2. Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does she have confidence that her Ministers of health, environment, agriculture, and local government are protecting New Zealanders from any major threats to the safety and security of our drinking-water supply?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) Link to this
There are clearly significant issues with our drinking-water supplies. I have confidence that the Ministers mentioned and others are doing their best to address issues such as the supply, quality, and accessibility of water. Those are complex areas that cover many, many aspects of policy.
How can the Prime Minister be absolutely confident of the safety and security of our drinking water, when Watercare Services, which supplies Auckland’s water, is warning that there is a threat to the future of Auckland’s drinking-water as a result of dairy conversion in the Waikato River catchment, where it currently gets a significant amount of water and in the future plans to get even more water?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
There are two answers to that point. Firstly, the National Environmental Standard for Sources of Human Drinking Water came into force just last week, and, secondly, the member may not be aware of this but the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations is engaged in very extensive negotiations with both Waikato-Tainui and a range of other iwi about a long-term plan for the cleaning up of the Waikato River. We are, of course, already committed to some $36.7 million for the cleaning up of Lake Taupō, as well as to massive expenditure on the nearby area of the Rotorua lakes of some $72 million over time. Expenditure on the river is likely to exceed those two clean-ups combined.
Hon Dr Nick Smith Link to this
Can he explain why the special Cabinet committee for the Government’s Sustainable Water Programme of Action that the Prime Minister announced in 2003 has never met, and why that lack of ministerial meetings led the Auditor-General to report last year on the poor governance of the programme and little progress being made on water quality; and does that not expose the whole sham of the Prime Minister’s sustainability agenda?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
The Prime Minister does not agree with that, because of the importance of the matters being dealt with directly by the Cabinet policy committee. A national policy statement on freshwater management is due out soon for public consultation. A national environmental standard for the measurement of water takes is being drafted at the present time. Submissions are being sought on the national environmental standard on ecological flows and water levels. Some progress is being made in terms of the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. There are discussions with iwi reference groups, because that is crucial in matters of water. As I said, the Government has committed massive sums to the clean-up of Lake Taupō and the Rotorua lakes already.
Hon Peter DunneWhat assurances can the Prime Minister give the residents of Levin, Kūmara, and Karamea that their drinking-water supplies will be safe, when the Department of Conservation, the West Coast Regional Council, and the Animal Health Board have aerial 1080 poison drops targeted for the water-supply catchments of all three towns in the very near future?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
My understanding is that every attempt is made to ensure that those drops do not contaminate the water supply. I am aware, of course, that some of those interested in hunting use this issue to try to persuade us that the attempt should not be made to wipe out various forms of pest. I am afraid the Government continues to take a different view on that matter.
Is the Prime Minister aware that the Environmental Risk Management Authority somehow considers it safe to aerially dump 1080 poison in a public water catchment area provided that it is not dumped on the supply lake and is more than 100 metres upstream, despite sound scientific evidence that 1080 fails to break down adequately in water at typical July winter temperatures; and does she agree that the risk to public health is therefore far too great for such flagrantly reckless operations to continue at this time?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
I do not have the information in front of me to be able to give a direct answer to that question.
How can the Prime Minister be confident as to the safety of drinking water, and how can she be confident that the national environmental standard will be sufficient when Watercare Services, which has to supply Auckland with safe drinking water, clearly does not have confidence in the national environmental standard because it is currently committing resources to fight for a variation in the Waikato regional plan in order to protect the future of the water supply into Auckland; and is it not time we put in place a moratorium on dairy conversion until we can be sure that our water supplies are safe?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
Firstly, the member should have listened more carefully to the primary answer. I did not say the Prime Minister was satisfied with the state of water supplies in New Zealand as they currently are. If the Government was satisfied, it would not be doing the immense amount of work that is under way at the present time. On the second matter, I repeat what I said to him before. As part of the negotiations with Waikato-Tainui over their remaining Treaty issues, an enormous amount of work is also going on in both negotiations and background work for a long-term plan for the better administration and clean-up of the Waikato River. What that will lead to in terms of some changes in farming practice is yet to be seen, but the member will have to learn that these matters have to be discussed with iwi interests as well. If they were not, then the Government would certainly end up before the tribunal or in the courts.
Why does she have confidence, when Shane Cunis, the Watercare Services southern area water supply superintendent, stated in a submission that discharges from just one industrial dairy development in the Waikato catchment involving Landcorp could mean “the nitrate increase and increased risk of protozoa would cause a decline in water quality”, and “If irrigation was allowed for this one project, summer low flows in the Waikato would reduce by a further 13 percent and river nutrient concentrations could go up by 120 percent.”?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
The Prime Minister does have confidence in the enormous amount of work being done by Ministers with responsibility in this area. Let me refer the member to one more major Government initiative: the $700 million - plus, and eventually $2 billion, Fast Forward fund. One of its major purposes is to address issues of sustainable farming practices. This country depends very substantially on farm product exports. We have to find a way of making farming sustainable, not a way of closing down farming.
Does the Prime Minister continue to have confidence in the protection of drinking-water supplies, when Watercare Services’ submission on an application by a Landcorp partnership for a dairy conversion in the Waikato warned that it would result in more algal blooms and algal impact, which would have an impact on the production of safe water—which is obviously Watercare Services’ concern—because it would clog water intake screens, increase coagulant demand, foul filters, increase chlorine demand, produce unpleasant taste, odours, and toxins; and—
Rt Hon Winston Peters Link to this
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. The reason why you are hearing a rising tempo in the House is that this is not a question any more; it is becoming a speech.
Madam SPEAKERI draw the member’s attention to the fact that questions and answers should be succinct. We do strive to ensure that that is the case, so I ask the member to please summarise his question.
The summary of the question to the Prime Minister is: why does she continue to have confidence, when Watercare Services itself has said that all of those nutrients flowing into the river are increasing the algal blooms and making it much more difficult for Watercare Services to supply Auckland, particularly into the future, with clean, safe water—which I appreciate has to take place at the same time as maintaining farm production?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
I refer again to my primary answer, from which the member continues to draw a false conclusion to base his pre-written supplementary questions on. In terms of the particular matter that he was referring to and the submission that he made on behalf of Watercare Services, this is clearly a matter for a planning consent that will be considered by the appropriate authorities. This Government has faith in the planning processes, rather than trying in Parliament to pre-empt by prime ministerial fiat those consent processes.