Williams Andrew: Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13735. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): That was a very good choice of yours Mr Chair. I am taking a call on behalf of New Zealand First on Jacqui Dean’s Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill. We have said in the previous reading that we would be supporting this bill. We believe that it has a lot of merit in terms of what it tries to achieve.I have mentioned in this Chamber before that we have had many instances where there was smuggling of some of our endangered and precious creatures including a case where a German tourist tried to smuggle 44 Northland green geckos out of the country and was caught. That was in 2010. There was another case where some Czech botanists were convicted in 2004 for attempting to smuggle 363 wild plants including 93 endemic orchids. This sort of thing goes on all the time. Of course for all the cases that we do hear about and where we do apprehend the culprits obviously there are many that go unnoticed and where people are getting away with it. Worldwide Interpol estimates that the smuggling of wildlife and precious species is worth in the order of $10 billion to $20 billion. So worldwide smuggling of precious flora and fauna is quite a big trade.In New Zealand’s case we do have some unique species that are found only here in Aotearoa because of our isolation and because of the way we separated from Gondwanaland and the rest of the continents. As a result we have some species that people in other parts of the world would very dearly love to get their hands on. So this is a good piece of legislation to increase the surveillance of that and to ensure that there are increased penalties for those who are caught and apprehended. Some of those penalties are quite hefty going from 1 to 5 years’ imprisonment and particularly for those who are caught doing it for commercial gain or commercial reward penalties going up to 5 years’ imprisonment a $300000 fine or $20000 per day. That sends a very strong message to anybody who feels that they wish to participate in the illicit trade in flora or fauna that this is getting into fairly serious money.But sometimes it is not always done for commercial gain. Sometimes it is done perhaps somewhat negligently but again people need to be aware that there arepenalties if they are negligent when it comes to New Zealand’s precious fauna and flora. So there is the ability within this bill for people to be sentenced to community work and other smaller penalties if they are caught offending perhaps unwittingly in this manner.We do have concerns like some of the other Opposition parties that although it is a good move on behalf of one National member to bring this bill to the Committee to help protect our environment there are many other things that this National Government is doing that are flying in the face of the environment. When we look at some of the reforms in regard to the Resource Management Act and now particularly as we are moving towards Part 2 and clauses 6 and 7 of the Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill we have some grave concerns in that area of the environment. So we would hope that we are not seeing a double standard here from the Government in terms of a good member and a member on our Local Government and Environment Committee doing a good job bringing this Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Bill to the Committee to improve the standards.We certainly do not like the idea that on the other side of the ledger the same Government is perhaps pulling the rug out from other aspects of the environment. We do stand by our pride in having a “100% Pure New Zealand” image and branding and trying to be internationally respected for that so it is important that we maintain that high level. In that respect we do have some concerns about what is occurring this very week in terms of the Minister of Conservation Nick Smith and what is happening in that whole saga. Therefore we are perhaps seeing some double standards coming through which we certainly do not condone and we do not wish to see.However we do applaud the member Jacqui Dean for bringing this bill to the House. It is overdue. There have been now quite a considerable number of years where things have occurred and where people have got away with various things. Just to conclude we think as a result that this bill can serve only to further the good work that has been done in the area of conservation and the environment and we certainly support it. New Zealand First will be following this through.