1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by the Government's policy to end offshore oil and gas exploration?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Acting Prime Minister): The Government has made it very very clear that it's not its policy to end offshore oil and gas exploration.Hon Simon Bridges: How much will global greenhouse emissions reduce as a result of Cabinet decisions to stop the offshore oil and gas exploration—and also everywhere apart from Taranaki?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: As was made very clear when the original announcement was made and by the Minister of Energy and Resources yesterday when she said—Government introduces a bill to halt new offshore oil exploration". Words matter and the Opposition should stop going out there and misleading the public. Read the primary question.Hon Simon Bridges: How much will global emissions reduce as a result of those decisions by Cabinet and Ms Woods?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'm sorry to tell the Leader of the Opposition that when you start with a false premise you're caught with it. The Government is stopping all new offshore oil and gas exploration not that which exists now and possibly for the next 35 years.Hon Simon Bridges: Is the Prime Minister seeking to turn this into a farce because he doesn't want to answer questions because he's embarrassed by—SPEAKER: Order!Hon Simon Bridges: —what his Government did?SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'm happy to answer it.SPEAKER: No. No. No. I'm not prepared to let the Acting Prime Minister answer it. Further supplementary question—Simon Bridges.Hon Simon Bridges: Does the Prime Minister agree with Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) advice that the oil and gas decisions by his Government will likely result in an increase in global carbon emissions as production shifts to other countries that have higher emissions footprints?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: That is fallacious nonsense and we are not going to waste Parliament's time by giving it the options of respectability. Hon Simon Bridges: So is the Prime Minister saying that the what 53 pages of regulatory impact statement done by MBIE one of the—in fact the biggest department in Government and then reviewed by Treasury is all "fallacious nonsense"?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Can I say when a body of research begins with the cost possibly being $200 million or $8 billion or $22 billion and possibly higher—as I have said if NASA had that sort of accuracy then Neil Armstrong would be still trying to find the moon.Hon Simon Bridges: Is the Prime Minister that embarrassed by his decisions that he's just not going to answer today?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No the Prime Minister and the Government are not embarrassed by the kind of research which we know from an academic point of view is simply not adequate enough. But then again I can see why they made so many mistakes in the previous administration because whatever the bureaucracy told them they went along with.David Seymour: If MBIE can't estimate the true cost of the Government's policy perhaps the Acting Prime Minister could tell us what it is?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Ha ha! We didn't raise the issue in the first instance but could I say to the House: do they surely mean to prospect that a gap of $200 million or $22 billion is of no moment in terms of empirically sound research?David Seymour: So is the House to take it that the Acting Prime Minister doesn't know either?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No the House can take it that the Acting Prime Minister is all over this issue but he left it to his colleague the Minister for energy who is doing a wonderful job at the moment. Hon Simon Bridges: Does the Prime Minister agree with his statement this morning about MBIE analysis that the oil and gas decisions could result in an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions and that "It's hardly a stroke of genius. It's just a plain statement of common sense."; and if not why not?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The fact is that the Prime Minister and the Government agree with Methanex agree with Todd Energy and agree with Genesis who have skin in the game to the tune of billions of dollars and they believe the policy will work.Hon Simon Bridges: So is he then accepting as he said this morning actually global emissions will go up as a result of the decisions his Government has made on oil and gas earlier this year?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well I don't know what transcript that member's listening to but certainly it wasn't the one that I was being quoted on. But can I just say this: we now know from this side of the House that the offer of a long-term climate change policy across party lines is clearly over. It didn't even last two weeks.Hon Simon Bridges: How many families in Taranaki will lose their jobs as a result of the Government's oil and gas decisions?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I think you can be very clear from what the mayor said—David Seymour: He dosen't know. He doesn't know.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No I do know. The mayor was quoted just recently talking about how explosive—for example—the Provincial Growth Fund is for Taranaki and we'd see only more jobs coming to the Taranaki area particularly with our added food value policy. There's a whole host of policies this Government has got which are going to be magnificent for the Taranaki even as much as it might improve their local rugby team as well.Hon Grant Robertson: Is the Acting Prime Minister aware that in the Westpac McDermott Miller Regional Economic Confidence Survey for the September 2018 quarter confidence in the Taranaki area went up?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The Prime Minister's not only aware of it; he's not surprised about it. But it comes hard on the latest news for example of the GDP growth figures from last week which shows us at 1 percent for the last measureable quarter which is higher than Australia at 0.9 percent and then of course other great figures of material over the weekend which demonstrate how well we're going in terms of wages rising above inflation. And here's the point: downtown the naysayers and the misery talkers have got nothing to fly a flag on at the moment."