Mitchell Clayton; Mallard TrevorCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I would like to rise to take a call in the Estimates debate for New Zealand First on the Environment Sector specifically talking to conservation. I think the Minister of Conservation was right in saying that there are many aspects and different portfolio spaces that are affected by of course the actions and reactions of decisions that are made. Specifically I want to talk with regard to conservation and how much of a driver our conservation is for our tourism sector. We have seen a massive spike in tourism numbers and the spending coming in now is obviously our largest contributor to our GDP. It is something like $13.5 billion and expecting to boost up to over $40 billion by the time we get to 2025. The start of that positive trajectory was really at the back end of the Hobbit film being released. Of course that was all about the beautiful nature and the wildlife flora fauna and topography of our country and of course the tourists come driving into our country to spend their hard-earned money—around about $35 million a day. But the reality is quite different in so far as we are under-investing in this sector. In real terms we are around about $40 million per annum down on spending. In fact it is more than that; it is $60 million down on spending since 2009. I note that the Minister said we are up on the year 2007-08 but of course that was the year that Labour was finishing its reign. I liked the way she cherry-picked those numbers because it suits the Government to say that it is less of a deduction than what it is now. In real terms our capital expenditure is down since 2008 by $98 million per annum. That goes into our infrastructure—all of our cabins and our tracks. It goes into infrastructure that is there that drives tourists to New Zealand. They are not coming to our theme parks. They are not going to Rainbow's End in great numbers. They are coming to see the flora the fauna and the landscape of this beautiful country and we are underspending considerably in this factor. In business terms if you have got something like the jewel in the crown the thing that is bringing value into your business you invest in that. You promote that. You actually put your resources there but we can see a decline in the support and the funding that conservation is getting. My second point is about our beautiful animals and eradicating our pests. I hear the Minister talking about the Battle for our Birds campaign and spending vast amounts of money to eradicate those stoats and rats and possums. Look everybody is absolutely on board with that but nothing in the rhetoric that we hear from the Government is in relation to other more effective more efficient ways of controlling those populations. Hon Maggie Barry: So we're re-setting traps.CLAYTON MITCHELL: It was great Ms Maggie Barry to see Te Urewera and Tūhoe coming out and saying that they do not want 1080 dropped indiscriminately on their beautiful pristine landscape. We need to manage it. They are not saying that they are not going to use it; they are saying it is not going to be their main priority. Dumping $100 million worth of toxic poison that no full studies have been done on—I mean it has a federal ban in the USA for good reason. It indiscriminately kills animals. They say that they drop it safely. We have got new health and safety reforms so I guess this is one of those other pillars that we can talk about—how the cross-sections actually tie together conservation environment tourism and now health and safety. The people who are directly working with 1080 before it gets picked up in helicopters are fully suited up but there are no safety measures put in place for those helicopter pilots and you know what happens to the dust of 1080—it gets put in the atmosphere. They are inhaling it. They are having it on their skin. The truck drivers who are delivering it have got no protective clothing on there and there is nothing to support them. Yet we do not even know the full insidious nature of this poison 1080. There have been no carcinogenic tests on it to see whether it is cancer-forming. We have got helicopters dropping 1080 pellets on children who are walking around in our forests. The pellets are landing on them—this is happening. Up in the Coromandel we have got absolute evidence that this is happening. We have to protect our environment—absolutely. We have to also protect the safety and the well-being of the people who are part of our environment making up the whole holistic picture. Investment needs to be put into better ways to control these pests with trapping and being more direct as opposed to flying over and napalming our forests with pellets that kill everything. Thank you.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): The Minister has got the call but she has got to stand up.Hon Nicky Wagner: Mr Chair.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): The Hon Nicky Wagner—you cannot call when you are sitting down.