Warren-Clark AngieANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker and of course I must also wish you a happy birthday. I just want to let you know that I will not be forgetting your birthday as it is also my sister's birthday Kristy Kewene. Just thought I'd drop that into Hansard. It is her birthday today as well so happy birthday Mr Speaker. Look it is an absolute pleasure—an absolute pleasure to speak on the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill. I've been listening carefully to this debate and it's a perfect example of how our Government is tackling the big long-term problems facing this country. We know that the degradation of the environment is absolutely evidenced in the fact that many of our rivers are no longer swimmable. That's something that the Opposition were quite happy to allow to continue.This Government is committed to improving our freshwater systems and we have a broad programme to restore freshwater systems and freshwater diversity. The Minister for the Environment David Parker has introduced a new direction under the Resource Management Act in regards to this. At the same time we're taking strong action to protect our environment: we've banned single-use plastic bags we have banned new offshore mining permits and we're working with the urban community and our farmers for a new zero-carbon future. We're managing land use with a sustainable land-use package so that the runoff and sediment don't clog our waterways. After nine years of neglect there's a lot to fix and this is something we can't fix straight away but we're getting started and we're making good progress.So I commend our Minister of Conservation the Hon Eugenie Sage for her balanced approach here; better protecting indigenous freshwater fish that have been neglected for so long while ensuring that the right to fish and managing fisheries still exists.I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the officials who worked diligently on this bill. It did take us a long time to get there. We've taken a lot of time to discuss the issues. We listened and spent a lot of time managing the expectations of community and making sure that this piece of legislation worked. So I really want to thank the officials and the clerks who worked with us. I also greatly appreciated one particular official who often showed us pictures of these very rare and indigenous fish because sometimes it was quite technical so I appreciate that.We have 57 species of freshwater fish and over half of these are found only in New Zealand 22 species are threatened and 17 are at risk. Our freshwater fish are much worse off than our native birds. We've seen a massive loss of spawning sites loss of fish passage and loss of wetlands and habitat that these fish need. We all know this. Everyone agrees with this but the Opposition yesterday tried to tell this country that yes even though indigenous freshwater fish are important they're not as important as private land-use rights. I wonder if they thought about indigenous fish in the same way as they thought about for example the Kiwi whether they would treat them the same. No one objects to Kiwi nesting on their land. No one talks about the loss of land-use rights that aren't disrupted. We propose very simply to do this exactly for our spawning sites as we do for birds.The Supplementary Order Paper 360 in the Minister's name yesterday ensured that anyone fishing in a conservation area should have an authorisation. The member Dr Duncan Webb said and it was a great example that if you take lichen in a conservation area that lichen is more protected than indigenous fish—I think that was a really good example. So a person will need to have authorisation in the same way that they need to have authorisation to take plants from conservation parks or fish reserves or national parks. That's about fairness and really that's what we're about. It's about our environment and it's about our biodiversity winning.This legislation is one of the tools in the tool box. It's not the end of the whitebait fishing. It's not the end of the world as we know it. However if we fail to act now New Zealand will lose some of its precious biodiversity. I say we must act to do all we can to support our unique and precious environment and these species.We had 1406 submissions and we heard 61 oral submissions during the time that we sat in the select committee. Overwhelmingly the majority supported the intention of the bill to give greater protection to freshwater fish. I am grateful really for the time that those people took to give us those submissions. They were meaningful they were useful and we crafted the legislation around some of the very good suggestions that they made.I'd also like to acknowledge my dear friend Dr Deborah Russell who began the process of shepherding this piece of legislation through the House as the Environment Committee chair. That was then picked up by Dr Duncan Webb. Both of them have managed a really seamless process. It's been a long process but an enjoyable process to participate in.So look all we've heard from the Opposition is it's not fair that we're going to have a ban a life ban on whitebait. It's not the case. It's scaremongering. It is plain and simple scaremongering. The Opposition also talks about not trusting the honourable member Eugenie Sage in her consultation. I actually think that that was pretty on the nose. I think the Minister has stood up and said that there is consultation. We know over 3000 people have started that consultation process around whitebait. There is a formal process in place. People are talking and they are passionate about this issue and we are hearing them and they are speaking to us. So I don't think that that was a very fair or reasonable thing for the member to say. I absolutely refute it.The bill does a number of things but one of the things I guess that I'm particularly pleased about is this bill also strengthens the tools for managing threats to customary fishing such as the management of damage to spawning sites. So where indigenous fish are and customary fishing rights exist the protection or the better protection of those spawning sites and the customary right to take continues and in fact it's strengthened.We're getting on with delivering for the people of our nation. We're focused on the long game not the next election cycle. We're looking at fixing the multiplicity of issues that have been the legacy of nine years of the National Government. That party ignored poverty ignored the health and wellbeing of our people and ignored the environment. I am delighted to commend this bill to the House.