. So I want to acknowledge and thank the officials for their work.This bill establishes marine reserves of different types around the Kaikōura Coast—the whale sanctuary that the Minister referred to in his contribution and the New Zealand fur seal sanctuary. As the Minister alluded to we think of times when fur seals were part of the produce of New Zealand and now we so much enjoy being able to see the pups and their transition to adult life and being able to drive down the coast and see the fur seals at close hand—not too close though because they are not pets. It is a very fortunate thing for us. Many countries are very jealous of our ability to show off our animals in that way. We have different types of marine protection. We have sanctuaries as we know them but we also have the taiāpure and the mātaitai. The bill establishes an advisory committee and I think that that is a good model to hold. I look forward to seeing how that as the model for marine protection develops and whether there are some opportunities for other areas to take advantage of that. Obviously there are also fisheries regulations that are specific to this area.It is a pleasure for me as the Labour conservation spokesperson to be able to put Labour’s name alongside supporters of this area and to say that even though significant concerns were raised with the select committee by people who know this area of science very well that this bill is not in accordance with best practice—and I take those concerns seriously—we considered that the work that was done over so many years under request from four Ministers of Conservation consecutively deserves the respect of responsive support from this Parliament. Had there been different instructions given to the guardians or had the rules changed part-way through there may have been a different consideration but it is our view that the work that the guardians have undertaken in an area that they know best and that offers much better protection than we currently have and with the opportunity for a review in just a decade’s time is certainly worthy of support.I think that the changes that the select committee made improved the original legislation. Combined with the Supplementary Order Paper that the Minister is offering they give us something for this whole Parliament to be proud of something that has been worked on for many years and something that will have a great third reading to go through in these final stages of the House as we progress this Committee stage and move to the third reading shortly afterward. Thank you.