Dean Jacqui: General Debate 
Dean Jacqui: General Debate 
[Volume:635;Page:6311] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I have been doing a wee bit of reading on the environment because I think it is terribly important to back one’s talk up with facts and that is something I would like to ponder in my brief 5 minutes. I have had a wee look at the annual report of the Ministry for the Environment. It is nice; it is a very good report. What I wondered about in reading this report was how much commitment the Ministry for the Environment has put toward solving the problem of climate change. We have an awful lot of words from that ministry but how does it back them up? 
In the report it was interesting to find that at the end of 2005 the Ministry for the Environment had invested $8309000 in investigating climate change. OK that is not a lot. It is a big subject but that is a start. How has the ministry done at the end of this financial year? I found that at the end of 2006 the Ministry for the Environment had invested $6791000 in investigating climate change. Hang on a minute! The Government’s investment in climate change investigations has gone down. This is a Government that is extremely hot on climate change yet in its annual report from the Ministry for the Environment we find that not only is the Government not even treading water in terms of investment in investigating climate change but its investment into finding out about climate change has actually decreased by over $2 million. That is what I call commitment! 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Oh yeah. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Oh yes $2 million less in this financial year; it is talk talk talk. The Government’s investment in investigating climate change shows it is backing away. That is how committed this Government is to addressing the issue of climate change. 
I thought that that was interesting and that I would have a little deeper look at this report. I found that under the “achievement” criteria—this one is “develop and implement policies”—the ministry rates its performance as only “partially achieved”. Well members probably did not need me to tell them that today. But when it came to representing New Zealand at international forums the ministry managed to achieve that goal. In fact the trips overseas are ongoing. 
So what do we have? We have a decrease in investment and we have talk upon talk upon talk. What has all this expenditure all those overseas trips achieved? [ 
Interruption 
] According to Steve Chadwick the climate change policy is: “Don’t just wait; it’s coming.” Well so is Christmas and I bet that after that we will still be waiting. Let us have a look at the Government’s record on climate change. It is all very well to talk the talk but what has the Government actually done in the last 7 years on its watch to solve the problem of climate change? The Government has built coal-fired power stations yet has prevented the building of two sustainable hydro stations. The Government sat on the fence over Project Aqua the Government sat on the fence over the Dobson hydro power scheme yet we find we have two new coal-fired power stations—that is under this Government’s watch. 
This is a Government under whose watch the annual rate of investment in forestry has gone from around 60000 hectares per annum throughout most of the 1990s to practically none today. So that is the Government’s record on forestry. This is a Government whose Ministers drive around in big gas-guzzling self-driving ministerial sedans who then offset that by buying a little bit of forestry to gain carbon credits—and that makes it OK. If that is how the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues models good behaviour then boy I would like to see what is not good behaviour. [ 
Interruption 
] Gosh it has got them excited has it not? It has got them really going and is that not funny? 
This is a Government under whose watch the carbon tax failed. This is a Government under whose watch the energy efficiency strategy failed at the cost of $100 million. This is a Government whose Prime Minister now acknowledges that the Kyoto Protocol has failed. The Prime Minister herself acknowledged at the Labour Party conference that the Kyoto Protocol deficit “did come as a bit of a blow” and that the Government is going to “go back to the drawing board to look for better more comprehensive strategies.” Well I ask you! If the Prime Minister has no confidence in the Kyoto Protocol how can the rest of New Zealand.