Hughes Gareth: Appointments — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hughes Gareth: Appointments — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 
[Sitting date: 10 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2178. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora. Nga mihi nui ki a koutou. The Green Party shares the sentiments of the other parties in this House. We are glad to be unanimously supporting the reappointment of Dr Jan Wright as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Her record of reviewing investigating and inquiring on important and topical issues of our day deserves much respect and admiration. I think I share some of the sentiments in this House in that we do not agree with every recommendation she makes but I think that surely shows that her role is so important in being an independent Officer of Parliament. In my brief call I want to look at two issues: her fracking investigation recently announced and the report on lignite coal she published last year.  
Earlier on this year the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment announced she would be investigating fracking in New Zealand. We welcome this because it is needed it is timely and her office is an independent body that has the appropriate level of resources to investigate this. It is needed because there are huge concerns about fracking. Where do you get this massive quantity of water from? Where do you put the contaminated water? What are these toxic chemicals and what about air pollution concerns and earthquakes? It is important that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment investigates it because energy and resources Minister Phil Heatley says himself that there are many unanswered questions.  
Mr Heatley has three misleading arguments and one is that only Greens are opposed to it. Well it is not. It is farmers it is our city councils and it is countries like Germany France and South Africa which have banned or put temporary bans on fracking. The energy Minister says that there are no problems in Taranaki. What we have seen there and I am sure the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment will look into it— 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry to interrupt the member but he appears to be unaware that this is a debate about the appointment of an individual who is an Officer of Parliament not about any particular environmental issue.  
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will have probably noticed that I actually asked him to narrow the debate. It is on the appointment of the commissioner. If the member would do that I would appreciate it and I am sure the House would.  
GARETH HUGHES 
: I will share the sentiments of this House to talk about the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment because it is of such good quality. That is why the Green Party is supporting it—work such as her lignite report published last year and one of the reasons why we are supporting the reappointment. What the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment found is that Solid Energy is planning to dig up 6 billion tonnes of lignite and what the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended in her report to this House was that we should scrap the subsidies on that which are $275 million a year which our taxpayer is funding. I have got a bill in the ballot that has been developed from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s recommendations on that report.  
With her independence and her well-researched team she will do a good report on fracking. She has produced a good report on lignite which the Green Party supports. We just wish the Government would pay a bit more attention to her reports.  
Eugenie Sage 
: Mr Speaker—