4. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE to move, That a respectful address be presented to His Excellency the Governor-General commending to His Excellency the appropriations and information for the 2010/11 financial year in respect of Vote Audit, Vote Ombudsmen and Vote Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga
Tuesday 27 April 2010

I take the opportunity of this Government Notice of Motion to commend the work that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is doing.

The Maori Party places enormous significance on our roles to protect natural values, to achieve sustainable development, and to keeping our environment healthy, safe and intact for everyone and for future generations.

We start, of course, from the perspectives of whanau, hapu and iwi, as tangata tiaki; to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the wellbeing and future good health of the environment

This is a goal that all of us take very seriously.

And so we have been very impressed with the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in trying to set in place roles and responsibilities for regular reporting on the state of the environment to different public entities.

The report that she issued last week encourages us to consider the value of a National Environmental Reporting Act.

The Maori Party is interested in this idea, as a mechanism to report, in a systematic way on the state of the environment.

In fact it was a bit of a shock to learn from Dr Wright’s report, that we're the only country in the OECD who doesn't have a formalised process for regular national reporting on the environment.

This report is money well spent by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

We hope this House will be taking up the suggestions she has made in this report, because it will show that the money has been well spent if we listen to them. We want to bring attention to the fact that the Commissioner’s work programme has increased over the last little while.

We note that on the basis of the increased demand the report recommended that the Commission’s annual appropriation be reduced by only $150,000 of the recommended $312,000 annual provision for the audit function. Although it may appear a bit of Clayton’s provision, it provides ongoing support to endorse the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

We need to make it clear to the House that what this office is doing is very important and we see the importance of what it is doing. We see that it is very important that we bring this into the House to look not only at hard economics but also at what those economics are doing to our environment.

We have a longstanding interest in measuring indicators and measuring the economy in ways which encourage everyone to take responsibility for the good health of the environment. For that reason we hope that this House takes seriously the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

ENDS

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