Tisch Lindsay: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11323] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 I would like to add my thoughts on this very important legislation. The Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill is legislation that National will not be supporting because it takes us backwards. Pieces of legislation such as the Resource Management Act mean that this Government captures opportunities for development. This legislation just adds another huge compliance cost and another hindrance to development to investment and to the growth of our country and our economy. 
I want to pick up on a couple of points that were made earlier by Mr Peters about clause 3 “Purpose”. Clause 3(a) talks about provisions relating to the efficiency of end use of energy the effects of climate change and the benefits to be derived from the use and development of renewable energy. Of course nowhere in this bill does it articulate what those concepts mean. I would have thought that when one talked about the effects of climate change one would have to know what that means. We need to look at what the effects are. They have to be crystallised in an argument and articulated in such a way that when I read this bill it is very very clear what those effects mean. 
If there are effects there will be benefits—which is what the clause says. What are the benefits to be derived? If this legislation goes ahead I want to know what the benefits of it will be. Again nowhere does it say what those benefits are. When I look from a strategic point of view at cause and effect cost-benefit ratios and those sorts of analyses those are the questions I want answered. I ask the Minister of Energy who has not taken a call yet. This is an opportunity for the Minister to put his mind to those questions because not only am I asking them but also they have been raised by Mr Peters from New Zealand First. They are not questions that should be glossed over; they are important questions. They form the basis of the bill because they are found in clause 3 “Purpose”. 
I want also to mention the point raised by my colleagues about coal resources. There are 800 900 1000—I have heard even up to 1500—years of coal resources available that we could be using to provide energy. With new technology coal can now be burnt leaving clean air. What coal can do for us has been overlooked. In my electorate of Piako Solid Energy New Zealand which operates the coalmines at Huntly cannot because of the restrictions of the Resource Management Act supply coal to Genesis Power the power station right next door on the river. So what is happening? Coal is being brought in from Indonesia. It is being trucked in from the Port of Tauranga 24 hours a day. It is coming across the Kaimai Range into Matamata where I live and is being stored in a quarry just out of Matamata. The unloading of that ship is a 24-hour operation so that 48 hours later it can be on its way again. That coal comes from Indonesia while sitting on our doorstep in Huntly is Solid Energy coal that could be fuelling the Genesis power station. 
Not only that; there is a problem with the trucking of the coal. The neighbouring farmers up Taotaoroa Road where the quarry that stores the coal is have to deal with a continuous stream of vehicles 24 hours a day. They have problems with noise and dust and the trucking interferes with the way in which they operate and do business. The coal is taken from there during daylight hours between 6 in the morning and 7 at night. It is transported over to Huntly during those hours because of the requirements of the local authority resource consents and it is dumped for storage. On Monday I had a deputation from the area where the coal is to be dumped on an open stockpile at Solid Energy and already there are huge problems with noise and dust in the preparation of the site. 
So we will oppose this legislation.