Bayly Andrew; Mallard TrevorANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): It is a pleasure to be talking on the Thames-Coromandel District Council and Hauraki District Council Mangrove Management Bill at its first reading. Of course we are talking about mānawa—Avicennia marina—commonly known as the mangrove. Of course this is a facilitating bill for the Thames-Coromandel District Council and the Hauraki District Council and it recognises the scourge of mangroves. It empowers each council to put in place a good management plan to be able to implement some changes—and what a good thing. I think it is an excellent job by the local MP the Hon Scott Simpson—and why? Because these mangroves are proliferating. They are growing like triffids—ha ha! Goody two-shoes will tell us that they are great for the environment that they create havens for birds and that they are natural filters of the water. Well in my view that is rubbish. New Zealand's coastline is infested with Avicennia marina—not like the other 29 species of mangroves. The concept that sedimentation caused by mangroves is beautiful—is a good thing—is in my personal view misguided. How can 8 tonnes a year from a mature mangrove forest be a good thing in terms of building up sedimentation? I have seen it. I have walked through what the sedimentation is below a New Zealand mangrove forest—what it looks like and feels like—and it is a wasteland. It is a wasteland. True mangroves in other areas around the world are like rainforests but not in New Zealand. The reason why this is is that we only have one species—one species. And that is the trouble. It is a blight it is monoculture and it is expanding—partly driven unfortunately by fertilisers applied by farmers on their land. I understand the international significance of the site particularly near Miranda and the Firth of Thames. It is a wonderful space where we have those wonderful godwits and the red knot birds that come and forage and wade through the water. But that area has been taken over by mangroves. This is what we are trying to do because it is not only in the Firth of Thames. It is in areas like Mangawhai Tauranga Kaipara and Hokianga Harbour and in my own electorate in Waiuku. The difficulty these people find in dealing with these mangroves—in Waiuku great guys like Ian Scobie and Dave Gribble  and a bunch of farmers took it upon themselves to clear a great area of mangroves—9 hectares initially. They got out there because Ian recognised that he wanted to get his canoe out into the harbour there and to be able to paddle up and down the Waiuku estuary. As a result they started to cut through the mangroves and everyone was behind them. But guess what—guess what? The council came and said they could not. They have had a raging battle with the council trying to impose new conditions on their consents. They have brought in a whole lot of issues such as what it does for birdlife. They talked about a whole lot of birds but in particular the braided bird is one that they believe is absolutely essential. When you clear mangroves you start to see the shoals of fish coming in. In Waiuku for instance they have already had the tern show up. Kingfishers are coming back. White-faced terns—and now more recently pied stilts oystercatchers and during the summer months godwits wrybills banded dotterels and red knots— Denise Roche: Where do they live?ANDREW BAYLY: —and I know the Greens over here like dotterels as I do. It is true that it is the hard work of volunteers who are getting out there like our group in Waiuku who will be able to make a change and that is why this is such a good bill. I absolutely commend the work of the member for Coromandel the Hon Scott Simpson for bringing this bill to the House.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): As I call Catherine Delahunty I am just going to lament the lack of Latin in schools in recent years.