Addressing the Otago Fish and Game Council meeting in Dunedin, Dr Norman outlined the party's recently-released policy on "cleaning up New Zealand rivers".
The policy plan proposes setting national standards for clean water, introducing a "fair charge" for irrigation water and supporting water clean-up initiatives.
Council member Dave Witherow emphasised the significance of conservation orders and asked if Dr Norman could further promote and support them.
Dr Norman said conservation orders were not as well known as they should be but were "fundamental mechanisms" in river conservation.
"They're the national parks of our rivers."
If such orders were effectively like "national parks", any attempts to adversely alter them were akin to earlier moves to consider mining in national parks, he said.
Suggestions the Government was considering weakening a water conservation order on the Rakaia River in Canterbury were of great concern, because such orders played a "crucial" role in protecting the nationally outstanding values of some rivers, Dr Norman said.
Approached for comment, Otago Fish and Game Council chief executive Niall Watson said it had sometimes been suggested that conservation orders could eventually be replaced through other mechanisms, such as regional council environmental management plans.
However, the orders continued to play a vital role, including in protecting the Kawarau River, near Queenstown, he said.
