Robertson Grant: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 23 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4727. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 That last speech came from Mr Bridges who I think is probably stronger when he is doing agricultural vehicles. I think he is probably stronger when he is talking about them. To finish his speech by talking about a fair system and a system that is going to help New Zealand’s reputation is unbelievable coming from that Minister. 
I want to start my contribution by referring to the climate change issues Minister’s announcement during his speech that the report-back date for this bill is to be 17 October—17 October. That is just how seriously the Government treats this issue and the views of New Zealanders and the people who will be affected by the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill—rush it through get it back here on 17 October and not have a proper select committee process a proper analysis a proper opportunity for New Zealanders to comment on this. The Government is doing that because the transitional period runs out—December is coming upon us—and there need to be decisions made. That is the fault of this Government. That is the fault of this Government for not getting this legislation to the House earlier to allow a proper process so that people can actually— 
Paul Goldsmith 
: So you want to take the farmers’ prices they’re paying do you? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: What is that sorry Mr Goldsmith? Oh! He suddenly is very quiet—suddenly very quiet. He is suddenly very quiet because he knows that it is taxpayers in New Zealand who bear the brunt of the fact that polluters are let off the hook. Yes right the good people of Epsom are sitting there today knowing that Mr Goldsmith is prepared to subsidise polluters to carry on damaging New Zealand’s reputation overseas and ultimately making New Zealand taxpayers pay and be responsible because the Government has mucked around and not put a bill in front of this House at the time that it should have. 
New Zealanders’ integrity on the issue of climate change and on our clean green image is built on the fact that we are prepared to do our bit and that we are prepared to stand up as a country for the environment. Our credibility on climate change comes from the fact that we have an all-sectors all-gases scheme. Step by step since this Government has come into office it has put that idea on the back-burner it has put that off and we now have an emissions trading scheme that as my colleague Moana Mackay has said we may as well not have under the conditions that this Government is creating. It is a market mechanism with 50 percent of the market not even showing up. It is a joke for this Government to even call this an emissions trading scheme when half the market is not even there to participate in it. 
But moreover there is the damage to our wider global brand. It is worth billions of dollars to New Zealand that we are seen as clean and green. We know that we can do better to meet the reality of that image in a number of sectors in a number of places in our country. But what we can definitely do globally is be able to say that we take our obligations seriously in the area of climate change. This Government is simply not doing that. What we have here is simply a delay into the never-never for two key elements of the emissions trading scheme. We have got the delay of the entry of agriculture. Let us be absolutely clear: this is not even a delay in the way that was recommended by the review panel. This is a delay indefinitely. There is no date set for the entry of agriculture into this scheme. So there goes the all-gases all-sectors scheme in one hit. There is no date for agriculture’s entry into this scheme. 
 As Moana Mackey said when subsidies were taken off agriculture in the 1980s it hurt rural New Zealand. It was an incredibly difficult time. The rural sector the agricultural sector responded by becoming the most efficient agricultural sector in the world. That is what we have now managed to create. 
We now have this Government saying that we should keep those subsidies on while parading Mr Groser around the world at all of the conferences he goes to claiming that he is in some Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform group. I was actually very confused by that title because I assumed that he was a friend of fossil fuels but it turns out that the group actually has a different goal. But he is a friend of fossil fuels. What he is doing is subsidising now the polluters in New Zealand in a way that means New Zealand will be seen internationally as a friend of fossil fuels not a friend of ending fossil fuels. 
It is important to note that the extension of the one-for-two carbon credit subsidy really puts the nail in the coffin of New Zealand making an actual difference in the way that we reduce our carbon emissions. Let us be absolutely clear: for every one credit that is handed in it counts as two. That is what happens here. So this bill does nothing to actually start reducing New Zealand’s carbon emissions. And as my colleague Moana Mackey again said Tim Groser at the Local Government and Environment Committee could not tell us when emissions would peak and that is because they are not going to because there is no actual effort to do that. Climate change is not some abstract policy. Climate change is about the protection of our environment. 
I think the leadership on this issue from John Key is something that we should look at because he told farmers in 2009 that they needed to get into the scheme to be able to make sure that they could be internationally competitive. But I am not sure that he is totally committed to it. We have to remember that John Key named George W Bush and John Howard as his mentors on climate change. That is what he said. He named them as his mentors on climate change. He actually said in the House admittedly before he became our Prime Minister that “even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it … we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem.” That is what John Key told this House. So the Government is completely lacking leadership when it comes to the question of climate change. What Mr Key needs to face up to is that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—I think Mr Key might just call them “some scientists” and he can find another scientist but I think the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has probably got something to say about this—has told us that the probability that climate change is natural is less than 5 percent world temperatures are going to rise between 1.1 degrees and 6.4 degrees during the 21st century sea levels will rise by 18 centimetres to 59 centimetres and the level of greenhouse gases is higher than it has ever been due to mankind. 
Climate change is real. This bill tries to pretend that it is not. It tries to pretend that New Zealand can hide away from its responsibilities when it comes to addressing issues of climate change. But that has been the attitude of this Government from day one. The very first days that I spent in this House as an MP involved the National Government removing the Labour Party’s ban on baseload thermal generation removing the subsidy on biofuels— 
Moana Mackey 
: No the obligation on biofuels. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: The obligation sorry not the subsidy—that is what they put in. It removed the obligation on biofuels and subsequently in Budget after Budget it has not invested in public transport and not invested in schemes for clean energy. And in terms of the big drivers outside of agriculture in terms of energy and transport not enough actual work is being done to say that we can reduce our emissions. So this Government is failing to introduce agriculture as a sector into this scheme and failing to undertake the work in the key areas of transport and energy that will actually make a difference to our emissions. 
This bill fails completely in terms of New Zealand’s obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. But Mr Groser seems to think that we can simply sit back and wait and see what happens at the international level. Once upon a time New Zealand was a leader in these things. I know how much Mr Groser likes to be a leader on the international stage. He loves it. He loves being in the green room the white room the blue room—any room that is going on at an international negotiation—and makes sure— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: The bathroom. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: The bathroom as Mr Horomia says—any room that is going on at a negotiation. This is the opportunity and the chance for Mr Groser to be a leader on climate change. We want New Zealand to be a leader because it supports our brand and it supports our exporters. We do not want to be a fast follower and far worse we do not want to be the spectator that this Government is making us become on climate change. There is huge opportunity for New Zealand to show leadership here. There is huge opportunity for exporters if we do. There is huge opportunity for people creating and promoting new technologies inside New Zealand if we get on board with this especially in the agriculture sector. This bill is a giant missed opportunity and a huge step backwards for New Zealand in terms of climate change and our clean green image.