Perceptions of the environment What New Zealanders think A Colmar Brunton research report for Fish and Game NZ December 2018

As a results we included two questions on Colmar Brunton’s omnijet. Methodoloy In 2018 Fish and Game NZ commissioned Colmar Brunton to ask some questions of the New Zealand public about their perceptions of the environment. The survey follows a similar one conducted by Colmar Brunton for Fish & Game NZ in 2017. As a results we included two questions on Colmar Brunton’s omnijet. One of them was a new question to help understand New Zealanders appetite for mandatory environmental standards for NZ waterways. Colmar Brunton’s omnijet interviews 1,000 New Zealanders and the results are nationally representative for age, gender and region. Fieldwork ran from 5 – 12 December. The margin of error on a sample size of 1,000 is +3.1%.

Eight out of 10 people think mandatory environmental standards should be introduced for NZ waterways. People over 60 years old, who are married or living with a partner are more likely to say no to mandatory environmental standards. Single people who are divorced or separated and living in a house on their own are more likely to say yes to mandatory environmental standards. Q2. Environmental organisations such as Fish and Game and Greenpeace are lobbying the government for mandatory environmental standards for NZ waterways, which will impact on the Dairy Industry. Mandatory environmental standards would mean regulating intensive farming practices. As a result there would be less contaminants in our waterways, but dairy farmers would likely have to change how they farm. Do you think that mandatory environmental standards should be introduced in NZ? Base: All people n=1,000

This result is higher among people who are extremely or very concerned about the pollution of lakes and rivers, nine out of ten people who are concerned about waterway pollution think there should be mandatory environmental standards. Q2. Environmental organisations such as Fish and Game and Greenpeace are lobbying the government for mandatory environmental standards for NZ waterways, which will impact on the Dairy Industry. Mandatory environmental standards would mean regulating intensive farming practices. As a result there would be less contaminants in our waterways, but dairy farmers would likely have to change how they farm. Do you think that mandatory environmental standards should be introduced in NZ? Base: All people who are extremely or very concerned about the pollution of lakes and rivers n=811