8. Freshwater Management—Farming Practices and Water QualityCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) to the Minister for the EnvironmentFreshwater Management—Farming Practices and Water Quality8. CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) to the Minister for the Environment: Will he commit to a regulatory regime that includes swimmable rivers in light of the comment from a Havelock North café owner who said that we'd trade all the compensation in the world if it would spur the Government into tidying up or cleaning up the waterways"?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): The Government is already committed to a programme of improving the swimmability of rivers. Specific river clean-up programmes that the Government is funding include the Waikato the Manawatū the Whanganui the Waitangi the Buller the Rangitaiki and the Maraetōtara. In the 7 years that we have been in Government we have spent more than seven times what the previous Government spent in the preceding 7 years. We are also the first Government to initiate a national policy statement (NPS) on fresh water which includes requirements for improving water quality and which we are currently strengthening.Catherine Delahunty: Will he ask the Attorney-General to specify that land use across the country be investigated in the Havelock North inquiry so that the role of agriculture and other sectors and the health of waterways can be looked at objectively?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The terms of reference for the inquiry into the Havelock North incident are very wide. What the Government does not want to do is inject into those terms of reference some prejudice as to what occurred. In my view that inquiry needs to be able to have all the powers it needs but without the Government the Green Party or anybody else predetermining what the cause of that awful incident was.Sarah Dowie: What is the standard requirement for water to be swimmable and how does it compare with the drinking-water standard?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The drinking-water standard is 500 times tougher than the swimming guideline—i.e. for water to be swimmable you need to have an E. coli count of fewer than 500 and for water to be drinkable it needs to be less than one E. coli. That is even if every single waterway in New Zealand met the swimmable standard we would still need to have councils selecting and protecting drinking-water standards to ensure that they were safe.Catherine Delahunty: Will he reject the warnings of Dr Russell Death as the Prime Minister has done who says that even if we chlorinate all our water supplies people are still going to get sick from water-borne pathogens associated with an intensified dairy sector?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The bit where I differ with the member is that you cannot have modern agriculture and also for this country to have high standards of water in its water bodies. If we have good management practice if we have the technical efficiency standards and if we implement the national fencing requirements that our Government has proposed and if we implement the NPS that we have proposed this country can have a strong vibrant agricultural sector earning this country a living as well as have the very best lifestyle and a high standard of water quality.Catherine Delahunty: Does he think that 10 million cows cause serious harm to our clean rivers and drinking water or is he sticking with his theory that native bird populations and volcanic ash are the real reasons that he cannot commit to swimmable rivers?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: There are water bodies that are unswimmable because of birds; there are others that are unswimmable because of volcanic activity. Where I would challenge the Green Party is to make the link between the Havelock North community—actually Havelock North has a very low level of dairying. If the Green Party wants to maintain its story that intensive dairying is the cause of the Havelock North problem—perhaps that might run true if it was an area like Canterbury or if it was an area like Southland or if it was an area of the Waikato that has had very expansive growth in the dairy industry. I just urge that member: let the inquiry do its job. Members of Parliament should not draw conclusions as to what was the cause in Havelock North until that inquiry has been completed."