Williams Andrew: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6461. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. Once again New Zealand First reasserts that we oppose any emissions trading scheme of any nature. We know that any such schemes are just basically Ponzi schemes around the world for others to make money at New Zealand’s expense: at the expense of our corporations at the expense of our companies at the expense of our taxpayers and at the expense of the people—the men women and children—of New Zealand. Emissions trading schemes are all about other people getting rich from our money. New Zealand First does not support that. We do not want to see people in Chicago New York Frankfurt London and other places making money out of good taxes that are paid in New Zealand. 
What New Zealand First wants to see is proper attention to pollution and emissions within New Zealand and sorting out our own emissions problems within New Zealand and sorting out our own pollution problems within New Zealand. If some of the money that was being taken in terms of all these carbon credits and all these various other levies was actually applied here in New Zealand we certainly would see a far better outcome for our country for our companies and for our people rather than paying to some offshore scheme that has gone from over $25 per unit and is now scraping the barrel at something like $1 per unit for the carbon credit taxes. 
It is just shocking that New Zealand even got involved in such a scheme. I could see that many years ago. I could see this 4 or 5 years ago when we were first negotiating these things and I thought goodness gracious me we are going down this track again getting involved in some Ponzi global scheme to appease other people sitting in other countries. It started at $25 and lo and behold earlier this year it had dropped to $10 then it dropped to $5 and in recent weeks we are hearing it is trading as low as $1. Basically what a waste of time the whole scheme is. 
This serves to turn environmental protection into a carbon credit bank to make environmentalism a speculative business. It is issuing tradable credits and it is verging on a Ponzi scheme to give good money from some to pay for the wrongs of others. There are much better mechanisms for New Zealand than uncontrollable financial machinations such as emissions trading schemes. This will cost New Zealand more than $2 billion. An emissions trading scheme will cost New Zealand more than $2 billion—$2 billion that this country simply cannot afford. These funds should be retained in New Zealand in order to provide better funds to tackle our own pollution problems and emission problems here in this country and help to keep New Zealand “100% Pure New Zealand”. 
We should not be paying for somebody in China or India or some other country who is a bad polluter to get payments to rectify their problems. As we have seen so many times in the world figures New Zealand has something like 0.001 percent of total emissions in the world. Our total emissions in 1 year are less than 1 day of emissions in China. What impact would a little place like New Zealand have in that global environment when China in 1 day can produce more than we do in a whole year? Yet it is the likes of China India and other countries that will benefit from this scheme because they will receive the payments to try to reduce their pollution. So we are paying for other countries and other organisations to get rich while we—our taxpayers—get poorer. 
It is disturbing that we are ignoring things. Here in New Zealand I have written to the Associate Minister of Transport asking about emissions in terms of diesel emissions in our trucks and our buses. We have buses that go back as far as Euro 1 buses and Euro 2 buses and trucks as well that are still pouring a lot of diesel out here in this country yet we are not addressing issues such as that. There are technologies available to address our own emissions in this country but we ignore that. Letters that I have written to the Associate Minister basically come up with no solutions at all yet we pay into an emissions trading scheme. 
I would far rather see some of our good money going into sorting this out—and perhaps some of our older trucks our older fleet and our older buses being retrofitted to reduce our own emissions and our own pollution and our own pollution in the likes of Lambton Quay Queen Street or around Christchurch from our buses and trucks—than be paying into some scheme where some guy in New York or Chicago or London is going to get rich from our taxes. 
The emissions trading scheme does not decrease emissions; it just trades them and moves them around the economies that can afford to buy carbon credits. The emissions trading scheme was devised by this Government and it is unsustainable. It is nothing more than another tax on the people and production of New Zealand. New Zealand First is about proper solutions to solve our problems here within our country and not helping people in international markets to get richer. New Zealand First opposes this bill or any other bill that proposes any form of emissions trading scheme.