Roy Heather: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — Second Reading 
Roy Heather: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — Second Reading 
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HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the second reading of the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill on behalf of ACT New Zealand. ACT will be opposing this bill. In fact we were the only party to oppose it at its first reading. We did so because we think quite frankly that this is dopey legislation. Why is it that New Zealand has to be a world leader rushing forward at the pace of knots at the forefront of world opinion on a matter where the science certainly is not complete where there is not general agreement amongst the scientific community and where we are in danger of disadvantaging those New Zealanders who are least able to afford to be disadvantaged given already rising electricity costs and rising fuel costs? But it is not only New Zealanders we are disadvantaging; we are also disadvantaging New Zealand in terms of trade. For this reason we will be opposing the bill. 
It is not often that members will hear the ACT party saying we should perhaps have a tax but if there are issues that need to be considered we should have taken into consideration the fact that a carbon tax would have been a much fairer way to provide the right incentives to put in place the initiatives to tackle carbon dioxide emissions and to charge the polluters. That is by far the fairest way of tackling this sort of problem. 
The shame of the matter is not the measures I have just mentioned; the shame of the matter is that Parliament is sitting today and hearing the second reading of this bill for one reason and one reason only: it has bought Winston Peters more political time. The agreement of New Zealand First to support this bill has bought the New Zealand First leader Winston Peters more time in his rapidly dwindling political career. That is a sad indictment not just on the New Zealand First MPs and the leader of that party but also on the Labour Government which was desperate to get this legislation through in order to show that we are world leaders in something and going where angels fear to tread. The Prime Minister has been prepared to enter into a deal of this nature with somebody who cannot even stand up in this Parliament and answer very simple and very real questions that should be answered on matters where he is not prepared to go. It is a sad indictment on our Parliament that we have got to this situation. 
I am quite surprised at the Green Party. The Green Party is a great proponent of MMP and it wants to make sure that this political system is seen to run Parliament in a fair and honest way yet it too has been prepared to make a deal of its own. More important the Green Party has been prepared to support the deal between New Zealand First and the minority Labour Government on this particular matter and that is shameful. I am not prepared to support this legislation for the very sound scientific reasons that I have outlined and ACT is certainly not prepared to support legislation that is being put before this House and is being supported today by a party that should be spending its time looking very closely at how it operates and answering the very simple questions that the Privileges Committee and certain members of this House have put before it. But that party will not do so. 
There has been a lot of debate around the science of this issue and it certainly is inconclusive. In fact the whole issue of climate change has reached a kind of religious fervour not just here in New Zealand but around the world. This is not a good basis on which to be making any sorts of decisions certainly not political decisions. I worry about those who are least able in our society to afford the electricity prices they have to pay at the moment—who struggle to pay their bills at the end of the week because food prices have skyrocketed—and about how they manage to fill their petrol tanks with fuel when prices have increased hugely. I do not know how they cope. 
Moana Mackey 
: Fossil fuels! 
HEATHER ROY 
: That is part of the problem. Has the member not noticed what has happened now that all the grain in the world has been diverted towards biofuels? What do members opposite think is happening in the United States? Why do they think that our food production will not find its way there eventually? Demand will dictate that it does. They are living in a cloud-cuckoo world. That is very very sad. 
It is interesting too that New Zealand First supports the amended emissions trading scheme bill and claims that it has won a $1 billion energy efficiency fund. It is strange that the Green Party claims exactly the same thing. What is the truth? Will both parties go around the country campaigning at election time that they have both won the same thing? 
R Doug Woolerton 
: Absolutely—cross-party support! 
HEATHER ROY 
: I do not think so. I do not think the MMP debate would stand that. This bill is a shambles and a sham the political process we are going through today is a sham and ACT New Zealand is not prepared to tolerate either. It wants sensible policy-making based on scientific evidence and good sound economics that make sense. It also wants to see a political process in this country that is open and honest not deals—deals that are not even made on the principles of the bill but are made to save one politician who should be able to stand up in this House and answer some questions but for various obvious reasons is not prepared to do so. ACT stands here today opposing this bill for those two reasons and it applauds the other parties in this House that are doing so for exactly the same reasons. Thank you.