As we enter the new year, the prospect of the coming election looms. The government's performance will be under more scrutiny than usual, and its performance will be weighed.
Minister for the Environment, David Parker. Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas
So with that in mind, how has a government whose leader made statements like that about climate change being a generation's nuclear-free moment done by the environment?
This is the last of a six-part series. RNZ asked a range of experts what they thought:
- Gary Taylor, Environmental Defence Society chair and director
- Lennox Crowe, School Strike 4 Climate member
- Rod Oram, Business journalist
- Genevieve Toop, Greenpeace campaigner
- Mike Smith, Climate Change Iwi Leaders Group chair
In this final instalment, the Minister for the Environment gets his say.
Minister for the Environment, David Parker
- Can you you give me a short assessment of what you've done so far?
"Well, I think New Zealanders should be proud that we are responding to the concerns about climate, water, biodiversity, plastic and the like and we've made a lot of progress this year.
"We've legislated the Zero Carbon Act - net zero by 2050 - set up the Climate Commission, we've set up an Urban Development Authority to deal with this housing crisis and the shortage of land for housing developments.
"We've got the reform of the RMA (Resource Management Act) underway. We've been dealing with those PFAS chemical incursions Ohakea airport and other places ... and then the big one for me of course is the essential freshwater package so that we can turn around this trend we've had in New Zealand that we've had for some decades of our waterways getting dirtier rather than cleaner."
- What's something you think the government has done well and that you're proud of?
"Well, that water stuff's really important to me personally … because I hold, you know, in my heart, this view that water - rivers - should be clean enough New Zealanders can pop down over summer and put their head under without the risk of getting crook.
"And I think that's a birthright of all New Zealanders that we're losing. So this package you know, if we get this through, really does turn that around. And I think we've got widespread support across rural communities and urban communities for taking the action. It's been too long delayed.
"So I think that's a highlight for me. It's actually complex work, you have got to consider all the different land use types without dairying or sheep and beef or vegetables or urban pollution caused by storm water overflows, the sewage system in Auckland - all these things have to be dealt with. So I think we've got that well underway."
- What's something that hasn't been achieved yet and what has hindered that?
"The thing that that hasn't gone quite so well - we're finding some complexity around what we do about a royalty on the exported bottled water. We agree that with New Zealanders that it's unfair that overseas people can take our most pristine water put in a bottle and send it overseas without a return to New Zealanders.
"But it's quite difficult to do it ... for a couple of reasons. One; complexity is caused by some of our trade agreements, and also because of Māori interests in water and their concerns that if we take a royalty what that means and means to them."
- What's something that you would like to get done before the elections come about?
"Well, we've actually already done a lot, you know, we finished off the Zero Carbon Bill, the Urban Development Agency is sort of well underway, I think the thing that I really want to land is the water package including ... drinking water that Nanaia Mahuta is leading, but especially the things that we need to do to protect rivers. It's really important to me and to do that we've got to carry the farming sector with us.
"And of course ... the sustainable land use package, which helps farmers and regional councils make the changes that they need to improve the land use practices that if not done properly, can result in pollution of waterways. "
- Can you sum up some of the major challenges that you face in getting all this done?
"Well, there's quite a lot of technical detail on the water stuff. Some of it's long-term, like setting what should be the targets for nitrate levels in waterways - which cause the overgrowth of slime or make it more likely that pathogens like E.coli or camplyobacter will grow the water.
"But we also need to get a short term package of rules that stops the quantity of risky stuff getting larger, like some of the winter grazing practices that are problematic in some parts of the country where you see, you know, cattle, or cows, knee deep in mud, and you have a rain event and it just washes it all into the rivers.
"So getting those rules right so that they don't unduly impact on farmers that are already doing it right. But discipline those that are the laggards that aren't."
- Is there any particular area of work that the ministry is doing at the moment that you feel the public doesn't know enough about and you'd like to highlight?
"Well, I suppose it's the world view. I'm also the Minister of Trade, and increasingly, I see that the world - whether they are tourists who want to come to New Zealanders or buyers of our primary products - they're interested in our environment.
"And they're not just interested in what it is that they are buying from us, they are interested in the environmental effects of how it is grown. They're worried about climate change. You know, they worry about river quality, and there's so many bad news stories in the world, they really look to New Zealand as a beacon of hope as to have these things can be done better. And that translates to a willingness to pay something for the brand attributes that lie under the package of goods and services that we sell to the world.
"So I'd like to the public to be more aware of that - of the economic benefits to us as a country of doing these things."
- If re-elected, what would you like to focus on in a second term?
"We've got a short-term fix of the resource management act underway. But there's a more broad piece of work that needs to be done because in truth, the Resource Management Act, you know ... it takes too long, it costs too much and it hasn't protected the environment.
"Now, it's not something that you can just fix overnight because it's a cornerstone piece of legislation. But we do need to do better. You know, we've got a housing crisis in part caused by artificial scarcity of land caused by some outcomes of planning rules and infrastructure financing and the like that hasn't been quite right in New Zealand.
"So we want to, in the second term of governments, land that review that we've already got started, that we've got well underway but is unlikely to be legislated and full before the election."
Finally, what would you score your government out of 10 for the work you've done so far?
"I think it's for other people to give us a score. Hopefully next year, they'll give us one or two votes out of two ... You know, I think you'd have to say overall, relative to the rest of the world and what happened before we were elected, you'd have to give us an excellent.
"I'm from the south, I'm too modest (to give a score). The North Island has a good saying that the kūmara does not speak of how sweet it is."
