Court Simon; Parker DavidSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Minister I just want to come to the matter of water conservation orders. Now water conservation orders are already allowed under the existing Resource Management Act and they have been applied to a number of rivers—particularly the lower sections of rivers—where if water is abstracted for primary production in the upper parts of the catchment or from say drawing on groundwater from bores then there may not be sufficient water at certain times of the year and in certain climatic conditions to allow sufficient water to be in the river so that habitats are sustained so that recreation activities can be sustained whether it's jet boating fly fishing kayaking or swimming.But one of the problems with water conservation orders as we've seen recently in Hawke's Bay—and forgive me I'm going to struggle to pronounce the name of the river—I think it's Ngaruroro River which has had a water conservation order applied to it. But one of the things that was proposed by some of the organisations representing farmers and growers representing food processors was that look they can't turn off their processors; they can't tell their growers to stop growing the crop; they can't tell the apples and the pears to stop growing. They need the water. When they make an investment in planting—and of course apple orchards in particular were absolutely smashed by Cyclone Gabrielle and other storm events recently—when they make a commitment to replant or to re-sow a crop whether it be lettuces or tomatoes or corn squash whatever the vegetables are they need to know they have access to water.A water conservation order that only looks at the water in the river and says That's all you can take less what's left for recreation and the environment." in the case of the order around the Ngaruroro River ignores the fact there are options to build water storage higher up in the catchment to collect some of those enormous volumes of water which have come down the river during floods and storms particularly in the last six months—enormous volumes of water.So Minister one of the concerns that the ACT Party has is that there is insufficient pathway to build water storage. That's why ACT says "If we want to adapt to climate change; if we want to leave water in the rivers for the fish for trout and salmon and for the banded cockapoo or the giant cockapoo"—or whatever those native fish are—"the eels tuna; and we want to have water for production then we should be allowing building water storage water transfer between property owners and irrigation as of right." In other words as long as you can demonstrate that you meet a code of practice and that your activities do not take away from the environment then you should be able to build water storage as of right.Sometimes water storage developments require cooperation between regional councils between central government as well as between private sector funders like the Ruataniwha dam proposal in Hawke's Bay. Yet that was declined after Department of Conservation had to agree with some objectors from Forest & Bird that a piece of the land they wanted to swap—so it could be used for water storage—that they weren't allowed to swap it.So there was all kinds of things that stop us from actually developing water storage that underpins a better natural environment—that supports regional economic development—that is not addressed by this bill. So Minister would you be able to provide the committee some assurance; people listening at home; and of course all of those growers and manufacturers and food producers who want to know that they can build water storage that can continue to operate in the regions support our economy? They're the backbone of our economy.Minister how will Part 6 and managing resources in areas particularly water sustain regional economy primary production and New Zealand's prosperity?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): In respect of the issues relating to Ruataniwha they are outside the scope of not only this Part; but they are outside the scope of this bill. As the member has rightly indicated those matters were determined under the Conservation Act not under the Resource Management Act nor its successor. So I won't comment further upon that.In respect of conservation orders some conservation orders actually go from the headwaters to the sea—the Mataura River's an example of one of those. Others are mainly in the headwaters like the Wakatipu conservation order covers all of the rivers coming into Lake Wakatipu and the Kawarau River from the outflow from Lake Wakatipu down to the head of the Lake Dunstan at the Clyde Dam but no further down. So that's an example of where in the headwaters.In respect of the Ngaruroro River and the Clive River—I have the same pronunciation inadequacies as the member does to which I apologise to the committee—that was in the end not approved by the body to whom the application was sought in respect of the areas that did go through the lands that the member was concerned about and was confined to the outer reaches of the river. So it's actually an example of the system working towards the objectives that the member says he supports rather than against.In respect of water storage issues I dealt with that with the answering the question from Barbara Kuriger."