Wilkinson Kate: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wilkinson Kate: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1816. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak in the financial review debate on the Department of Conservation. Can I say from the outset that we will never have enough money to pay for all the conservation that needs to be done in New Zealand. There was an exercise that was done in relation to biodiversity and they were adding up the figures— 
Andrew Little 
: What about the staff? 
Hon KATE WILKINSON 
: —and when they got past the health budget they had to stop. It is interesting when you have the Labour Opposition quite willing to spend $150 million on extending paid parental leave which is about half the budget of the Department of Conservation but Labour will be the first ones—or maybe the second ones after the Greens—to say that we are not spending enough money on conservation.  
But what this means is that we have the opportunity to look at conservation and look at the opportunities that conservation provides to New Zealand. I do not think we should be afraid of saying that conservation is everyone’s responsibility. Nor should we be afraid of saying that conservation is good for business and business is good for conservation.  
Can I say at the outset—because I acknowledge that the Green member is wanting to take a call—that the memorandum of understanding that we have with the Green Party which is to protect our native species and fund research into 1080 alternatives sets aside $4 million for self-setting traps. When we look at the 1080 debate—and I thank the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment for actually putting some common sense and some science around that debate—and if we look at the trends and the learning over the years we see that the standard application rate for 1080 used to be 20 kilograms per hectare. Now the standard is down to 2 kilograms per hectare and they are looking now to go down as low as 200 grams per hectare.  
There is a stunning example of biodiversity in a biodiversity partnership up in the Wanganui area where I was just last week called the Kia Wharite project where they are trialling the 200 grams per hectare. But what this project does is demonstrate several things: first a fantastic partnership between the Department of Conservation the landowners and the Horizons Regional Council—I think it is one of the most significant partnerships with a regional council—but also a partnership with iwi.  
It is one of the largest biodiversity projects in this country. It is focused on an area of 180000 hectares of which something like 157000 is under active pest control and predator eradication. Up in that area there are probably the largest populations of our North Island brown kiwi and also the endangered blue duck. It is also the second-largest stand of lowland native forest in New Zealand. But I think what is exciting about that is the way that the other partners are working with the Department of Conservation. It is a very successful partnership programme. In fact one of the farmers markets his own beef which he markets as “conservation beef”. I think that is just a wonderful reflection on the importance of conservation to New Zealand.  
One of the other exciting recent developments is of course the announcement of our partnership—it is not a sponsorship programme—with Air New Zealand. For many years Air New Zealand had actually enabled some of our flightless birds to fly. It has taken the kakapo from one end of the country to the other. It transports the kiwi to translocated areas to assist in their ability to thrive. This partnership which was announced with the Prime Minister just recently formalises that it is worth about a million dollars annually but actually for New Zealand it is worth a lot more than that. It is worth a lot more in branding. It recognises that conservation is one of the largest if not the largest tourism providers in New Zealand.  
We have the opportunity to really showcase our great walks and showcase our national parks. We have direct investment in conservation programmes. We have thousands of Air New Zealand staff who are now buzzed up about conservation. The walks alone which will be promoted through this partnership bring in about $3 million a year. But it is more important that that; it is more about our brand.  
Our Department of Conservation staff are fantastic people. They are passionate about what they do.