Simpson Scott: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionSimpson Scott: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]SCOTT SIMPSON (Chairperson of the Local Government and Environment Committee):I move that the reports be noted. I do so in my capacity as chairman of the Local Government and Environment Committee. In preparation for this short debate speech this afternoon I went back and had a look at this year’s report of the committee for the Department of Conservation. The committee conducted a very thorough investigation of the financial performance and review of the Department of Conservation only a month or so ago and I am delighted to report to the Committee that the Department of Conservation appears to be in very good shape under this very effective National-led Government. Lou Sanson and his team are doing a particularly good job on behalf of all New Zealanders in preserving maintaining and conserving our natural heritage our natural domains and that part of our environment that is so core to our quality of life as New Zealanders.Our natural environment is an enormously big and important part of our national identity. It is an important part of our competitive advantage internationally and it is important to all New Zealanders. We enjoy as Kiwis some of the most pristine most beautiful natural environments anywhere in the world. The Government has a very clear blue-green approach to conservation and the environment and this means that we are able to provide real environmental leadership without the nonsense that goes with for instance the Green Party’s view of the environment. We bring support for a sensible approach to the environment a common-sense approach to protecting conserving and ensuring that future generations have the kind of environment that we as all New Zealanders are so proud of.The Local Government and Environment Committee annual reviews included the Ministry for the Environment and also a review of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright and her office. They are also agencies of Government that are doing a particularly good job on behalf of all New Zealanders. I want to in the short time that is available to me this afternoon just highlight a couple of points from the Department of Conservation’s annual review. In particular I want to just draw the attention of the Committee to the work that is being done in terms of partnerships that the Department of Conservation has entered into which are providing much greater support for our natural environment than was previously the case. Fonterra has entered into a partnership relationship with the Department of Conservation and is participating in a project it refers to as the Living Water project. That involves five wetland projects around the country.One is of particular interest to me in the Coromandel electorate on the Firth of Thames at Miranda Pukorokoro on the Kaiaua coast which is affectionately referred to as the Seabird Coast. That is an area that members will know is famous for where each year the godwits and the red knots feed up on the wetlands around the Firth of Thames over the summer months. Then in the autumn they proceed on one of the most remarkable natural journeys known to the world where they fly for 8½ solid days without touching ground without stopping. They then end up at a coastal wetland area on the coast of China. They rest there for a week or so and then they pause to rejuvenate. And then they head off again to Siberia or Alaska.The work that is being done by the Department of Conservation and Fonterra to preserve and maintain the wetland area at Miranda Pukorokoro is very significant international-quality work. Not just for New Zealanders because these birds that choose to summer here are in fact not New Zealand birds. They are birds of the world really. They are birds of the globe. They are not Chinese birds. They are not Alaskan birds. They are not Siberian birds. We have this wonderful opportunity in fact to enter into a sense of global bird-diplomacy if I can put it that way. That means that the people who man the trust at Miranda have been able to go and do work with the North Korean Government. As a non-threatening NGO they are able to establish relationships that mean that the wetland preservation can occur in North Korea in China and in other parts of the world just as important as it is in New Zealand.Another area that is important to me is kauri dieback but I will not have time to talk about that.