10. Question No. 10—TransportARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 10—Transport10. ARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa) to the Minister of Transport: What recent reports has he seen about the Clean Car Discount?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): The Government's Clean Car Discount is going from strength to strength. Since the discount came into effect last year 117585 low-emissions vehicles including electric vehicles and hybrids have been registered in New Zealand—over 80000 in 2022 alone. Most months of this year over 40 percent of the incoming vehicles have been zero- and low-emissions vehicles making New Zealand one of the leading markets in the world for low-emissions vehicles. I have been pleased to see a range of reports demonstrating support for the Clean Car Discount including statements from the AA the Motor Industry Association Drive Electric and well-known Tesla owner Christopher Luxon.SPEAKER: I warned another Minister about this and now this Minister has done exactly the same thing. He doesn't have responsibility for the leader of the National Party. He should stop doing it. I award the National Party two extra questions.Hon David Parker: Point of order Mr Speaker. I don't understand how that is out of order. We are responsible for the political consequences of mistakes that we make in this House and to neuter the House so as not even to be able to make a reference to that which is correct in fact I don't think extends to Speakers' rulings as to what is out of order.Hon Todd McClay: The Speaker's not responsible for your understanding.SPEAKER: Yeah I can handle this by myself.Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Speaking to the point of order—SPEAKER: Nope. I've made my ruling. That's the end of it.Arena Williams: What benefits is the Clean Car Discount seeing provided to our country's greenhouse gas emissions?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: New Zealand is at the end of a very long supply chain and could easily become a dumping ground for the world's dirtiest vehicles. We know that transport makes up around 40 percent of New Zealand's total domestic emissions and the tens of thousands of low-emissions vehicles registered since the discount came into effect are helping to provide the transition of our vehicle fleet. It will prevent up to 9.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and will assist people with the upfront cost of switching over. Together the Clean Car Discount and the Clean Car Standard are working in tandem to help Kiwis get into low-emissions vehicles something Mr Bishop was once in favour of.Arena Williams: How are policies like the Clean Car Discount supporting Kiwis to manage their transport costs?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen fuel prices spike around the world leading to increased prices paid at the pump. The Government has moved quickly and decisively to provide short-term support for high energy bills and transport costs by introducing discounts on fuel excise duty and road-user charges and half-price public transport. The Clean Car Discount is complementing this work over the medium term by helping Kiwis switch to lower-emission vehicles which are often safer and cheaper to run than those powered by fossil fuels. And again Mr Muller who had something to say was once in favour of this policy as well.Arena Williams: What other work is the Government doing alongside the Clean Car Discount scheme to decarbonise the transport sector?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Over winter New Zealand has experienced the very real impacts of climate change playing out across rural New Zealand in real time with successive regions being smashed by extreme weather events repeatedly. The transport sector is New Zealand's biggest carbon dioxide emitter and if we are serious about limiting the impacts of climate change we must reduce emissions across transport. On this side of the House we do have a plan to reduce emissions and to transform and decarbonise our transport system across the Clean Car Discount across the Clean Car Standard across investing in public transport walking and cycling. We won't leave a carbon black hole like that lot would.Simeon Brown: Why has $41 million been paid to Tesla owners under the discount scheme and why is the Government taking farmers' utes to pay millionaires to buy Teslas with his reverse Robin Hood scheme?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Because getting New Zealanders into cleaner vehicles reduces our emissions. That was a policy position that was supported by his leader yesterday morning when he said We would keep the Clean Car Discount." However in the afternoon he switched his position to say "We don't support that but we want to keep the Clean Car Standard."—something that was then contradicted by that member in the evening. I back Mr Luxon over Mr Brown.Simeon Brown: Can he confirm that more than $7 million has been paid for other high-end cars like Audis Mercedes-Benz and even one Jaguar bringing the total to almost $50 million paid out for luxury cars under his reverse Robin Hood scheme?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: What I can confirm under the Clean Car Discount is that over 117000 low-emission vehicles have come into our country since that time. What I can confirm under the Clean Car Discount scheme is that electric vehicles have risen from 3 percent of imported vehicles in 2019 to around about 30 percent of imported vehicles month on month since the scheme has come into effect. And what I can also confirm is that there was once a time when some members of the National Party actually supported a transition to a cleaner fleet before they got taken over by that member and the other climate deniers who are currently running their policy."