Barry Maggie: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: General Debate[Sitting date: 21 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7419. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MAGGIE BARRY (Minister of Conservation): I rise with pride to talk about the very significant conservation and environmental gains of this John Key - led Government. I draw members’ particular attention to the report titled Environment Aotearoa 2015. As my colleague Dr Nick Smith has pointed out this is a wonderful way of measuring as a benchmark the achievements of this Government and also the challenges that lie ahead. It is very important to measure these things—otherwise how can we manage them? In common with many countries New Zealand faces a biodiversity problem. Our species—our taonga—are under threat. As it says in this report which was released today something like 94 percent of our land is affected by rats stoats and possums. Then there are the wilding pines. There is no room in this country for any kind of complacency when it comes to our biodiversity.I would like to draw the House’s attention to some of the measures that we are putting in place. My colleague has mentioned many of them and I commend him for the work that has been done in the environmental space with the Kermadec Islands. It is indeed an international triumph if you like to have the courage and the tenacity to give such a large body of water and unique species protection in perpetuity. This is showing the sort of courage that we have. The work in the freshwater area is commendable and it is on the right track.When it comes to my own portfolio of conservation the week after next is Conservation Week. Our theme this year is “Healthy Nature Healthy People” because we feel as a Government that it is important to take a whole-of-Government—a cross-Government—approach. I have been in conversation with the Minister of Health about how we can look at various measures to ensure that New Zealanders help themselves with obesity and other health-related issues and at the same time are in closer touch with nature through our parks and green spaces which are world renowned. Recent New Zealand Transport Agency modelling shows that walking and cycling—for just two examples—result in dollars returned to the health system. That is $2.70 per kilometre walked and about $1.30 for every kilometre cycled. So in the same way that we are using statistical and scientific evidence to back up the policies that we put in place—and the measures that we put in place as well—we are also using cost-based efficiency measurements because that is how we do things.Battle for our Birds was an extremely successful operationlast year. For the first time—and it was the largest-ever predator campaign in this country’s history—we successfully treated more than 600000 hectares of conservation land. The aerial drops of 1080 poison were effective and they worked well. In the Dart River Valley for example the nesting success rates for the yellowhead—the mohua—was almost 100 percent compared with less than 50 percent previously. It is very unfortunate that we have a small alarmist minority that is intent on spreading half-truths about 1080. It is an essential tool that we need to be able to use if we are to win the battle and bring our birds our snails our bats and other creatures back from the brink of extinction and we will continue to use it. These groups breed extremists and we have seen that recently in the Operation Concord arrest. As for the people who go on to threaten the lives of New Zealanders and destabilise our economy their emotional claptrap and their unscientific arguments will hopefully amount to nothing when intelligent New Zealanders really assess the problem and what we need to do about it—and 1080 is a very important part of that.There are so many other commendable things that are coming through when it comes to natural self-setting resetting traps. Again these are the kinds of things that are very useful and the Department of Conservation is spending quite a lot of money on these sorts of developments to make sure that we are not reliant on just one method. We spend more than $150 million a year on natural heritage management and over the past 5 years our strategic direction as a department has focused on also partnering with others—philanthropists to do with the NEXT Foundation Project Janszoon and Predator Free New Zealand. We want to be predator-free by 2050. These are commendable aims and we are well on track. We have a Threatened Species Ambassador who works within the Department of Conservation—again drawing public attention and winning hearts and minds in the same way that we are trying to do with the War on Weeds and the “dirty dozen” weeds by engaging the people of New Zealand in the fight that needs to be had because united we stand against these foes and we will protect our ecosystem if we all act together led by this John Key - led Government. Thank you.