Good morning and welcome to the launch of the Dairying and Clean Streams: Snapshot of Progress for 2007/08. I would like to acknowledge my colleague Environment Minister Nick Smith, as well as Barry Harris from Fonterra, and Stephen Cairns from Local Government New Zealand.

This is the first Snapshot of Progress report to be published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which has recently taken over responsibility from the Ministry for the Environment. It is the fifth report to be published for the Accord.

When it was launched back in 2003, the Accord was a welcome initiative. Farmers are implicitly connected with their land. Their land is also their business and they are motivated to take care of, and preserve their number one asset. For this reason they are constantly trialling new and better ways of doing things.

Five years down the track, the Accord is still one of the key indicators of the desire in the dairy industry to improve water quality.

The Accord results reveal three of the targets are well on track for 2012. These include: exclusion of stock from waterways; bridging and culverting; and adopting nutrient budgets. Today I congratulate the dairy farmers of New Zealand on these results and welcome the progress made by the dairy industry in cleaning up rivers and streams on dairy farms.

But I also want to use this opportunity to send a strong message to farmers who refuse to toe the line.

The small number of dairy farmers who ignore effluent disposal requirements are damaging the reputation of the dairy industry as a whole.

The voluntary nature of the Accord gives no dairy farmer the right to ignore it. It is simply unacceptable to pollute. Not only does it antagonise environmental organisations but also wider New Zealand. More importantly, it risks the hard-gained reputation that New Zealand Inc. has established in our international markets.

Dairy farmers must take a greater personal responsibility to comply with the effluent discharge regulations set out in resource consents and regional plans.

I am expecting an improvement in the progress on this target because clean fresh water is of intrinsic value to farmers; we can't do business without it.

The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord has a key role to play but it can't expect to solve all the issues around water quality. It is not a silver bullet. It is through a range of initiatives, some voluntary, others regulatory, that a real difference will be made.

Other work needs to take place to address water quality issues specific to various regions. Happily, this is taking place. Taranaki for example is focusing on riparian planting. Less well known initiatives include individual river and catchment studies, dairy focus farms, water forums, dairy waterway protection programmes, and resource care groups, all undertaken by regional councils.

Central government is doing its part too. The Government has signalled its commitment to develop better water allocation and management policies, and initiatives to help farmers reduce their impact on the environment are being developed. This will be part of the Stage Two RMA reforms.

The future of the Accord is, I believe, a bright one. I am confident of its success because nowadays being good for the environment is good for business, and farmers take their businesses very seriously. Sound environmental practices are paramount. New Zealanders will not accept anything less.