Peters Jim: Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Peters Jim: Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15413] 
JIM PETERS (NZ First) 
: 
 Speaking to clause 1 I want first to go back to the issue that has been raised in this Chamber with regard to what is so special about the Waitaki. What is so special that in clause 1 it demands its own amendment bill? What is so special about its place in the Resource Management Act? The answer lies in the fact for those members who were there in Oamaru and have spoken to people since then that the farmers from the upper Mackenzie Country from Mayor Stan Scorringe of the Mackenzie district to the people of Kurow and right down the river—all of those people—regard the Waitaki River as a very special place indeed. That is part of the reason why New Zealand First has given its support to the revised bill that is before the Committee at the present time. In the course of the earlier deliberations of the House and the select committee firstly we became aware of the tremendous knowledge of the Waitaki that Meridian Energy had garnered; secondly alongside that the work that was done by Environment Canterbury belatedly perhaps but it was there; and thirdly the work of the Ministry for the Environment. 
 We thought the opportunity should not be lost to address the issues that are paramount in regard to the Waitaki River and other rivers and that is what really are and what should be the qualitative methods of water allocation for this day and into the future. In that regard one needs just to speculate that if we go back to the Soil Conservation Act 1967 which talked about “promoting and controlling multiple uses of water” and move to the 1991 Resource Management Act which was concerned with “promoting the sustainable management of natural and physical resources” one might pause especially in view of the speeches already made in the House and consider why Environment Canterbury or any other regional council may have delayed throughout the 1991-99 period. 
Regional councils along with district councils were expecting more national guidance. Instead we know that we had one the national coastal policy statement and no other. Whilst we have heard an impassioned speech from the Hon Dr Nick Smith his Government was in power throughout that time and there was only one national statement of guidance in regard to the coastal plan. That could be a very very sound reason why Environment Canterbury has not until recent days picked up the ball and run with it although it is doing so now in a very prominent manner. I say that because as we have said in the House we are now happy with its regional natural resources plan. It is a very very extensive plan and the Waitaki issue sits very well into that. 
From the first we have preferred and have stated throughout this whole debate that the Canterbury Regional Council and the Otago Regional Council should be the groups that hear the matters relating to the Waitaki River. Therefore we are very very pleased indeed that we have come back to that situation today where their board is going to take up the matters that are before the Committee now. 
That is particularly so because there are major matters of concern in regard to this river. The model that this board could develop for a modern water plan not related to the 1980s or 1990s could be one that looks ahead particularly in view of the fact that it is acknowledged now that if the competing demands for the water in that river were to be satisfied that would cause a quandary and a problem for years to come. To that degree we have been pleased to give support to this. We are pleased to support the work being done by the Canterbury Regional Council and if members took the time to go into their website or talk to the council and see where it is in 2004 they could see why I have every confidence that it will come up with something that will be far faster under this process than one could envisage if it had waited until the end of the natural resources plan which will probably be 2008-09 and then fitted the Waitaki catchment into that. 
We are very pleased to support those people from Waitaki who have said to us over and over again: “Please do not let the matter go. Please make this a matter of concern because we want a modern approach for this day and age to our water our river in which all users but not least the instream values of the river are acknowledged first and foremost.”