Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): I would like to continue in the same vein as my colleague David Parker on fresh water. I did not have the privilege of sitting in on the Local Government and Environment Committee during the Ministry for the Environment presentation but I have read its report and I feel sorry for it. I actually feel really sorry for it because it is meant to be the Ministry for the Environment. But on fresh water as well as some of the other responsibilities that it has it is a sad story. I have just been touring the country. I have now visited eight out of the 10 rivers that I am visiting in communities and at each one of these rivers there is a story to tell—Mataura is my next one—about degradation which is reflected in the failure of the Government to allow the Ministry for the Environment to actually set standards that are coherent that work and that protect water.You would think that the vision of the Ministry for the Environment would be healthy rivers healthy lakes an ecosystem that is in balance and water that is truly fresh and is actually safe for children to swim in actually safe for kai gathering where native fish could live where tuna would be thriving where the pH would be in balance and where the biodiversity would be lush. This is what some of us remember of rivers but now our lowland rivers under the auspices of this Government and this ministry are so degraded that the ministry's own report last week is a record of failure.In the annual review the ministry talks about its long-term outcome for water being the capacity for the environment to sustain itself being safeguarded. Well it is not doing it. Its own report from last week contradicts this and says that the river water quality—sometimes it says 55 sometimes it says 78—is so damaged by nitrogen that it fails to meet the most basic of standards and that the river water quality is worsening. It is not stable. It is not improving. It is worsening.However its next goal tells you why. The Ministry for the Environment's next goal is the use of the environment including natural resources to optimise for the betterment of society and the economy—blah blah blah blah. So we are not going to protect water; we are going to maximise its use. It goes on to say that one of its performance measures—you are going to love this one—for protecting the environment is an increase in the number of hectares under Government-subsidised irrigation. Well it has certainly met that key performance indicator with the Government subsidising of central plains water. If any of you have seen the state of Canterbury's rivers there are canals there are drains and then there are rivers that no longer look like rivers. They look like puddles of algae or half the time they are dry—not to the same extent as is natural; this is unnatural from over-allocation.This ministry and this Government have overseen the over-allocation of rivers the subsidisation of vast irrigation schemes that have stripped our water from our communities the ludicrous announcement for the clean water plan that no scientist understands—and now the Government is having to rush out another set of analysis and statistics to try to explain itself to the science community. This is the fresh water performance of the ministry and the Minister.The people of this country have had enough. It is the one issue now. When I get into taxis taxi drivers are telling me: 2040 that's not very visionary for clean water is it?". People on aeroplanes are asking what is going on with the Government and water. I was in a cafe in Kerikeri and there were two very conservative-looking blokes saying: "Oh the greenies have got a point. The farmers are ruining our environment." I am not here to blame the farmers. I am saying the Government is responsible for setting low standards allowing pollution maximising profit at the expense of water and ignoring the tangata whenua and their proprietorial rights guaranteed under the Treaty because it does not want to face up to the fact that we can have sustainable agriculture and clean water but the model has to change.This annual review is sad because it is an inbuilt contradiction between protecting water and exploiting it."