Kanongata'a-Suisuiki Anahila; Salesa JennyANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā. It's an honour and a privilege to speak on anything to do with conservation here in Aotearoa. I want to acknowledge the member Maureen Pugh and congratulate her on the amount of work that she's done to get her bill to this stage. But before I talk about the reasons why I join my colleagues and our party in opposing this bill I want to acknowledge the Minister of Conservation. I want to acknowledge the sister the Hon Kiritapu Allan: kia kaha wahine toa and much arohanui from us here—all of us here in the Whare. I've gone through the pages of this bill and we're in the 21st century and there's nowhere—I don't know; maybe I've missed it—that refers to being a Treaty partner. There's nowhere that refers to consulting or working with tangata whenua. We recently had the annual review of the Department of Conservation. They came through and the thing that I liked about their presentation was about the principles—the principles of conservation which was about elevating principles of the Treaty and fulfilling Treaty partnership. I looked at the bill; I couldn't find that anywhere. It's about holding wellbeing and safety within conservation—I couldn't find that here either. What I found was a bill that just looked at the tree; it didn't look at the whole forest. It looked at the trees—didn't look at the whole forest. So I'm really concerned—I'm really concerned. I think that this bill is about the slippery slope. I am concerned about the forest—the kauri. I am concerned about the kauri. It's a slippery slope into swamp harvesting—kauri swamp harvesting. This is opening the door to that. So I'm really concerned about that and before the Department of Conservation—let's just say adverse weather effect a tree falls on somewhere where humans walk. Part of the conservation is to get rid of that risk not to go into the forest. So I would say adverse—what is it? Adverse weather - affected timber recovery—timber recovery. It's just looking at the timber; it's not looking at Papatūānuku and the forest and what we are conserving. It's time that we stop being siloed—that we stop just looking at the West Coast. I hear that the Hon Eugenie Sage in her contribution spoke about that bill that was passed in—I've forgotten what year it was. That Act was passed through urgency of the House. It didn't go to a select committee didn't have a tangata whenua contribution to it—it didn't didn't—and here we are. We are here today in 2021 and we know that in this House diversity makes it better. It adds value yet this bill it is siloed. It is only looking at what's happening in their backyard. The reason I am concerned is because we are not just talking about the West Coast. This bill is not just talking about the West Coast. We are talking about all of New Zealand. Our borders are going to open up to Australia. What are they going to come to look at? I bet that some of them will come to look at the forests who have been conserved by the Department of Conservation. They will be looking at that—they're coming to that. So financially that's coming through the border. It is coming through the border because conservation does good work. The principle of the Department of Conservation it's about a healthy nature. We've heard everyone talk about it: healthy nature. Trees would fall and rot a lot of diversity in the ecology system would feed from that and that is because we have learnt from years and years of siloed looking at the forest that we are destroying the forest. I stand in unison with our deputy chair of our Environment Committee Rachel Brooking and the awesome contribution by Tangi Utikere today—oh Greg O'Connor too. I stand in unison with them and I oppose this bill. I oppose the Adverse Weather-affected Timber Recovery on Conservation Lands Bill. On that note I oppose this bill to the House. Mālō. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): This debate is interrupted. The House is suspended until 7 p.m. this evening. Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.