Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Mr Chair. A brand-new line of questions for the Minister about the carbon dioxide accounts and if the Minister retains the date as proposed by the Hon Simeon Brown whether the carbon dioxide accounts are essentially ready to go. And these were questions that I raised with the Minister earlier in this debate and was also told by the Chair at the time Barbara Kuriger that the appropriate time to ask those questions would be later in the day. So I'm dutifully doing that now.So the carbon dioxide accounts just to explain this are provided for under Part 13. It's section 167C and the provisions that empower those are set out at paragraph (s) of that section. Those carbon dioxide accounts have currently been set up under the Minister's primary legislative powers which provide for the carbon dioxide accounts to essentially back a system which allows importers to trade credits between the low-emitting vehicles like a small (electric vehicle) EV that Toyota might import and use it to import other higher-emitting vehicles like a Toyota Hilux. And Toyota have one of these accounts and it's massively in credit because they're so good at importing small light EVs that actually offset things like their Hilux offerings. That's great. It's a system that's working.You've heard from my colleague the Hon David Parker that there are some policy choices that have been made in that situation. For example he raised a question with the Minister that wasn't answered about whether it was the correct policy of the Government to allow trading in those accounts. Say for example what's been reported on in the media where Toyota opined that it might be able to use the credits which it has built up because its profile of the vehicles which it imports are better than the current settings and be able to support those importers of small vehicles which are emitters. Because those aren't treated like a Hilux. If you've got something like a Suzuki Swift which is small and its weight class doesn't push it into the category where it would be able to emit more then it's sort of a product which is not doing so well out of the system as it's currently designed.There's a policy choice there which the Minister is open to make. And if she's not open to my amendment which would push the date out further then she needs to give us some assurance that those carbon dioxide accounts which exist now which has been set up under the current policy settings of the Government where a number of policy choices have been set out clearly in primary legislation—whether the systems enabling those are ready for a Minister making regulations which are not available and which are not known now. This is important for two sort of participants in the system. One is the industry participants because they hold these carbon dioxide accounts but one is the ministry behind it. And we want to know whether the ministry system which it has built to allow for the administration of those carbon dioxide accounts is set up in such a way that it would be ready to deal with a new set of regulation from day one that made different sets of policy choices. And the question there is is it appropriate that it would apply from 2024—that's this year—to essentially create a system that is not based on any of the policy choices which have been made earlier. These regulation powers in section 167C which have otherwise been set by primary legislation but will now be set out in regulation-making powers provide the choices like how minimum standards should be applied to the lightest cars how the maximum standards should be applied to the heaviest cars. If we tweak those then the carbon dioxide accounts' value changes the way that they are tradable might change and who holds them might change and so we need to hear from the Minister about whether those systems are ready to go and whether she is confident that 2024 is the appropriate date given the significant investment of the Government in that system which backs the carbon dioxide accounts.