Hughes Gareth; Williams PotoGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora.I want to start with a personal story. I remember being on the beach at the time of the Rena oil spill seeing those oil globs wash up the dead birds in the buckets and the people in the hazmat suits. Oil spills had been something you'd seen on TV but here it was in New Zealand—it was something you could see you could touch you could smell it. We discovered then we couldn't even cope with a small oil spill let alone a larger one. And at the same time or a few years later Anadarko was drilling deep off our coast and we discovered that it would take 110 days for critical equipment to actually get to New Zealand at the time that oil could be gushing out on to those beaches.The threat of an oil spill on the beaches we loved was real but the bigger risk was something you couldn't see you couldn't touch you couldn't smell. It was the greenhouse gases that warm the planet. So while the media right now are debating the pros and cons of oil exploration you can't debate the physics. Scientists warn we can't afford to burn 75 percent of the proven fossil fuel reserves if we want to avoid dangerous climate change. A study in Nature Communications published last year found if we burnt the available fossil fuels—not even the stuff that the last member Jonathan Young wants to go exploring for—we would see the fastest rise in global temperature in 420 million years. Exploring for more oil is like pouring petrol into an already filled gas tank and lighting a match. This is the nuclear-free moment of our generation. Then the defining image was nuclear explosions and nuclear ships; today it is oil rigs and rising seas.We find ourselves at an important turning point. Will we continue exploring for new oil and gas that we can't afford to burn? We have the opportunity now to stop looking for the very stuff which is causing so much pain and hardship. After nine years of this country being a climate laggard of actually subsidising pollution and subsidising the oil companies we now have the opportunity to do the right thing.I was recently at a Commonwealth conference and I felt proud as a New Zealander telling members from small Island States such as Kiribati the Seychelles and Mauritius that New Zealand now had an ambitious target of being climate carbon zero by 2050. To start the transition to get there we need to stop looking for fossil fuels like oil.Given some existing permits don't expire until 2046 we can't keep granting more. That's why I'm calling on the Government to stop offering new exploration permits for fossil fuels. Secondly I'm asking while existing production continues for us to do the urgent safety and environmental recommendations of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. And thirdly to put in place the infrastructure for a just transition for the workers and regions affected.Calling for a transition away from oil and never actually starting that transition is a recipe for more pollution. Just yesterday the oil industry reported that we had to keep exploring for more we couldn't afford to burn because you couldn't leave a monetisable resource unmonetisable. What value do these people place on billions of people and literal cultural extinction?The industry says we have to explore for more or the lights go out. But that ignores the growth of clean energy and the fact that numerous studies have shown 100 percent clean energy is affordable and is achievable. Some are worried about gas supplies if we stopped exploring for more. But if we use the existing gas supplies for the most efficient use which is direct use in homes as around 260000 Kiwis currently do we have more than 200 years of gas available right now. Others say Well what about the plastics?" Callaghan Innovation recently told the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee that everything we do with plastics that come from oil has a bio-alternative. Then the industry says we have to keep exploring to increase exports. Again this is something we can't afford to burn. We can't afford the stuff we've already found let alone looking for more. But why on earth would New Zealand look to last century's economy when we could be looking forward? Internationally more is invested in clean energy than fossil fuels for electricity. The World Bank's sister group the International Finance Corporation say that clean energy investment opportunity is $23 trillion. Meanwhile in New Zealand it is a sunset industry. In New Zealand our royalties have halved a succession of oil companies have left and almost twice as many permits have been surrendered than granted since 2012. So no one here is suggesting shutting down what's left of the industry but they are calling for a transition. The good news is the options are there. Clean energy grows four times more jobs. Our future isn't oil rigs off our coasts; it's wind turbines on our hills insulation under our rooves solar panels on top modern public transport in our cities—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member but the time for this debate has expired.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."