Ardern Shane: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Ardern Shane: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
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SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise tonight to take a call on the Appropriations (2007/08 Supplementary Estimates) Bill particularly following after one of the “brightest stars” to quote various newspapers write-ups when the member who has just resumed his seat came into the House. I say to that member that he came about 5 or 6 years too early because he is destined for a long period in Opposition and he would have been better serving his time back in his law practice. 
I say to the House that I have searched the Estimates to find the new initiatives and investments in the areas relating to the portfolio I am in charge of as the National Party spokesperson—biosecurity and forestry—and I have not been able to find them. In the past 5 years there have been 254 new incursions of unwanted organisms into New Zealand. In 2007 there were 157467 biosecurity-risk goods that were seized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. That is good; we know they have caught those ones. But they themselves will tell us that at best in their own audit 10 percent get through. There were 4669 fines issues and 71 percent of those were given to visitors to this country. So where in the Estimates was there any extra funding to stop this flood of biosecurity risks coming into New Zealand? Where are the initiatives to raise instant fines to a level that shows we actually take our clean green environment and the protection of our health and economy seriously? I have not been able to find them. I am sure someone will take a call after me and explain where they are—they are simply just not there. 
I say to the member who has just resumed his seat Charles Chauvel that the reason we have seen the growth rates that he spoke of in this country is simply because of the growth within the primary production sector of the economy—the agricultural sector—which is so vulnerable to these incursions. 
There is no money in this Budget for combating didymo. It looks to me that this new organism has been given immigration clearance to settle in New Zealand. Ninety-four waterways in the South Island are confirmed as being infected by this organism. That is the latest information that I have been given. I would not have a clue as to whether that is accurate but the figure is likely to be higher because of the way the organism has travelled across the country. Treasury estimated some years ago that eradicating didymo could cost $285 million. I suspect that if didymo hits the North Island the figure could double or even treble—who knows. 
As for the varroa mite well that is a fiasco if there ever was one. While the Minister procrastinated about whether to try to eliminate varroa in the South Island Rome was burnt so to speak and it spread at a rate that the Government could not keep up with. The line in the South Island moved steadily down the island and as was predicted the cost has now exceeded $300 million. Cabinet said to the Minister for Biosecurity that there was no guarantee that he could stop this movement at the border so it would just have to accept that this would spread across New Zealand. And it was right because if we look at this Minister’s track record in this area I think we see that Cabinet made the right decision. His record is woeful. 
Styela clava 
 or sea squirt as it is commonly known is now being discovered in the new Marsden marina and it is widely established in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. Is there any money for dealing with this in the Estimates? Well I cannot find it; it is not there—it definitely cannot be seen. Apparently there is no hope that this  
Styela clava 
 will be cleared up. It appears to me that there is an open border for many of that family’s relatives to be imported into this county and to be established here. 
I looked seriously at this Budget in regard to training money because this is a major area in biosecurity. We have had a mass exodus of skilled and trained personnel in this area—in science and in other aspects of our biosecurity portfolio area—and nothing has been allocated. 
We recently had the fiasco of coco peat from Sri Lanka where 28 new weed species were imported into New Zealand and established throughout the nurseries in our country. This will come as a surprise to the Labour Government but we are a pastoral nation. We depend on our ability to grow pastures in this country in order for a large part of our economy to be competitive and here we have 28 new weed species that are likely to require huge amounts of chemicals and other such substances to control them. Yet when we look in the Budget to see what was allocated we find to our surprise that in 2002 MAF Biosecurity conducted an assessment of this proposed import health standard—that is for importing this coco peat into New Zealand from Sri Lanka—and it found that there was no import health standard as such. It found that there was no reason as to why the status quo could not continue. If that is not short-sightedness in the light of the recent incursions then what is? Here was a chance to address the problem and nothing was done. It is a mess and the appropriations for 2007 will not help for the simple reason that one needs a Minister for Biosecurity who actually takes the matter seriously. At the moment we are clearly lacking in that area. 
A question was asked about whether the allowances for biosecurity surveillance and incursion response within Budget 2008 were expected to be adequate based on current expected activity levels. It is an important question because there is an expectation that under Minister Anderton there will be more incursions—hence the need for more incursion-response money. There will be a need for more surveillance because it all seems to sit around what can be found at the border before it takes hold here. The reality is that there is a little bit of extra funding there but it is so minuscule in relation to the increased trade and activity going on in this area that clearly it will be inadequate. 
That leads me to another portfolio that Minister Anderton is in charge of which is forestry. I would not be surprised if he did not want to remember he is the Minister of Forestry as he does not have a proud record to be remembered for. Here is an example of the headlines: “Worst deforestation figures in 50 years revealed”. “The worst ever loss of 13600 hectares of forest last year is a disaster for the environment and makes a mockery of Labour’s climate change commitments …” to being a carbon-neutral nation. It continues: “New Zealand proudly planted more trees than it felled every year from 1951 until 2003 building a forestry resource of 1.9 hectares of trees.” Then what happened? The Government made a policy announcement that it would drag this industry into an area where there was huge uncertainty in terms of investment and we had what has been dubbed the chainsaw massacre of 3.4 million trees with no sign of any abatement in that. What steps in the Budget— 
Hon David Parker 
: Yes it has. It’s virtually stopped this year. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: The Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues says that it stopped this year. He said in the House about a week ago that about 250000 hectares of new forest would be planted. I want to know where in the Budget there is anything that will bring about that kind of massive change. When I speak to members of the industry about what has brought about this massive deforestation they say that they have tried to set up new processing plants here but they come up against the Resource Management Act. They say they look at how they could get around that and invest in this country because they can grow pine trees and other exotics here quicker than anywhere else in the world but there is too much uncertainty and too much cost and delay under the Resource Management Act process and in terms of depreciation levels compared with other nations. They say there is too much unreliability in the energy supply and when they proposed putting in cogeneration using the waste material from their own industry there was once again too much cost and delay under the Resource Management Act. The list goes on and the Minister says: “Well we’ve halted the chainsaw massacre.” It used to be that this country grew more trees every year than it cut down. I ask the Minister what happened to that proposal. 
This Government has failed in both of the portfolio areas I have mentioned. Its ambition to become carbon neutral is nothing more than the same hollow rhetoric we heard when the Prime Minister said that she wanted to lift New Zealand back into the top half of the OECD yet we have gone down. The Government’s approach to the economy full stop not just in the two areas I have spoken about is absolutely woeful and we know that when we hear member after member trying to defend what cannot be defended as we have heard in this House from recent speakers in the debate. This Government is tired it is on its way out and the election cannot come soon enough.