Jones Shane: Game Animal Council Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Game Animal Council Bill — First Reading 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe. The preceding speaker Todd McClay identified himself as a member of the deerstalking community. The term “stalk” seems suitably apposite based on the quality of that contribution and the gratuitous insult hurled at our colleague Grant Robertson from this side of the House who was pointing out that there are a myriad of interests whenever you deal with the conservation estate and wildlife management. Every single one of those stakeholders is entitled not only to bring their views forward but to amplify their views which is why I look forward to the Game Animal Council Bill and I support this bill going to the Local Government and Environment Committee. 
I want to acknowledge the presence of members of the hunting and recreational community who have worked tirelessly to bring together a group that is probably more disparate than the 72 tribes I was working with when I was the chairman of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission. I would say to them and I would say to the Associate Minister of Conservation that I do feel as this bill wends its way through the select committee and Committee stages that I look forward to seeing inclusion of tangata whenua in whatever committee finally survives the travails of parliamentary debate and that we find space to appoint tangata whenua to the board—or to at least have criteria guiding the Minister’s appointments to this board—so it can draw upon the expertise the relevance and the capacity of the tangata whenua in order to add something to this large wildlife management question. I would like to put that to the Minister and also to members of that community. Who knows to what extent we will support this bill in its final form but if you want it to gain a higher level of acquiescence and enjoyment amongst the larger tribes such as Tuwharetoa and dare I say Tuhoe then be proactive in that sense. 
There are concerns about this bill. Let us deal with one concern at the moment. You can create these advisory boards and these committees etc. and give them whatever statutory status may be required as a consequence of a deal between the major party and Mr Dunne’s party but at the end of the day what will the level of obligation be upon the Minister either to delegate down to this specialist body or to take any notice of what this specialist body might say? I think those are some of the reasons why members on this side of the House are right to be a bit sort of leery as to whether things will actually change. Unless there is a positive duty on the Minister of the day the Director-General of Conservation or the regional staff to pass on meaningful powers or to take on board sensible recommendations it can actually turn into a talking shop. A great deal of hot air time energy and possibly money will be expended but it may not actually make it into the statutory processes for the management of this resource. 
There is a debate between the deep ecologists represented by the Green Party and those others of us who have environmental awareness but possibly live with a more pragmatic view of life. I certainly fit into the latter group. It seems to me that the deep ecologists’ view is that wildlife ought not to be managed but to be wiped out. That view is not consistent with my conception of how trophies how wildlife hunting and how improved wildlife management can contribute to regional development and how in a host of different areas around Aotearoa what is needed is an expansion of the type of economic activities that are capable of generating jobs and turning into a platform for export dollars. 
No one in this House is perhaps as well informed as you Mr Deputy Speaker. In fact I believe that you are peerless in this particular respect of understanding the capacity of wildlife hunting better wildlife management and its ability to contribute to regional economies. You are so persuasive on this matter that you had Kelvin Davis Ricky Barker and me go out into the wilderness and demonstrate that we are capable of shooting mallard ducks—oh I should not have said that—and ring-tailed pheasants as has been my wont in the far-flung areas unfortunately poorly represented by Hone Harawira in the absence of Kelvin Davis. We tend not to shoot the swans up there because they are sitting targets until they start to munch too many of the flounders upon the seabed and foreshore which hopefully my tribe is rapidly regaining—but that is another matter. 
I would like the record to show without my indicating what will be the final shape and form of our party’s status and stand on this piece of legislation after it has been to the select committee that your powers of persuasion Mr Deputy Speaker moved us in that direction up in the boohai beyond Taihape. Amongst other things cellphones did not work there. In addition to that probably the most intelligent creature I saw up there was the dog that was dispatched to find the deer that was shot but ran into the bush. Far be it for me to say who shot that deer—far be it for me to say that. I think it could have been a National person and it was Bambi but that is another matter—that is another matter. 
There are some aspects to do with this bill that we will not be supporting—I can tell you right now. They lie between the debate as to whether it should exclusively remain the role of the Department of Conservation to manage this resource or whether it should be seen as something akin to possums—i.e. the chamois and the various other types of deer—and be eradicated. That view is reflective of deep ecology and I fear it represents zero growth something I have got absolutely no time or support for. 
The notion that there should be a game trophy levy and that we should actually be able to charge a fee once these magnificent animals are hunted etc. and turn it into revenue is beyond cavil. That I do not think is going to attract a great deal of negativity but then I can also see some people opposing it for fear that it represents an incentive not to reduce numbers but actually to maintain them for that profit motive. But all these things can come out in the select committee. We can have those who genuinely feel that the Department of Conservation is being denuded of powers. There are others who feel that at long last the empire known as the Department of Conservation which is often a feeling reflected on the maraes of Maoridom is going to have to listen and be statutorily required to take on board the views of this part of the wider New Zealand recreational community. And let those views come forward in a credible and manageable process. 
I would say that personally I feel a lot more reassured and I am quite sure I speak on behalf of my Maori colleagues as well when we see there is some specific or explicit duty rather than an assumed silent duty to deal with the tangata whenua given that a number of our hapu and iwi have this wildlife on their own whenua. They have strong relationships with the Department of Conservation and they ebb and flow depending on the political tide or the bureaucratic tide. I would encourage advocates from the recreational hunting community the Minister and members on the other side of the House to bear that in mind. 
There is actually going to be a very large debate when this bill comes back. Largely as I say there is the ideological dimension because we just will not agree with that element of the confidence and supply equation that enables the Government to proceed and sell the assets—but I am not going to talk about that. We are talking about a different type of asset here: whether the wildlife resources may or may not be better managed through the erection of this committee and whether they themselves turn into assets. 
That is for the future but I can say that I look forward. I am going to endeavour to inveigle myself on to the Local Government and Environment Committee. I am a proud member of the Primary Production Committee. I have waited 6 years to join that committee and after the level of toil that exhausts us on that committee I am sure it will be just a walk in the park going on to the Local Government and Environment Committee. I am going to seek permission to be one of the Labour people who from time to time go on to that committee to ensure that the Maori dimension is not overlooked and that people do bear in mind despite our institutional concerns about the proposed structure that the members of the recreational hunting community are a strong credible voice in the broader environmental management challenges that face us in Aotearoa. Kia ora.