8. BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does the Prime Minister stand by all his public statements on water quality in New Zealand?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) Link to this
Now that the Auditor-General joins a chorus saying our water quality is deteriorating, mostly due to intensifying agriculture, will the Prime Minister take back his comments to the BBC dismissing Massey University ecologist Mike Joy’s views about degrading water quality as being just those of one scientist and “like lawyers, I can give you another with a counter-view.”?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
The Prime Minister stands by that statement for a good reason: it is true. I note that last week Mr Kevin Parris, the OECD guest speaker at the lake water - quality conference held in New Zealand, said, firstly, that in his experience New Zealand matched up to its clean, green image; and, secondly, he noted, and the Government agrees, that more does need to be done in respect of improving the management of freshwater quality, particularly in terms of lowland catchments.
When he quoted Lincoln University scientist Ken Hughey in the House as one counter-view and quoted him saying: “Perceived state of NZ freshwater is good—a view supported by science;”, why did he not give the full statement, which says: “lowland streams not so good; farming increasingly seen as a major cause of damage; management improving but issues around farm runoff.”?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
The truth is—and the OECD report states it, the Auditor-General’s report states it, and international surveying states it—that New Zealand’s overall standard of freshwater quality is very good by international standards. To quote the environmental international index that is prepared by Yale University and Columbia University, it rates New Zealand’s freshwater quality at 99.2, the second-best in the world.
Will the Prime Minister confirm that the Yale University report, which he used to justify his claim that our water quality is second only to Iceland, has in fact been widely ridiculed by leading freshwater scientists and environmentalists, including former National Party candidate Guy Salmon, who says it is “totally flawed”?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
Yes, I have read the commentary around the Yale University and Columbia University environmental performance index. The key question they ask is not about the data for New Zealand but about how reliable the data is for some of the other countries. That does not change Yale University and Columbia University allocating their assessment of New Zealand’s fresh water as 99.2. Furthermore, I would say the Government has initiated measures to improve the way in which we measure freshwater quality, so we have better data, and we have put out a discussion paper about the systems to ensure that there are more reliable measurements on which we can make that assessment about the quality of New Zealand’s fresh water.
I seek the leave of the House to table the Lincoln University study quoted by the Prime Minister, or partly quoted by the Prime Minister, on fresh water. It is from Ken Hughey and two others.
Mr SPEAKER