Hague Kevin: General Debate 
Hague Kevin: General Debate 
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KEVIN HAGUE (Green) 
: 
 This is Conservation Week and it is also the International Year of Biodiversity. In this country we have been extremely fortunate to have some extraordinary biodiversity assets as a result of our extremely wide range of habitats and historic freedom from pests resulting from geographic isolation. Our small islands represent one of the world’s treasure troves for biodiversity. We have the opportunity to enjoy that but also the responsibility to preserve it. Our history has not been great on that front. Since human habitation we have lost 85 percent of our lowland forests 90 percent of our wetlands 43 percent of our amphibians 20 percent of our bats and somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of our birds. That is from the world’s great avian paradise. I find it personally impossible to visit Zealandia just up the road in Karori without being profoundly saddened by the catalogue of what has been lost. 
But what compounds this and makes it so much worse is the extent of the biodiversity crisis that we still face. Well over 2000 species in New Zealand are currently threatened with extinction and most of these are in the most modified and least protected parts of the country. Amongst the species threatened with extinction we number all of our frogs and bats 89 percent of our reptiles 50 percent of our freshwater fish some of our iconic marine mammals and 57 percent of our remaining birds. Yet of the more than 2000 threatened species only around 250 receive any active conservation protection from the Department of Conservation. 
Pivotally we have critical habitat being threatened by human activity or neglect. The Resource Management Act has failed to preserve and enhance endangered habitat on private land and no onus is placed on the Minister of Conservation to develop species recovery plans. 
The signs of further devastating decline are everywhere around us. The last wetlands are being drained our last wild rivers are being dammed the remaining lowland forest is being fragmented and poorly protected freshwater quality shows an increasing decline we have a pillage mentality being permitted in the fishing industry—most vividly illustrated I guess in the Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea for goodness’ sake—and intensive pasture-based farming is now expanding into precious tussock land such as the iconic Mackenzie Basin. 
What has our Government’s response been to this situation? The Government has cut the budget for the Department of Conservation which is already strapped for cash by a further $53 million over 3 years thereby further weakening the department’s already parlous ability to respond to the crisis. There have been budget cuts to biosecurity services threatening our fragile ecosystems with yet more shocks from pest incursions. We had a clear indication this year in John Key’s speech to open Parliament that this is a Government that sees the environment purely as a set of raw materials for commercial exploitation. 
I will illustrate the Government’s lightweight interest in conservation by reference to question time yesterday. I asked the Minister of Conservation: “How does the Minister think New Zealanders will feel to learn during Conservation Week that our own company Meridian Energy may flood 300 hectares of pristine conservation land putting at risk more than 20 threatened species when there is a perfectly good alternative scheme that would meet the West Coast’s power needs?”. Her answer was: “I think that for a rowi one of our rarest kiwis to have been hatched at the beginning of Conservation Week—he was unscathed by the earthquake and is now named Richter—will put a smile on the faces of many New Zealanders as to the importance of conservation in New Zealand.” 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: What’s that got to do with the dam? 
KEVIN HAGUE 
: That is exactly the point because her answer had nothing to do with the fundamental threats that we face. I would have thought the Government might learn a lesson from the huge public response to its mining plans. New Zealanders love those places and we want to protect them.