This week the government progressed a range of legislation which will preserve New Zealand’s species and environments for generations to come. Or, which will incredibly not do so, if you were Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking, who had a busy Tuesday afternoon saving the planet. First up was the Conservation Amendment Bill, an innocuously-titled piece of legislation with a sweeping purpose — to modernise the management of conservation lands. In broad terms, this is something that most parties in the House can agree on. The Conservation Act is 40 years old and time has not been kind to some sections of it — it is well worth clearing out some of the weeds. But where the government and opposition part ways is what such a rewrite should set out to achieve. The government wants to both support economic growth and improve environmental outcomes: the opposition wants much more of the latter and stricter environmental protections to be in place if the former is a path to be pursued.…