Sage Eugenie: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5904. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
 We had the Deputy Prime Minister talking about economic security. But what National fails to understand is that if you want economic security you need environmental security. On “Planet Key” you have a very hostile Government in terms of the environment. On “Planet Key” you have lots of golf courses. But on “Planet Key” the rivers are either identified for giant irrigation schemes like the mega-expensive mega-risky Ruataniwha Water Storage scheme which the Government Ministers are trying to foist on Hawke’s Bay. It is trying to encourage the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council to burden its ratepayers with an $88 million debt for that scheme. Those rivers would either be identified for irrigation hydro generation or they would be dirty. On “Planet Key” wild nature is not to be valued for its own sake. It is not valued as a place where you can spend time with friends and family. On “Planet Key” wild nature is something that you encourage large corporates to exploit whether that is through risky deep-sea oil drilling digging coalmines on conservation land or manipulating our rivers reducing their flows and increasing the pollution burden. 
Mr Brownlee talked about the Darfield dairy plant—Fonterra’s new dairy processing plant. There will be jobs at that plant but they will be at the expense of the Waimakariri River and Rakaia River. They will be at the expense of the water quality in our aquifers which people depend on for drinking. 
On “Planet Key” the Minister for the Environment does not even bother to issue a press release about the ministry’s latest report on recreational water-quality about whether our beaches and rivers are fit for recreation and summer time swimming. That is because the news is bad. So the Government simply lets the ministry upload it quietly to its website and bury it. But at least the ministry is honest when it says in those river report cards: “There are many freshwater swimming spots which should be avoided.” The Green Party analysed that data. Of 160 river sites that were monitored for recreational water-quality nationwide 52 percent of those sites were unsafe for swimming because the water quality was graded “poor” or “very poor” and another 28 percent were graded only “fair” so there was a risk of illness. The National Ministers do not care about that. 
We promote our country as 100 percent pure and 100 percent Middle Earth. But to swim in our rivers which is the birthright of Kiwi kids—you cannot do it in the majority of the rivers that the Ministry for the Environment monitored. Kids cannot drop off a tree into a pool without the risk of getting sick. Only 20 percent of our rivers that are monitored by the Ministry for the Environment for recreation make the grade. That is appalling and that is because the National Government regards nature as something to exploit for irrigation and dairying development. That is because National is missing in action when it comes to strong policies and sensible policies to clean up our rivers. It is just missing in action. If we want clean fishable swimmable rivers we need to get serious about controlling the land uses that cause that pollution run-off. 
In Rotorua the regional council has recognised that we need to phase out dairying in the Lake Rotorua catchment but National refuses to recognise that there are other rivers other lakes where that needs to happen. National will throw a few million dollars at Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere and expect that to clean up the lake but it will do nothing about encouraging regulation of land uses in the catchment of that lake to improve water quality. 
 We have not had any national standards to prevent stock having access to rivers and streams. We have got a toothless National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2011 which means that regional councils can avoid adopting clean water standards until 2030. We have got no national standards that set limits for pollutants in waterways and set some clear standards for clean water. This Government is missing in action as far as clean water and clean rivers are concerned. We have got no national standards on nutrient limits. Yet when we have got a regional council and an Environment Court which on plans like the One Plan in the Manawatu seek to put in place rules that will control intensive dairy and sheep farming and will seek to protect water quality by having riparian planting rules what does the Government do? It makes sure that the Department of Conservation is not involved in defending the Environment Court decision at the High Court. It leaves it to non-profit organisations like Fish and Game.