Turei Metiria: Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Legislation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Turei Metiria: Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Legislation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15210] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 Mr Anderton did not finish reading that email. I have a copy of the email here with me and there is a final paragraph that I am sure is available to him; I know I have it. It states: “DOC also expressed the view in 2006”—that long ago—“that the Biosecurity Act should have minimum standards and that the precautionary principle be applied within it as does the HASNO Act. The Biosecurity Act currently lacks the transparency and certainty that the principles and such criteria provided in HASNO and this poses risks. DOC still holds this view”—I have this email from 11 March—“and wishes to see this issue addressed in the future.” That is what the Minister failed to read out in the Chamber just now. 
Why did he do that? It may well be that the Department of Conservation agrees that it was consulted. It is clear that the department was obviously asked the question about the legislation. The department says that and we have information about it. But the department did not make a submission on the legislation and it reiterated that it retains concerns that the Biosecurity Act does not have the provisions or principles in place to provide adequate protection of our environment. 
It is all fine and well for Mr Anderton to make comments about consultation but he is not telling the public the fact that it is our environment and our economy that are being put at risk and that the Government department responsible for the protection of our environment in particular has said that a risk is posed and that that risk has not been addressed in this legislation. So I am asking the very serious question here about how much risk we are prepared to put our environment at for the purpose of preventing the trade agreement problems this Government has because it was part of signing a trade agreement that prevented us from having controls that would protect our environment. 
If the Government signs agreements that stop us from putting in place those protections then that is its responsibility. It is not a conspiracy; it is just the truth. It is the Government’s responsibility and the Government has failed the country. Now it is imposing on the country legislation that has been put through the House in a very speedy way that denies a proper public and transparent process—because there was not time for people to read and understand the legislation and to make proper submissions on it—and that does not even have one of the Government’s own key departments involved in this bill by making a submission so that we can see the bill’s full impacts on our natural environment. 
There is no excuse here. Mr Anderton the Government and the National Party which is supporting the legislation have no excuse for the risk they are putting our environment at. I reiterate that this is not just about the environment; this is about our economy because our economy is dependent on our environment. We all know that. That is why the community works so hard to clean up our waterways and why we work so hard with farming communities and urban communities to clean up their environment. We know how dependent we are on it. 
Yet at the same time that the community is doing this work and prioritising a clean environment that we can rely on the Government with its friends the National Party is putting legislation through a hurried process that lacks public transparency and puts the very environment and economy at risk. 
There is no excuse for that. No amount of talking about trade issues or trying to accuse the Greens of conspiracies will change the fact that this legislation puts our environment and our economy at risk and the Labour Government and the National Party are supporting that risk. 
The Greens have supported the changes to this bill that we think will make it better because that is a responsible thing to do. We will be opposing this legislation because of the risk it poses to our environment and our economy and because it prevents New Zealanders from truly having a say on the real issues here. Thank you Mr Chair.