Nash StuartSTUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Labour will be supporting this bill to select committee. I do believe that there are some great initiatives in here but I am very keen to hear what the public has to say about this. One thing that I think the Government could really do to drive innovation is actually lead by example. It would have been a couple of months ago that Mr Bridges as the Minister was on television—it was actually a great photo and news opportunity—promoting the registration of the 1000th electric vehicle. It was a great piece of news because we need to encourage this but the interesting thing about this is that Mr Bridges turned up to this photo opportunity in this huge big diesel BMW got out had the photo taken cut the ribbon jumped back in this huge big diesel BMW and drove back to Parliament. I would have thought that the best way to really provide innovation and the greatest way to show that the Government is serious about this—certainly when it comes to electric vehicles—is to at least have the Minister of Energy and Resources driven around in an electric vehicle. I would have thought that the Crown fleet should all be electric vehicles and there is absolutely no reason why it should not be. In fact I was talking to a gentleman who knows Elon Musk very well. Elon Musk is the chap who invented and owns Tesla Motors. These are incredibly efficient cars they are very fast cars—they are actually very sexy cars—and they are fantastic cars. I was talking to this gentleman about the fact that the Government talks about electric vehicles and drives these diesels and I said half-jokingly but half-seriously: You know what? The Crown fleet should be Teslas." And this chap said: "Well I reckon that if the Crown went to Elon Musk and said that it wanted to replace its fleet with a fleet of electric Teslas Elon Musk would be up for it." He said: "I can't speak on behalf of him but imagine picking up global dignitaries at the airport in a Tesla—in fully electric vehicles."David Bennett: How much do they cost?STUART NASH: Mr Bennett that is leading by example—that is leading by example. Bringing a piece of legislation to the House is all very well and I like the intent behind it but the Government has a very important role to play in driving innovation in the sector. I do not know what the future is going to look like in this but what I do know is that change is happening very quickly. What I also know is that the world of electricity is going to look incredibly different in 10 years' time to how it does now. We need to be on top of this. So I think I would stand up and applaud the Minister if he had given that speech and he drove around—he could say "I drive an electric vehicle." but he cannot. He stands up and gives a speech about the importance of electric vehicles yet he does not drive one. He stands up and says it is important that the Government is in charge of innovation and yet it does not innovate. The Government fleet according to the Parliamentary Library is around about 17000 vehicles give or take a few. Imagine if the Government had a policy where it said it was going to have an opt-out policy as opposed to an opt-in policy around every car in the Government fleet being electric. Let us make an assumption that there are 15000 Crown cars in the fleet that have the potential to be electric. Let us also make an assumption that they are on three by 1-year leases which is your stock standard corporate Government lease. Let us make one more assumption that they have a life span of around about 5 years after their 3 years of Government lease. If the Government led by example in this area there could be 40000 electric vehicles on our roads simply through Government behaviour—simply through the Government doing the right thing—and yet it does not or it will not. That is why I find it quite rich that the Minister of Energy and Resources can stand up here and talk about what those members are going to do with electric vehicles and yet they do not use them. That is a real shame. I think they actually should. I think the Government should be really driving innovation—pardon the pun—in this sector. This plays into actually our global brand. We go out there with this "clean green" image and yet Sir Paul Callaghan himself once said: "We believe that we have a clean economy and a clean green image and do not see the lack of honesty which surrounds this branding. We are merely a small population spread over a large area which provides an impression of clean and green." David Bennett: Like your fire truck.STUART NASH: This is where the Government needs to play a role. This is where the Government can make a difference Mr Bennett and yet it will not. Having said that this legislation is a step in the right direction—a small one when it could take a giant one—but it is a small step. When the Minister again talks about what the Government is doing and the way it is innovating I just go back to the facts. There is something called the World Energy Council. It is a highly renowned body and the Minister often quotes the World Energy Council. It has something called the Energy Trilemma Index. Over the last 3 years in terms of energy equity—that is basically the affordability of electricity for the whole population—we have dropped from 18th in the world to 28th. In terms of environmental sustainability we have dropped from 36th to 42nd. We are not doing what is necessary to play into our global brand which is in essence our global competitive advantage. It is why people overseas buy Fonterra milk and Fonterra cheese as opposed to milk and cheese from other countries around the world. The image that goes with our brand is worth—well in 2005 the then Ministry for Economic Development valued our brand at $20 billion a year and that was over 10 years ago. The one thing that this Government has not done enough of is work incredibly hard to enhance that brand to play into our globally competitive advantage but that is why we are supporting this bill because it is a start—it is a start. I mean if we can allow electric vehicles to drive down bus lanes well so be it. There are a thousand electric vehicles; there should be ten thousand. The Minister talked about Norway. Every taxi in Norway is a Tesla. This is the sort of stuff that the Government should really be doing to drive innovation in the sector. When I read that the bill is designed to expand the mandate of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) I have no problem with that because I think EECA has done a pretty good job so far in looking at ways to drive energy efficiency but what cannot happen is for EECA to become too diverse or too wide in its mandate but not be given the resources to do a really good job. My personal view is that EECA dropped the ball when it did not provide a submission on the Government's proposed transmission pricing methodology. Let me tell you one area where innovation really is driven in an era that has great concerns about the change this Government is making. It is called the Independent Electricity Generators Association. This association represents about 40 small businesses that own electricity-generation plants connected to the local distribution network. This brings diversity to local sources of energy. It drives innovation and yet this sector is very concerned about the changes that the Government is bringing into the sector. But this is a sector where innovation occurs and this is a sector we actually need to be providing a level of regulatory support for not undermining it in a way that could in effect stifle innovation. There is no doubt that this is a very innovative sector and there is no doubt that in some areas we drive where we are at the top of our game. In terms of electricity generation we are second behind Norway. We do very well there. We could do better. In transportation though—and I have no doubt my colleague Dr Megan Woods will talk about this. About 54 percent of our greenhouse gases come from our transport sector. Anything that will drive innovation in that space is welcomed. There is no doubt about that. But I will just go back to my final point which I would like to have as the takeaway: the Government should be leading by example in this. This legislation is a case of "Do as I say; don't do as I do." The Minister would gain significant credibility not only with the Opposition but also with the general public whom he is trying to convince if he started driving a Crown car that was fully electric. That is a Government leading by example. Thank you very much."