Smith Nick: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:640;Page:10515] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 Today the latest energy data for New Zealand was released and what we have discovered is that all the talk about carbon neutrality from the Prime Minister in the 8 years Labour has been in Government is an absolute farce. I want to challenge the Government about its record in this vital area of public policy. Firstly I ask the Associate Minister in the chair the Hon Harry Duynhoven how the goal of carbon neutrality matches the figures put out today. In the last year there was a 9.7 percent increase in the burning of coal. That is an extra 15 petajoules of coal going into the system. Does anybody believe that the fastest-growing area of energy is coal? And we are meant to believe that this Government is about carbon neutrality! 
Colin King 
: No! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I agree with the member. We are expected to believe in Father Christmas the tooth fairy and now the Prime Minister on carbon neutrality. 
Then when we look at the electricity sector specifically we see that in the period of this Labour Government the amount of electricity produced from burning coal has trebled. I remind Ms Soper that that is right. Since Labour has been in office we have seen a lower proportion of electricity produced from renewables than at any time in New Zealand’s history. We are now down to a level of just 59 percent. I ask the Associate Minister in the chair why it is that Labour came into office saying it was going to reduce emissions when in the sector that is dominantly owned by the State the electricity sector we have seen the proportion of renewables drop and the proportion of electricity produced from coal treble. 
Let me bring this back to the attention of the Associate Minister. How does he justify that the Prime Minister does a photo opportunity every time a wind farm is opened when the increase in the amount of electricity produced from coal is seven times the amount of that produced from wind? For every megawatt that is being produced from wind farms under this Government 7 megawatts are produced from coal. Does the Associate Minister in the chair deny those statistics from his own ministry? No he does not because they are the facts. How can we possibly be running this line about carbon neutrality and about all the talk internationally of this Government taking climate change seriously when the amount of power produced from coal is increasing at seven times the rate that it is from wind farms? 
Then I have to ask this question: why is it that we have the Government objecting to every new hydro scheme that is proposed? Just last week we saw the Environment Court give a tick to the Wairau hydro scheme in my part of the world. This is the biggest hydro scheme that has been proposed since the Clyde Dam. The part I cannot work out is that the Prime Minister talks carbon neutrality and the Department of Conservation appeals the Wairau hydro scheme. I would love the Associate Minister to explain that. 
Then in the adjournment we had the Prime Minister talking about the opening up of the Great South Basin to new petroleum. I said to myself: “Well I’ve still got a bit of a difficulty here Harry. How can opening up new hydrocarbon resources in the Great South Basin match with carbon neutrality?”. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Easily. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well I am not a petroleum expert but I would expect that if oil is taken out of the ground it is probably going to be burnt and that does not sound too much like carbon neutrality. I say to the Associate Minister that if he wants to be honest with the public of New Zealand then he should tell them that carbon neutrality is just a big fraud. It is just a con job. The Prime Minister does not believe it. None of the Ministers believe it. The Government is desperate. It has been in office for 8 years and has failed so badly on climate change that it would invent anything—anything at all—to try to justify its position. 
I have a very simple question for the Associate Minister— 
Lesley Soper 
: The member has no credibility on climate matters. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Maybe Lesley Soper will answer this for me. When will this Government meet carbon neutrality? 
Lesley Soper 
: You have no credibility on climate matters. You haven’t got a brain in your head. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I say to Ms Soper who has the cheek to interject and say there is no credibility on climate change that she is dead right. This Government has absolutely no credibility on climate change. I ask her or the Associate Minister again. When will Labour achieve its goal of carbon neutrality? Oh she is quiet now. It is a simple question. When? 
Lesley Soper 
: How many wind farms did you open? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: What I can tell the member is that a National Government will reform the Resource Management Act so that wind farms like Project West Wind do not get tied up in bureaucratic red tape for 4 years as has occurred in this very city of Wellington. 
I can also say to the member opposite that a National Government will reform the Resource Management Act so that we can build hydro stations rather than trebling— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: You passed it in 1991! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Lianne Dalziel is piping in. Would she like to explain— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Who was in Government in 1991? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The National Party was in Government. Let me read the figures for her. I think that this Parliament would want to see an increasing proportion of our power being produced from renewable energy and through the 1990s we saw the commissioning of the Clyde Dam and an increase in the amount of renewable energy. The Associate Minister in the chair looks sceptical. I ask him why it is that in every year that Labour has been in office there has been a reduction in the proportion of our power produced from renewables. How can we have the Prime Minister open Parliament at the beginning of this year and say the word “sustainability” not once not twice not three times but 39 times? Yet we have the least sustainable Government in the history of New Zealand in respect of electricity in that we have the lowest proportion ever of electricity that is produced from renewable resources. 
 I ask the Government when we will have a policy on climate change. It has been in Government— 
Lesley Soper 
: You don’t have a policy. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Let me tell the member what our policy is. National has a policy of a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050. National has a policy of a comprehensive emissions trading system to deliver that outcome. National has a policy of reforming the Resource Management Act so that we can have wind farms and hydro stations. National has a policy of smart investing in energy efficiency. I could go on and on but now we are to debate what Labour’s policy is. 
I ask Lesley Soper why it is that 8 years after Labour came to office the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment says that the climate change policies in New Zealand are a disgrace and a vacuum and that we are going nowhere. Does Lesley Soper disagree with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment? 
Lesley Soper 
: You have no credibility. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well let us talk about what the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment says. She says that there is a vacuum in climate change policy 8 years into a Government that promised to reduce emissions by 20 percent by 2005. In fact emissions went up by 12 percent. And Government members want to talk about credibility! The Government has no credibility on this issue. 
I want Harry Duynhoven to answer a few simple questions. When will we have an emissions trading system? When will we have some idea as to how the Government will meet its Kyoto Protocol requirements? Will we have to send a cheque for hundreds of millions of dollars of hard-earned taxpayers’ money to foreign Governments for the botch-up that this Government has made in this critical area of climate change? I also want to know from the Minister when we will actually see a change in the trend around renewable energy. I want to know from the Minister when we will achieve this bizarre goal—which nobody believes—of carbon neutrality. I want to know from the Minister his response to the statistics out today showing that this New Zealand Labour Government has the worst record of any country in terms of climate change with three times the growth in emissions of Australia and four times the growth in emissions of the United States. I say to the Minister that it is disgraceful. When will we finally see some policy?