Thanks Jim for comprehensively setting the scene. Thank you all for coming today.

The actions which I am going to talk about today are in response to an extensive consultation process and discussions held last year on freshwater.

All of these actions aim to achieve strong national direction and regional frameworks for managing freshwater.

We also aim to provide solutions and tools that councils and communities can adapt to fit different circumstances.

We recognise that the range of issues across the country is broad and that different approaches are needed for different regions. A “one-size–fits-all” approach simply will not meet the reality of the water issues we face.

But we also recognise that there are some issues where a national approach is needed, such as in the case of improving poor water quality in many of our lowland streams.

The government has committed to three national outcomes for water:

• Improving the quality and efficient use of water by building and enhancing partnerships with local government, industry, Mâori, science agencies and providers, and rural and urban communities
• Improving the management of the undesirable effects of land-use on water quality through increased national direction and partnerships with communities and resource users
• Providing for increasing demands on water resources and encouraging efficient water management through national direction, working with local government on options for supporting and enhancing local decision making, and developing best practice.

There are some givens with this programme.

Our Labour-led government believes that water should continue to be managed as a public resource. We want to ensure that every New Zealander has fair access to water.

Our waterways are our national treasures, the life blood of our economy and fundamental to the New Zealand way of life.

Protecting our environment is a strategic investment in New Zealand's future. As a government, we are committed to transforming New Zealand over the next decade into a high income, knowledge-based market economy. Water will remain central to that transformation.

Our relative abundance of water compared to the many nations we trade with, is a competitive advantage that New Zealand must maximise. Equally, the quality of that water contributes to New Zealand's international image as a clean / green nation – something both exporters and tourist industries are constantly levering off.

It is therefore, in our own best interest to be addressing issues of water supply and water quality and addressing them now!

A second given is that primary responsibility for water management will remain at the regional level – regional and unitary authorities will continue their role in managing water.

And thirdly, we must focus on what we do on the land in order to improve management of our water. It would be wrong to simply focus on what we do in rivers, lakes and streams – it is what we do in entire catchments that has an effect on our waterways.

And I think we all need to recognise that improvements will take time.

Freshwater systems often show long time lags between what is done on the land and what happens to the water. Changes in land use or management will take time.

Improvements in water quality and changes to allocation systems are long-term goals.

The government is in this for the “long haul” and we hope to receive similar commitment in our partnerships with communities, local government, Maori, industry and the science sector.

We are after all, all in this together, so the first national outcome is building and enhancing partnerships.

To ensure that partnerships are at the forefront of the programme we’re going to establish a small Leadership Group with membership from across the community.

The Group will advise my colleague Mr Anderton and myself on water issues and solutions.

We all have a role to play in managing water wisely and we expect the Leadership Group to advise and confirm the work undertaken on the ground with stakeholders like yourselves.

As the managers of water, local government is one of our key partners.

We have successful partnerships working to manage the water quality of Lake Taupo and the Rotorua Lakes, and we want to build on this good work.

We will continue working with Mâori and local government to develop opportunities for engagement on water management.

It’s challenging for both Mâori and local government to incorporate Mâori values into decision-making and planning, and we will try to provide the necessary assistance for this to occur effectively.

We recognise that some industry groups are working actively to influence the way we use water and manage the impacts land use has on water quality.
The dairy sector has recently released the Dairy Industry Strategy for Sustainable Environmental Management to set out a pathway forward for managing the impacts the sector is having on the environment.

We welcome this strategy and look forward to working closely with the dairy sector on developing targets for land activities that impact on water quality.

There’s a lot of good work that other industries are involved in to minimise impacts on waterways such as the horticulture sector. This includes tools such as codes of practice and calculators to reduce the level of fertilizer use by vegetable, fruit and wine growers.

We want to work with these industries as well.

Raising awareness amongst rural and urban communities about water issues is a key part of influencing behavioural change.

We can all benefit from knowing more about our freshwater systems, and how we can change our behaviour and practices to use water wisely and reduce the impacts of activities on water quality.

Many communities are already involved in successful programmes to restore waterways, improve riparian margins and reduce contamination of waterways.

Accurate and accessible science is essential to the effective management of our water resources. Smaller councils can struggle to fund the necessary scientific research or to learn about and apply research that has already been undertaken.

We want to partner with agencies and providers to identify information gaps and ensure freshwater science and research funding is aligned with the needs of end users.

Developing effective solutions, underpinned by sound science, to manage the effects of run-off into waterways from urban and rural land use activities is going to be one of the key challenges.

The second national outcome is addressing the undesirable effects of land use on water quality

We want to tackle the water quality issues that Mr Anderton talked about earlier. Around the country a mix of solutions in rural and urban areas are being trialled.

For example:

• voluntary sector-led agreements such as the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord between Fonterra and central and local government to change land practices
• the innovative ‘cap and trade’ approach to safeguard and improve the water quality of Lake Taupo
• on-farm management plans to reduce the level of nutrients entering water bodies, and
• grass-roots programmes to plant riparian margins and restore waterways

A mix of tools and approaches is necessary to suit different situations, but we must start by acknowledging that water quality in many of our lowland streams is reaching unacceptable levels.

Concern for the environment has become a shared and common value among all New Zealanders, so protecting and enhancing our environment is a priority for this Labour-led government. Ordinary New Zealanders are asking us to take a role in improving poor water quality.

That is why we have proposed consideration of options for a national policy statement for water quality.

National policy statements would set national outcomes and goals for water quality but still leave room for a mix of tools and solutions to tackle the issues around water quality.

We’re also going to develop targets for land uses that impact on water quality. A national policy statement for water quality could work in parallel with voluntary mechanisms, such as new or strengthened partnerships and advisory programmes.

