McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I take this opportunity to rise on behalf of the ACT Party to speak on the adverse weather-affected timber recovery bill. Adverse weather events in New Zealand are quite common. We certainly do have a few of them occur here and I commend Maureen Pugh on her foresight to look at how she can look after the area that she resides after we have some of these adverse weather events. I mean the West Coast is quite notorious for getting the brunt of extreme weather let alone adverse weather. In March 2019 for example we saw the remnants of Cyclone Trevor wreak havoc on the West Coast. There was the destruction of the Waiho River bridge and the closure of major roads and schools and people were forced to evacuate. In December 2019 we saw a storm that left a thousand people stranded in Franz Josef. There were slips there were closed highways and there were food parcels that needed to be sent into that area and that's just two events in the one year. On the pre-election campaign last year the ACT Party went down to Hokitika and after a weather event that occurred there we actually had a delay in people turning up with one guy telling us that he had to get the chainsaw out to remove the fallen trees that had come down upon his driveway. In fact it's so bad that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has actually written a book specifically on the weather events of the West Coast explaining that it is the wettest region in New Zealand. There's a table within NIWA's book which tells you about the wind gusts that the West Coast experiences mostly in Greymouth Westport and Hokitika. Having the alps situated along the West Coast ridgeline means that a good proportion of the rivers in that area will flow towards the West Coast and with extreme rainfall and a rising river it can take with it vegetation as it moves quickly towards the sea leaving those towns on the Coast with flooding issues. But the events themselves are not the issue in this bill. I'm merely pointing out the large number of adverse weather events that occur on the West Coast. It's the clean up after the events and my colleague from the Greens suggested it's logging. It's not logging; it's rotting and what we want to do is utilise the by-product and not waste a thing. We want to be able to remove some of these trees so that we can promote new growth in the area. If the trees fall down on your own property you can get someone to remove them. If they fall on conservation land you can't. The West Coast region has the largest proportion of land and conservation estate. Contrast that with the 20 percent that's in the North Island 40 percent of the South Island is legally protected and 10.7 percent of New Zealand is covered in 3 million hectares of national parks. So what happens when we have an adverse weather or extreme event leaving fallen trees? As I said earlier if it was on your own property you would have them removed but legally we cannot do that on Crown-managed land. We cannot remove the irreversibly damaged trees. This bill will allow the Department of Conservation to authorise the removal of damaged timber and the people who want to remove it must be invited to apply to remove it. They can't just rock on up and take it out of the bush. They've got to pay royalties they've got to pay fees and they've got to pay any charges that are required as well. Importantly it also allows for the root system of the tree and the tops of the trees to stay there which is helping the biodiversity that is occurring in our natural environment. We are only looking at needing to take away the main trunk of the tree not disrupting the bugs and the insects that are dependent on that coverage. It will not have a major effect on our ecosystem. The ACT Party are in support of this bill and while Labour sit across the room and say they don't support it Tangi Utikere the previous speaker across the way there has just said across the way there that he thought that there would be some good aspects that could be brought up in select committee. I think this bill is worth looking at for what can be done in select committee but it needs your support to get there. So while ACT support this bill I hope Labour change their mind and do the same. Thank you Madam Speaker.