Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Thank you. Tomorrow's Budget is about people and planet because this Government recognises the importance of both. That's why we're investing in public transport so that we can get our cities moving again. The National Government's preoccupation with building more motorways didn't unblock the congestion problems in Auckland. This Government's investment in the Auckland transport package will. But I am really proud as the Minister of Conservation to have announced last weekend increased investment because of Budget 2018 in conservation—$81 million more in new funding over four years to tackle our predator crisis.Under National there wasn't trickle-down into conservation; there was slashing of conservation funding. This Government as part of its plan to rebuild the public sector to invest in people and planet is significantly increasing the resources that are available for the department for the first time to do ongoing predator control on a landscape scale and plan for that. Under National the Department of Conservation (DOC) was only able to do 200000 hectares of predator control on an ongoing basis. It had to go cap in hand to Government each time there was a predator crisis in a mast year to get some more funding.The announcement of an extra $81 million in new funding over four years means that that funding for predator control is secure and the department can plan and that is the basis—getting rid of the rats the stoats and the possums—for securing the future for our native forests for our native ecosystems and for our precious native birds snails insects and plants. This Government is investing in conservation not cutting the funding like the last one. It's about the three parties in Government—Labour New Zealand First and the Greens—delivering on their commitments in the confidence and supply agreement and the coalition agreement to significantly increase DOC's funding and that is a very strong contrast to what we had under National.Our taonga species—our kiwi our kākā our kea our cabbage trees—are at the heart of who we are as New Zealanders. They and our natural landscapes are what draw visitors here. They are the basis for our number one export industry and the basis of our primary production sector but for those things to thrive we need to invest in their protection not assume that you can have a catchy phrase Predator Free by 2050" but just have the phrase and not the plan not the investment.We are making the commitment to more funding for the regions because where does predator control happen? It doesn't happen on Lambton Quay or Queen Street; it happens in the regions. So I utterly reject Ms Dean's comments. This Government is investing in the regions. This extra $81 million will help the regions just as Minister Jones' work with the big forestry project of a billion trees is investing in the regions. We have just seen the announcement of a major funding and partnership with Mānuka Farming to plant mānuka trees. It's a pity National never had that vision. This Government does to reafforest areas that are risk of erosion creating more sustainable land use and also enabling the opportunities for the export industry based on mānuka honey and those high-value products. That's showing that you can get benefits for the environment and the economy by good forward-thinking sustainable initiatives that we were well short of under the last Government.I'm looking forward to the Budget tomorrow because the predator control announcement is the centrepiece of what's happening in conservation but there are other announcements to follow. We need a healthy environment and with things like the increase in mast years that are happening with climate change where we get prolific flowering of the beech forest where we get rat numbers increasing stoat numbers following and increased pressure on our native species we need a sustained plan to deal with that and Budget 2018 is about that. It is about people and planet. The losers are the rats stoats and possums and the winners are our indigenous species."