9. CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) Link to this
to the Minister for the Environment
Will he support a publicly accessible national register of contaminated sites; if not, why not?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) Link to this
That question is identical to the one from the member on 18 June, and my answer is the same. The Resource Management Act makes it plain that regional councils have responsibility for monitoring contaminated sites. I see no point in this being duplicated at a national level.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Does the Ministry for the Environment have a register of contaminated sites; if so, should this register not be made public?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
The only records the Ministry for the Environment has on contaminated sites are those for which the ministry has provided funding. That is quite a small list and it is publicly available. It is not available as a published list, but I would be more than happy to provide the member with the names of the sites we are aware of. I would say to the member, in terms of some of the public discourse about this issue, that there is a huge difference between a contaminated site and a potentially contaminated site. Along with my assistance in the release of the information publicly, I urge her to be careful about that differentiation, because there is the potential to do considerable damage to people’s property values by confusing the two.
Chris AuchinvoleWhat lessons has the new Government taken from the ministry’s experience with the Māpua contaminated site?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
I was pleased last week to attend, with the member for West Coast - Tasman, a meeting he chaired to release the site auditor’s report on Māpua, which was New Zealand’s worst-contaminated site. The report confirmed that the site is now fit for use and announced further funding of $455,000 for ongoing monitoring. But there are some stiff lessons from Māpua in the critical report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, released last year. Firstly, containment should be considered, because in some cases it is a better option than clean-up. Secondly, the Ministry for the Environment should not have got itself into an operational role with clean-ups, as that is not its core area of expertise.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Does the Minister agree that having around 14 different regional registers around the country is confusing, and would it not be fairer on the public if there was one national register?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
It depends on what the interest of the public is. If the interest of the public—which I think is important—is for people in their lone area to know which sites are contaminated, I would put it to the member that it would be far more useful to have that information at a regional council level. The idea of a national register may help the Greens to create a massive scare story about contaminated sites, but I am not sure how that serves the public interest.