Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for Oceans and Fisheries): Section 9(c) of the Fisheries Act sets out the environmental principles of the Fisheries Act. That principle informs decisions made under other parts of the Act, but habitat protection does not occur under section 9(c). So the answer is that under section 9(c) of the Fisheries Act, none has occurred nor could be.
Hon Eugenie Sage: Does he think that it’s acceptable that under successive Governments, Fisheries New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries have failed to use one of the three key environmental principles in its legislation, which is about identifying areas of significance for fisheries?
Hon DAVID PARKER: I am expecting commentary on that particular issue to be released following the release of the Chief Science Advisor’s report, which I think will be helpful and is likely to suggest further reliance on habitat protection measures that can be enabled under the Fisheries Act that haven’t been.
Hon Eugenie Sage: Has the Minister asked Fisheries New Zealand to consider using section 9(c) of the Fisheries Act to protect seamounts from the impacts of bottom trawling, due to their significance for aggregations of fish such as orange roughy, for fish spawning, and for biodiversity; and, if not, would he consider making such a request?
Hon DAVID PARKER: I will be considering the Chief Science Advisor’s advice, which I think will impact upon issues such as the one that the member has raised.
Hon Eugenie Sage: Does he agree with the statement of NIWA’s Dr Malcolm Clark, about bottom trawling, that it may take "multiple decades or even centuries for a seamount community in the deep sea to recover, and hence management really has got to focus on protecting the unimpacted areas"?
Hon DAVID PARKER: I agree that forms of bottom trawling can cause damage to habitat and that that needs to be minimised.
Hon Eugenie Sage: When he said in this House last December, "We need to do better in respect of bottom trawling", when does he expect to be able to do better?
Hon DAVID PARKER: We’re working hard on advancing those issues, not just through the advice from the Chief Science Advisor but also looking at technological solutions to improve or reduce the impacts of bottom trawling.
Question No. 8—Education
8. WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour—Northland) to the Associate Minister of Education: What initiatives has the Government recently announced to remove barriers to participating in education for young people in schools?
Hon JAN TINETTI (Associate Minister of Education): Recently, I was proud to announce, alongside the Prime Minister, that from June this year, all primary, intermediate, secondary school, and kura students will have access to free period products. Young people should not miss out on their education because of something that is a normal part of life for half of the population. Young people have told us that having a period has caused them to either miss school or not participate because of barriers such as feeling embarrassed or the cost of products. We are removing these barriers by offering free products in all New Zealand schools.
Willow-Jean Prime: What did we learn from stage one of the pilot programme for free products?
Hon JAN TINETTI: Phase one of the period products initiative involved a pilot programme with 15 schools in the Waikato region: 3,200 students have so far received free period products. We learnt that choice in the types of period products made available and the way they access them is important to young people. Yesterday, I heard from a group of high school - aged young women that prior to the period product initiative, periods in their school were stigmatised. The initiative has encouraged more open
