Blumsky Mark: Climate Change Response Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Blumsky Mark: Climate Change Response Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6406] 
MARK BLUMSKY (National) 
: 
 It is nice to have a chance to participate in this third reading. As I indicated the other day when I spoke during the Committee stage when members speak on areas that were not part of the select committee process that one has been involved in one learns a lot of things one did not know. I suggest that I now know a lot more about forestry and its importance in the whole climate change debate and very much understand the power of forestry as an effective method for sequestering carbon. I did not realise the power of a tree in regard to cleaning up the air. 
When I look at what this Climate Change Response Amendment Bill is trying to do I can say only that we have to support it. What we are doing is putting in a mechanism that encourages and supports forest growth. It provides an opportunity for people to plant forests because it will make a heck of a lot more sense to them to do so. 
The thing that surprised me when I looked at this bill was that I did not realise that originally National did not support it. In reading the report back from the Commerce Committee I noted that Opposition members opposed this bill on the grounds that New Zealand should not be implementing the Kyoto Protocol ahead of our major trading partners. I know that the Minister took great delight the other day in trying to suggest that we were doing a major flip-flop. That is not the case at all. We were very clear in our minds way back then that Kyoto was not delivering what it should and that the fact that New Zealand would be writing a cheque for hundreds of millions of dollars for maybe the Russian mafia was a disgrace. On that reason alone we opposed the bill; it was not that we wanted to discourage the planting of forestry to clean up the air. 
 We need to make sure we protect the green image of New Zealand. We need to lower our emissions. We absolutely need to keep the whole image of New Zealand being 100 pure on the world scale. What we do will not make a hell of a difference at the end of the day to be perfectly honest; a heck of a lot bigger players on the world market such as China are making a bigger mess than we ever could. But is it not nice to stand tall? Is it not nice to show that hey we can make a wee difference we can be leaders and we can talk positively about where we are going? 
In talking leadership I take this chance to congratulate Nick Smith on his leadership in setting the agenda on this issue through  
A Bluegreen Vision for New Zealand 
 which he introduced the other day. It is a 30-page comprehensive document on the way forward. It was because of his leadership that the Prime Minister decided she had better try to pick up on this issue which she did at the Labour Party conference the other day when she started talking up climate change. That was in response to the work done by Nick Smith and his leadership. The National Party filled the vacuum that had been very much left by the Labour-led Government. When Peter Neilson a former Labour Cabinet Minister who is now the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development says that Nick Smith’s blue-green vision for New Zealand is the most comprehensive environment plan for New Zealand to be produced by any political party in over a decade one has to say that Nick Smith is setting the agenda and leading the country down a path it has to go down. Hence the desire of the Prime Minister to suddenly step up take notice and talk about what she calls the climate change crisis requiring comprehensive strategies. Here we are today talking about a bill that was referred to the Commerce Committee in May 2005. How much for urgency Prime Minister? 
So not to prolong the debate I just say I am proud to stand here and say that National members are supporting this bill. This will make a difference. It is part 1 of a many many faceted I am sure strategic plan and delivery to make sure we keep New Zealand clean show some significant leadership and make a difference. 
Bill read a third time.