Warren-Clark AngieANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to stand and take a call on the Appropriation (2016/17 Confirmation and Validation) Bill in the area of the environment—that's a mouthful certainly. I've had the pleasure of sitting on the Environment Committee hearing the CEOs and asking questions and I must say across the House we have a really effective group I believe of people who are very committed—very committed—to the environment. Most things we agree on and we work towards protecting and supporting our environment.There are a number of issues that the member Scott Simpson has raised in relation to having the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) come back this week. Absolutely we all agreed last week that that would happen and the matter will be clarified I'm sure with some great certainty this week. Just to note as well that the CEO was very happy to do so and in fact did not appear in any way to be concerned about doing so. So we look forward to hearing the response at select committee this week.The environment is I think one of those areas that we all across the House can agree is extremely important. In fact our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern has said that the environment and protecting our environment is in fact—I've lost the words now—our nuclear-free moment of our generation. Why is that important? We all inhabit this Earth. In fact if we do not continue to protect and support our environment we are not going to be able to move forward into the next generation or the next generation.It is something that I believe is very shameful that our country has increased our net emissions of carbon by 64 percent at the same time that the UK has decreased by 38 percent. What are we doing? What are we doing as a community? What are we doing as a country? We certainly need to take action and one of the things that we're doing is actually making a commitment to take action. We're transitioning away from the reliance on fossil fuels to a high-tech low-carbon economy. We're going to be a leader not a follower. I think it's important that we do that.We have a clean green reputation but are we really clean? Are we really green? If we are looking at our water—and I think we've all been aware of the water issue—we have a right in this country to have swimmable rivers. Across the House there was a change in the standards. It wasn't just swimmable; it went down to wadeable. I don't think that's good enough our country doesn't think it's good enough and in fact none of us deserve to be in water that cannot be walked in safely or swum in safely. We shouldn't need apps on our phones to tell us where it is and isn't safe to swim in this country. In fact we shouldn't have to have our seas closed and our beaches closed because of the rubbish that comes down the sewage etc.—the infrastructure that is destroyed.We need to face this. We need to face this as a community and we need to face this in the House. It is really important that as a community and as a country we do so. Our party has a plan. We are going to involve those across the House but we're certainly going to make sure climate change is a major factor.Finally I would like to talk about one billion trees waste management and the circular economy. It is really important that as a community we work towards the circular economy. I've got four seconds left so I'm not going to get to it. Thank you.