Cosgrove Clayton: Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:7979. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 Thank you for that technical briefing Mr Chairperson. Some of us were wondering whether baked beans had perhaps been on the menu this morning! I make one observation about the Minister for Climate Change Issues the Hon Dr Nick Smith. We have now reached the point in this debate where that Minister will say absolutely anything. I was astounded by his last contribution. He effectively tried to make a case that New Zealand should show international leadership should be out there and be one of the first to have an implemented emissions trading scheme should lead the world and should do the right thing. I think he asked how we can expect others to do the right thing—and I paraphrase—if we are not prepared to step up to the plate. 
I am not allowed to use the “h” word but I say to that Minister that he is full of it. When it comes to the “h” word I say that he is the archetypal definer of that word. In Opposition that member stood up and lambasted the then Labour Government for showing international leadership and for saying we should be out there leading. As we said we cannot expect others to follow us if we are not prepared to step up to the plate and to put this scheme in place. It was that member who is now the Minister who led the charge every day saying exactly the opposite. He nods his head because he knows he is the parliamentary definition of the “h” word. He will say anything now absolutely anything. 
Hekia Parata 
: Keep calling him a hero! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: No the word is not “hero”; I am not allowed to use the unparliamentary word. What it is about for Hekia Parata is having a different position in Opposition when it lambasted the then Government. The Minister when in Opposition asked why New Zealand should be first why New Zealand should show leadership why we should be ahead of our trading partners why we should not wait for the United States and others and the big polluters and why we should not wait until the large contributors in terms of pollution have got their acts together before we do anything. Yet today I say to Hekia Parata the Minister stands up and says exactly the opposite. 
The Minister has no credibility at all. Nick Smith as Minister for ACC cannot find any money for accident compensation. His Government cannot find any money for superannuation or for real training for the unemployed. It cannot find any more money for health. It tells teachers that there will be no money next year. But when it comes to a little deal in the back of a darkened room with the Maori Party—a very slippery deal that has never been put under scrutiny and that opens a can of worms around the whole Treaty debate—then oh it is all OK! A Treaty clause that was done in 18 minutes or with 18 minutes to go is OK! I say to that member that he is a disgrace as a Minister. 
I thought that even Nick Smith would not have the gall to get up and say exactly the opposite of what he said not a year ago when Labour’s emissions trading scheme was going through. He lambasted us for it. He said we should not show leadership. He said we should stay behind and do nothing until the great polluters—the United States and the European countries—had got their act together and today he stands up and says the opposite. He makes the case that his Government is showing leadership. It is appropriate he says that his Government is out there as the No. 1 or No. 2 country to put together an emissions trading scheme. I ask the Minister Nick Smith how on earth he can exhibit such gall. 
The Minister grins away in his boyish way. Does he not realise that these things are recorded in  
Hansard 
 and that editorial writers and journalists actually listen and report what he says? Does he not realise that embassies around the world and ambassadors in preparation for Copenhagen take note of what happens in this place and what Ministers say in this place? There will be Governments ambassadors and international officials around the world who are laughing at that Minister. No they will probably not be laughing; they will be shaking their heads in dismay as we proceed to an international conference that will deal with possibly one of the most important issues of our time and of our generation. That Minister will get up and try to be credible at an international conference. Does he not know that ambassadors and his ministerial equivalents around the world will have read what he said a year ago and will have made file notes to their capitals? As he said we are the first or second country possibly that will do this and some of the eyes of the world look at what happens in this place around this issue.