So we’re proposing that industry sectors, in partnership with government, be encouraged to develop voluntary targets for land management activities that impact on water quality.
We’re also getting on the “front-foot” when it comes to identifying at-risk and sensitive catchments under pressure from urban and rural run-off and leaching of contaminants.

We want to assess the need for early action. In many cases, at-risk water bodies will already be well managed by the local council and we need only endorse their actions.

The third national outcome is managing increasing demands for water.

Allocating water is becoming increasingly challenging in some parts of the country. We know that in regions such as Canterbury, Marlborough, Tasman District and Hawke’s Bay, councils are grappling with increasing demands for water with some catchments reaching full-allocation.

We need strong and reliable frameworks to guide decision-making for water, as well as some flexibility in how water can be re-allocated.

We’re proposing a number of approaches including national direction and tools to assist local decision-making.

This programme aims to ensure there is enough water available to provide for growing communities and regions.

We propose to scope and draft a national policy statement to provide guidance on uses and values for water. We need to ensure that all regions are able to provide for environmental, cultural and social values as well as other use values.

This is a challenge that we have recently seen in the Waitaki catchment, where there are a number of competing interests for the same water. There are other parts of the country where similar issues are on the horizon including the Waikato and Marlborough.

In moving forward as a nation we must balance competing interests.

We have to act now to ensure that we have effective frameworks in place to cope with growing demands for water from many sectors including agriculture, hydroelectricity and tourism.

We’re also going to scope and draft a national environmental standard for setting environmental flows and improve methodologies for applying environmental flows to water bodies.

Allocation frameworks need to include protection of environmental values for all water bodies – including surface and groundwater.

We want to change the thinking from setting minimum flows to setting environmental flows, to take into account the range of environmental and ecological values associated with water bodies.

Improved transparency is one of the obvious benefits of setting clearly specified environmental flows. The amount of water left over being what is available to be allocated to other uses and values.

Most regional councils already set minimum flows for water bodies where there is high demand. But a more comprehensive approach to the way we set flows is desirable.

Nationwide, the methods used are variable, can be contentious and are often challenged in the Environment Court.

So, we are going to provide more consistency and reduce conflict by drafting a national environmental standard on methods for setting environmental flows.

Better information about how much water is used and how much is available is an important aspect of effectively managing water resources.

At the moment we have inconsistent and variable information about the volumes of water actually used and this has an impact on good decision-making. This is why we’re going to scope and draft a national environmental standard for water measuring devices.

The standard would concentrate on measuring water take and use at the point of intake from a river, stream, lake, or artesian source rather than measuring household use.

We’re also going to explore additional opportunities for smart management of water.

Current and emerging practices for transferring resource consents and the role of water user groups in managing water consents will be investigated.

Recommendations will be made to Cabinet on the best ways for enhancing transfer of consents. This will help us make best use of the water that is available.

Managing fully allocated, and in some cases probably over-allocated catchments, is a challenge that some regions, including Canterbury, are facing.

We must develop methods for managing over-allocated catchments.

As well as looking at how existing tools can be used in their current form, such as transfer of resource consents, we need to explore in more detail whether the current ways of addressing over-allocation of water resources need extending.

We will consider alternatives to the ‘first-in, first-served’ allocation system used by councils, and other ways to re-allocate resource consents. An example of this might be the ‘cap and trade’ approach used for Lake Taupo to reduce contamination of the lake.

We’re also going to explore with regional councils current and alternative methods for recovering costs for water management.

Currently under the Resource Management Act councils can charge for water management activities – such as investigations, resource monitoring, and compliance with resource consent conditions.

We want to look at whether current charging under the Resource Management Act accurately reflects the costs of managing a water resource.

We will also consider whether the proportion currently paid by those who hold resource consents is appropriate.

The government is also going to provide more support to the resource consent process by working with councils to develop model resource consents and consent conditions for water.

At the moment resource consents and their conditions are written in different ways by each council. There is value in developing a model that all councils can use to ensure their consents are clear and consent conditions are enforceable.

We need to be more strategic in the way we manage our water bodies of national outstanding natural value.

Currently we have no nationwide prioritised approach to determining nationally outstanding natural water bodies.

We want to have one process that identifies a concise list of these water bodies.

Once a list of nationally outstanding natural water bodies has been developed there’s a range of options we can consider for their protection including water conservation orders, national policy statements and specific legislation.

As well as identifying a concise list of nationally outstanding natural water bodies, we need to ensure that the natural values of all other waterways are considered in Resource Management Act planning processes.

We will be working with local government, science providers and the Department of Conservation, to develop improved methods for identifying and protecting natural character and biodiversity values.

Looking after our native species and their freshwater habitats is an important part of the programme.

So what happens now?

We are getting the Leadership Group I mentioned earlier, up and running. We’re finalising terms of reference for the Group and we will shortly be announcing its membership.

We’ve got some tight time frames to work within, such as the delivery of the new tools I have talked about by March next year.

We will be looking for the active cooperation of organisations and industry sectors with an interest in water, to help us with tool development.

And the public will have their say on the content of any national policy statements or national environmental standards, if it is decided these are the way to go.

Regular updates on the programme will be provided. I have asked officials to include the latest available information on the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry websites.

As my colleague has already stated, we have looked long and hard at these issues and for the first time we have a national approach to the management of our freshwater.

This is a huge step forward. Now we need to make it work.

We all have a role to play in making this new approach successful.

Ultimately we want future generations to be able to use and enjoy our water and waterways – and do so in a more responsible and sustainable way than we do now.

Working together, we can achieve that goal.

Thank you for your patience.

It’s ironic that a presentation on such matters should be on a pretty dry morning!

I look forward to your feedback.