Ardern Shane: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Ardern Shane: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11315] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the National Party in opposition to Part 1 of this bill and I do so for a number of reasons. The first reason is a philosophical one and that is that this Prime Minister of this Government who now knows her days are numbered has travelled overseas at the taxpayers’ expense all around the world standing on stages from one country to another and promoting herself in her next job whatever that may be. Most likely it will involve some kind of climate change United Nations tree-hugging green-type peace-leading type structure. I do not know what it will be but I am certain it will be something. 
In Part 1 of this bill it is all spelt out. What we have is members of a Government who went over to the other side of the world and ratified the Kyoto Protocol ahead of all of our trading partners. They then came scurrying back to New Zealand and tried to get some legislative framework around the idiotic position that they have taken and it is in Part 1 of this bill. 
What we have here in Part 1 is a definition of renewable energy sources. The select committee agonised over this. There were bits struck out bits put in new unanimous bits put in and some bits that had minority reports to them. So clearly there was a huge amount of debate around that. The end result is that we now have legislation that can only cause huge uncertainty in local authorities. 
It is good to see the Minister of Local Government here because I am sure there will be some questions for him about what various bits of this part actually mean. I am sure the Minister will be able to answer completely without any confusion at all so that all the local authorities out there understand. 
I will start with this quote from Clause 4: “renewable energy means energy produced from solar wind hydro geothermal biomass tidal wave and ocean current sources”. I am sure the local authorities will know exactly what all that means. But the Minister may also be able to answer as to which one of those is renewable and which one he believes may be questionable. There was a huge debate about geothermal because it could be the same as coal. It could be something we are mining from the earth that one cannot replace. Then on the other hand it could be something that goes on and on for ever. Who actually knows? 
Where were the science papers—I am sure the Minister or his advisers will have them—that state that that is renewable and energy sources such as coal are not? It stands to reason and is logical that if one digs something out of the ground such as coal and burns it and turns it into a different form well then it cannot be renewable. It does not come back. But is that not what one does with geothermal power? That is the first question. 
There are a range of other questions and here is one that the Minister I am sure will be right up to speed on. Why was it that the recommendations in the Owen McShane report when it came to reforming the Resource Management Act to bring clarity around some of these issues were not upheld? Why was it that the Minister for the Environment looked at the Owen McShane report at the beginning of the new Labour Government and said that none of this was for them and she would put a red pen through the whole lot? She was not going to have any of it. The Government was not going to reform the Resource Management Act so that it would take notice of some of those issues at that time. The report was put through two select committees chaired by Jeanette Fitzsimons and came back with no recommendation to bring about those changes that were recommended all that time ago. Now that is a question I am sure the Minister should be able to answer. Nobody else in New Zealand knows the answer to that but I am sure the Minister does. 
Then of course one gets to the crux of the whole thing which is greenhouse gas emissions and of course there has been a lot of debate about that. We have had the debate about the “fart tax” which of course was supposedly a greenhouse tax. 
Brian Connell 
: That was a U-turn! 
SHANE ARDERN 
: That was a major U-turn unlike the ones that have been made recently the ones on schools and the foreshore. It was a major U-turn and the beginning of the U-turns.