Flavell Te Ururoa: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 23 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4742. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa. I rise on behalf of the Maori Party to put just a few points before the House to set out our support for the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill in its first reading. I want to reflect back just very briefly to late 2009. The Hon Nick Smith came to the Maori Party and worked with us on setting out I suppose the initial stand on the emissions trading scheme. We were able to negotiate some very important things that we thought were quite important. 
I am talking about the impact of power and petrol prices. We were able to have those halved. I am talking about home insulation for thousands of low-income households. I am talking about the Treaty clause in the legislation to ensure that the Crown’s obligations to its Treaty partner were not going to be compromised by the emissions trading scheme. I am talking about the recognition that iwi have issues in respect of deforestation provisions. We were able to get a commitment from the Government that it would work with iwi and the Maori Party to find solutions for iwi with forests returned in Treaty settlements pre the emissions trading scheme period. We were fortunate enough to be able to work again with the Climate Change Iwi Leadership Group to play an ongoing role in international negotiations to allow for offsetting. The Maori Party was to be consulted closely on the review of the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative in terms of membership for that reference group. 
 We sought allocation of New Zealand Units to iwi quota holders in respect of the fisheries industry. The Maori Party was also able to be consulted and to ensure that iwi agricultural interests were represented in an agricultural advisory group. The Government gave a commitment to work with the Maori Party to invest in domestic research priorities which were signalled as a part of our early speeches at that time and an international initiative to address agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. So the Maori Party has had input into ongoing dialogue on a broader environmental policy programme and this has been very important to us. 
Can I say that Maori have a very strong interest in this emissions trading scheme. It has a substantial impact on Treaty settlements that included forestry land. It has an impact on Maori farmers and of them there are many. It has an impact on iwi investment—in particular in the geothermal generation area. It has an impact on petrol prices and electricity prices for poorer people. And just as important it has an impact on Papatuanuku and the wider environment. To cut a long story short the emissions trading scheme impacts on Maori in almost every walk of life. We can say that we have appreciated very much the ability for us to negotiate with the Climate Change Iwi Leadership Group and I believe that it has appreciated very much the involvement at the highest level with the appropriate Ministers over these last couple of years. 
I will not go over too much of the substance of the bill because I think that has pretty much been covered by a vast majority of the speakers today but more important I will focus on the very important changes that we do support. The Maori Party is very supportive of and pleased to support the Government fully allocating the second tranche of the New Zealand Unit allocations to pre-1990 forests. That is with regard to Treaty settlements. We think that is important and that it protects the value of forestry settlements with iwi who own pre-1990 forests. As far as the Iwi Leadership Group support for this goes it was able to let us know that in its regional hui throughout the country the single biggest and priority issue for Maori and iwi has been the allocation of the second tranche of New Zealand Units. “The government decision to allocate these units is welcomed by Iwi/Maori.”—so said Dr Apirana Mahuika as the chair of that group from memory. 
We are pleased with the introduction of the forestry offsetting. It allows forestry owners to turn forestry land into better land use—farms etc.—while setting up a forest in another parcel of land and allowing the carbon offsetting of the new forest to count. Prior to this bill one had to pay for changes to land use and that is no longer the case. That is important for us and the Iwi Leadership Group came to the party by making the following statement: “The introduction of forestry offsetting as an option is welcomed too as it provides a mechanism for Maori forestry landowners to explore highest and best land use where currently our Maori forestry landowners are effectively locked into forestry forever or bear crippling deforestation liabilities.” Those are some of the key points that we think are quite important and are good points that have certainly come through from the Iwi Leadership Group. 
One or two points that we might add just in closing are in respect of some of the key questions that we might have a few questions about in respect of the agricultural sector not having emissions trading scheme obligations until 2015. Maori have big farming interests. In fact the Maori incorporation Paraninihi ki Waitotara Inc. is Fonterra’s biggest supplier in Taranaki. We believe that we need to find a balance between keeping our most important exporter afloat during tough economic times but at the same time protecting Papatuanuku protecting the environment. On the one hand the technology does not exist to stop carbon emissions from livestock which means that making the agricultural sector subject to the emissions trading scheme means farmers are paying a tax for something that is a little bit beyond their control. On the other hand agriculture causes the most emissions of any sector and it should be incentivised to reduce emissions. Giving farmers a 3-year holiday for paying which is subsidised by the rest of us does not really incentivise them to reduce emissions. But over and above that more research and technology need to happen to find a way to lessen the emissions from animals.  
I want to make one or two final points. It seems to us that in a sense we might be actually forgetting about the environment itself. One of the most unfortunate consequences of the way the emissions trading scheme is set up is that the focus of emitters appears to be on negotiation and manoeuvring around the price for units. I am talking about things such as auctions exchange rates for the units where they are being bought where they are sold and where they are being produced. We think that those are valid questions that need to be addressed. The purpose of the emissions trading scheme was meant to be about improving the environment first and foremost. It has not necessarily played out that way—we tend to think about it in terms of business alone—but it is about that fine balancing act. We would suggest that it might be about time to consider green growth possibilities as well as the emissions trading scheme. We do support the bill at this point in time and we look forward to the discussion as it goes through the various stages. Kia ora tatou.