Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

Our logging export is one of the biggest industries in New Zealand. In fact, high stacks of logs can be seen from the roadside when driving down Hewlett's Road.

Some 5.5 million tonnes of logs were processed at our port last year, which includes the treatment of logs before they are shipped to countries like China and India for further processing.

At different times, one can see rows of logs covered with tarpaulin. The tarpaulin is there to hold methyl bromide under the covers to kill off insects, so when the logs are shipped to other countries for processing, they are pest free.

But while we are trying to meet the fumigation standards of other countries, we are using this toxic poison and polluting our own environment.

All over New Zealand today, we are using around 600 tonnes of methyl bromide annually. Yet in other countries, methyl bromide is banned. Colourless and odourless, it is toxic - a silent assassin.

Exposure to its high quantities can cause lung damage, affect the nervous system, and it depletes the ozone layer.

I am aware that other options are being considered that can do the same job, meet the export requirements and won't harm us or the environment, which is a step in the right direction.

Options discussed are debarking, promoting phosphine log treatment and looking for ways to effectively recapture and dispose of the gas. We need to do this for many more generations to come as well as our own. We no longer can accept that this is the only way forward.