SpeechCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to stand up and speak on this subject. It's not the first time we've stood in this House and gone around the mulberry bush discussing this very issue. In fact the first time I became a member of Parliament and first heard of the story of what was going on down there in the South Island it was via a gentleman who came to the select committee that was the same select committee as I was on with Sarah Dowie—a gentleman called Storm Stanley who's from PauaMAC5. I couldn't believe my ears and what I was actually hearing about the danger that he and his divers were facing every day via this practice of diving with great white sharks albeit they were diving for their livelihood to support the community and create jobs in the pāua industry. These shark cage divers were obviously creating some adventure tourism without the support of their local community and after talking to Storm Stanley and others at the select committee I decided to go and investigate the situation and we went down to Stewart Island not once not twice but three times—and yes I did go down with the Rt Hon Winston Peters—firsthand so we could see this problem. We were in Opposition at that point in time and we could not understand how the then Government had let this situation continue to the level that it had gone to with without intervention. Now the reason why as Scott Simpson has just asked why didn't we do something about it was because when we got into Government through the advocation that the members in this House from across the House—you know I'm not calling out anyone in particular. But I can tell you right now that New Zealand First strongly went out in support of the local community on Stewart Island. A legal action was taken against the diving group and in fact that went through over 2½ years of backwards and forwards until it went to the Supreme Court which didn't give us any room once we got into Government to change anything. That ruling hasn't been out that long. I'm telling you now that what this bill does is it legitimises the act of diving with great white sharks in a situation where you've got a protected species. Now that would be like me saying to a few friends of mine Let's go out and see some kiwis. We'll introduce some kiwis we'll get a bit of food we'll get the kiwis to come up to us and we'll pick them up and we'll pat them." We can't do that—they're a protected species. What makes us think that we can go and do this with an apex predator while they're operating right next door to divers? And it's not just pāua divers. We're talking about salmon divers. It's the salmon divers who are also dealing with this situation as is the community of Stewart Island. To legitimise the practice of shark cage diving at a time when the community is struggling and they're under siege where these sharks have been documented to come right up to the pier at Oban—where kids are jumping off the pier and are in rubber dinghies paddling around in the harbour—is not a good thing to be doing. There is a lot that needs to be done. Myself and Minister Eugenie Sage have had a number of discussions on this topic. There is a solution that is on its way and it's not unfortunately in this bill here. Although good intentions you may have this is not going to fix the problem and better locations potentially need to be looked at around the back of the island. But when you can sit on the shore of Oban and look out and see the boats that are diving with cages and enticing sharks to come into their community and then follow those boats back into the harbour it is not a good practice and the small regulations that you are proposing to put forward are not going to make a difference to those people that live on Stewart Island. So with good intentions and congratulations on having your bill pulled out Ms Dowie this is a bill that's not going to see the light of day because far more than what you're proposing here needs to be done to amend this situation. If what we're looking at doing is introducing an ad hoc regulatory regime for shark cage diving and it's not even actually clear how the bill is creating the permitting regime or what it's actually going to entail who's going to be overseeing that and how you are actually going to be enforcing it—Sarah Dowie: It's the director-general. Read it. CLAYTON MITCHELL: At one page it's pretty easy to read I'd have to say. It didn't take up a lot of my time. But in actual fact the point is that the three vested interest groups here are the sharks themselves because they are a protected species; the community as a priority to the citizens of New Zealand that live on Stewart Island that have been tormented by these operators operating where they're operating and how that needs to continue; and of course the wider environment to make sure that we are doing our bit to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the public the public good the local people and of course the sharks themselves. So we won't be supporting this bill. Our apologies for your fine effort in trying to do something but the National Government did have nine years to sort this out and didn't do anything in that time. We will sort it."