Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. If people were listening at home they would have been hearing a very kind and friendly voice then just speaking and I must say in the spirit of Christmas with Paul Eagle's lovely red tie there you could think he's just like Father Christmas but he was trying to say See no evil hear no evil speak no evil." That was kind of what we were all hearing on this side of the House. But there is some evil in this bill and that's what we need to talk about and that's what we need to be debating here tonight. I know that sounds a bit like the Christmas Grinch but actually it's important that here in Parliament we debate the real issues and it doesn't matter if it's a week out from Christmas—we still debate the real issues because we should not be shying away from our responsibilities to scrutinise the legislation which is in front of us and make sure that it is fit and proper for what it is to do.So it is important to remind ourselves that the Conservation (Infringement System) Bill was a very good National bill. It was brought to Parliament by the Hon Maggie Barry an excellent Minister and can I just applaud the Hon Maggie Barry for all of the excellent work that she did in the conservation area. She championed Predator Free 2050 the War on Weeds the Battle for our Birds—a whole range of different programmes which are making a massive difference in New Zealand. And also she championed this bill which was to bring about an infringement system to ensure that Department of Conservation officers were able to issue infringements or fines to those people who undertook low-level offending.But the problem which we now have is that the Green Party and their Minister have got hold of this bill and they have along with their Government mates in the Labour and New Zealand First parties ripped it apart torn it apart and inserted the ability for a whole range of other people to come along and start issuing infringement notices left right and centre out in our conservation estate. We need to hold firm to the principle that the non-Governmental agencies should not be issuing fines and infringement notices unabated from the House. I hear some noises from across the other side of the House. I'm not sure exactly what they're trying to say but all I can say is that we need to be firm in our lawmaking powers—Stuart Smith: An extinct dodo bird.SIMEON BROWN: Oh it's a formerly extinct dodo bird on the other side. Oh that's what Stuart meant.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Come on pull it in. Wind it back in please.SIMEON BROWN: I'm sorry. I apologise Madam Assistant Speaker. That was a terrible interjection by Stuart Smith. So we will be opposing this bill. We don't want to go back to the dark ages. We want to stand for good legislation and we want to ensure that our conservation estate while it is protected—that it is the right people issuing these notices doing it through proper legal processes doing it with a proper regulatory regime over the top of that. And so National will be opposing this bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you. Before I call the Hon Clare Curran I just want to say one thing. I don't want to be the Grinch that stole Christmas but we are passing legislation here tonight. A passing reference to the bill would be appreciated. A little bit of wit would be very welcome but could we just get to the business at hand. I'll call the Hon Clare Curran."