Doocey Matt: Environmental Reporting Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDoocey Matt: Environmental Reporting Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 June 2015. Volume:707;Page:4877. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri):I will take that word “leadership” and acknowledge the leadership role this Government is playing in bringing in such a bill around an environmental reporting framework. And it is leadership because all we are hearing from across the floor—it is really about guilt I suppose and embarrassment. Nine years Labour had to bring New Zealand up to an OECD standard of an environmental reporting framework—guilt embarrassment. I mean from the Green Party it is more about envy and resentment that we are—Kris Faafoi: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I think you can probably predict what it is but I do not think he has referred to anything in the bill yet.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Sure. Look this is a debate. I ask the member—and all members—to concentrate on the content of Part 2. If a member has not got anything to contribute then there is no need for this Part 2 to continue. I would ask you to concentrate on the substantive matter of Part 2 and focus your attention there.MATT DOOCEY: Thank you very much Mr Chair. I would just like to look at clause 7(2)(b). It looks at how we are going to compare New Zealand’s environment through this environmental reporting framework with national and international standards. I think that is right. We are very much in a system now—we are in a global system—and it is right that we are going to benchmark ourselves internationally against other countries. Clause 7(2)(a) is also about the synthesis report looking at the changes to the state of the environment.I am sure many people around this Chamber have been involved in reporting in previous careers. Sometimes it is not exactly about the report at one stage but about looking at multiples of reporting and looking at that variance between the state of the environment and what has changed. I think that measurement that variance will be very important. I think what we need to look at is a common theme as we thematically review the content of these clauses and look at the content and the topics around the state of New Zealand’s environment and the pressures that may be causing or has the potential to cause as well as the impacts that the state of the environment and changes to that state may be having on such things as eco-diversity the economy and public health. So when you look at those three key areas—the state of the environment the pressures and the impacts—it is good to see that that runs through this whole piece of legislation.It shows up under the synthesis report. It also comes up under the domain report. When we hear about this being self-selection from the Minister or Ministers I disagree. The domain reports will come up every 6 months so within a pro rata time frame they will all come up. The domain reports are of air atmosphere and climate fresh water land and marine. So those topics and contents of the state the pressures and the impact on the environment are also included in the regulations in clause 18. So it is great that we will be able to track those three topics throughout the synthesis and the domain reports.I think Mr O’Rourke has touched on the independence but I would disagree with that comment. I think it is very clear and the consultation the Ministers will go through with the Government Statistician the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment the public iwi authorities and local authorities is outlined in clause 18(2) and (3). It is quite right that they will think about the issues and the state of the environment to do with that domain the changes in the state to do with that domain the pressures that are being put on those domains and the impacts of those domains on people’s public health the economy and the ecosystem. So those themes promote accountability and they promote responsibility. It is very much a merging of three quite separate disciplines but we need the synergy going forward of the Secretary for the Environment teamed up with the Government Statistician—I think we all remember our t-tests from university days—as well as the Minister to drive this forward.I also would like to highlight the reference to untested data because I think this is important. We need some protection around untested data. New Zealand’s clean green image and the economy was at risk of—