Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Actions speak louder than words and future generations will look back on people who had positions of power and the ability to make decisions and judge us on whether we made the decisions that were going to result in a survivable climate or not. People here may not realise that right now. They may not be paying attention to the reality of what is happening out there with global sea-surface temperatures and global air temperatures and the impact on our ability to grow food the impact on food prices. But every year from now on it's going to become more and more evident and it's incumbent on us to make decisions for our kids and our grandkids. And those decisions need to be judged on whether or not they're having the impact that we know they need to have. What are the outcomes of our decisions?This Government has said they're committed to our climate targets and every action they take takes us in the opposite direction. Just like when they say they care about economic growth and productivity every action they're taking in the transport space will objectively not take us in the direction of economic productivity. So we have a Government who's completely out of touch with reality and the Green Party will stand here and continue to oppose legislation that is going to mean more emissions at a time when we know we cannot afford more emissions. It is that simple. We have to very rapidly reduce our use of fossil fuels to zero. That's what we have to do.These people have absolutely no clue how to do that and it's very clear in this legislation. We have the entire vehicle industry saying to us at select committee—and over 500 New Zealanders who had less than 36 hours to submit on this bill—saying they opposed the bill. We had a joint submission from the industry—the Motor Industry Association the AA Drive Electric the vehicle importers' association the Motor Trade Association the Better NZ Trust—making a compelling case and showing the numbers on why the specific proposal for the rates on electric vehicles in this bill penalises electric vehicles (EVs) relative to fossil fuel vehicles. They weren't saying that we should continue the exemption forever and the Green Party has not said that either. It is possible to ensure that electric vehicles are making a contribution towards the use of the roads without overcharging them which the industry has clearly stated.Supposedly this Government cares about fairness but clearly they don't because they're saying to people who purchased electric vehicles We're going to charge you twice what you would pay if you bought the hybrid equivalent which is a conventional fossil fuel vehicle." And the real outcome of that as we've heard from the industry and as would be evident to anyone who understood anything about economics is that over the next five years people will make different choices. They will import and purchase more brand new fossil-fuel vehicles instead of electric vehicles and that will emit more emissions on our roads for at least 20 years. So the practical consequence of this bill is more emissions more pollution contributing to greenhouse gases. And this Government had the opportunity if they listened to the industry to make a different decision to make a decision that would still have seen electric vehicles contributing to the cost of the roads but at a rate that would have been fairer.And the Minister says that he's committed to bringing in full road pricing irrespective of what the fuel is. Well I will take bet with any member of this House that we will not see that system brought in before the end of this term and over the next three to five years that is the critical moment which would have made a consequential difference to the vehicles coming in.So it's one small part. Obviously there's many many many other things that we can and must do in order to reduce emissions from our fleet. But this was one small thing that the Government could have done to import more electric vehicles into the country instead of more fossil fuel vehicles. And the reality is that we will be living with the consequences of this decision and every other decision they're making forever in the future. But for at least the next 20 years it will mean more emissions.And that's why the Green Party cannot support this bill. Now we would have been happy to support the bill if they had amended it in line with my proposed amendment which was recommended by a joint submission from the industry. We hear time and time again that supposedly these people listen to business and listen and respect the industry yet they don't. They don't. They haven't. They're completely ignoring what the industry is saying.A simple change which would have said that electric vehicles pay a rate of $60 per 1000 kilometres instead of the rate that is proposed here which is significantly more and will mean that EV drivers are paying more than fossil fuel drivers in comparable cars for the exact same journey. How is that fair? Well the point is it's not fair and it's just very clear from every action this Government takes that they don't believe in climate change they don't believe in taking action on climate change. All of their actions demonstrate they have not one single bit of commitment to taking action on climate change even when there are economic benefits for New Zealand in doing so. And every step we take to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels in our transport system is not only good for the climate and absolutely essential for future life on this planet but it actually saves New Zealand money. It improves our current account deficit.As if they cared. No no. We know what this Minister cares about. He's fighting those silly tribal culture wars as if it mattered. He wants to punish people who buy EVs. He wants to continue subsidising those who use fossil fuels. He wants to ensure that children cannot even walk to school safely by stopping the survivable speed limits around schools. He wants to stop every safe pedestrian crossing that is evidence-based in this country. Why? To save 15 seconds on the average car journey. That is a negligible amount that no one will notice. But he does it because he doesn't understand the incredible opportunity. And I'm sorry for him because here he could have been someone who not only delivered on his values of freedom economic productivity and a more beneficial productive lower-cost transport system for New Zealand; he could have done that in a way that also looked after the planet the planet that his kids live on and my kids live on.So as is evident the Green Party is not supporting the bill. We did contribute with the Labour Party to a constructive improvement on the bill in terms of reducing the rate for plug-in hybrids. And luckily the Government did make a mistake in the select committee which meant that that amendment got passed.Grant McCallum: No we supported it.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Yeah yeah yeah that is true. Members say they supported it. Of course the report says they didn't support it but that's OK. Look I'm glad they supported the lower rate for plug-in hybrids but they should have listened to the industry and had a lower rate for electric vehicles.And there's a lot of yelling from the other side of the House and I know I've been very animated. Look it's because the decisions that we make matter. The outcomes of those decisions matter. And if I went out there and asked any New Zealander if they think the Government should be making decisions that increase emissions and increase fossil fuel vehicles on our roads they would say no because most New Zealanders know about climate change. They want us to be pulling our weight and many of them would like to be able to access electric vehicles. But the Government is currently adopting policies that make it harder more expensive more difficult to do the right thing by the climate. They're going to make it harder to take public transport more expensive to take public transport more expensive to use EVs. They're going to probably try to completely kill our rail system. And for what? For what? To own the libs. Congratulations!"