7. Question No. 7—EnvironmentLAN PHAM (Green) to the Minister for the EnvironmentQuestion No. 7—Environment7. LAN PHAM (Green) to the Minister for the Environment: Does she stand by her statement that It's getting that balance between the actions that we take and environmental protection … we consider that the balance had swung too far towards environmental protection at the cost of not being able to get things done"?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS (Minister for the Environment): Yes.Lan Pham: Does she think that cutting jobs at the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) the Department of Conservation the Ministry for the Environment the Climate Change Commission the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and GNS Science has now achieved balance through reducing environmental protection?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: Well obviously I don't have responsibility for NIWA the Department of Conservation and a number of the other entities that the member mentioned but I can assure her that at the EPA the work that is being done there is ensuring that the main operational part of the EPA is not being impacted and it is the peripheral support services that are being impacted.Lan Pham: Does she consider reopening oil and gas drilling rolling back freshwater protections allowing coalmining on precious wetlands and granting blanket extensions for every marine farm in the country to represent more of a so-called balance or will she acknowledge that her Government has got the balance wrong?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: No I certainly won't acknowledge that. This country has a housing crisis an infrastructure deficit and an energy crisis and much of this is because consenting major projects in New Zealand takes far too long and is far too expensive. This Government came in in a cost of living crisis with the most debt that this country has ever had. We are determined to get things built to enable economic growth and look after the environment.Lan Pham: In her Government's fast-track process will she commit to delivering on her ministerial responsibility for environmental protection by recommending the declining of projects that significantly damage the environment or that have been previously declined by the courts due to unacceptable environmental harm?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: That bill is still in the process with the select committee and has not come back.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does the Minister accept that Māori were extremely involved in marine farming well before the arrival of Europeans and that they'd like to do so again into the future?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: Well I wasn't here then; however I'm quite sure they were and they are very involved in fishing and aquaculture now.Lan Pham: What assurances can she provide to the local Ōhinemuri River community who have seen their awa degraded as a result of heavy metal contamination from historical mining and does she have any concerns that similar environmental damage could be her legacy as a result of her Government's decisions?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: No. Also I acknowledge that things that happened probably hundreds of years ago or certainly decades ago did not have the same level of environmental protection that is there now.SPEAKER: Question No. 8 the Hon Deborah Russell—and we'll just wait for the House to settle itself down and we won't have any calling out during questions."