Simmonds PennyPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak on Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill in its second reading. I'm certainly going to want to have a couple of things to say about comments from my colleagues—previous speakers across the House. Look once more this is a Labour Government doing harm to the very people that they purport to represent middle and low income New Zealanders and at a time when they can absolutely least afford it. National of course is supportive of a transition of New Zealand's light-vehicle fleet to lower-emissions vehicles. Heaven knows the poor farmers have been taking flak from this Government on carbon emissions for long enough. All the while there has been virtually no progress on reducing the country's transport footprint.We don't support this legislation because it is not practical but that's never stopped a Labour Government before. It will do more harm than good—again that's never stopped a Labour Government before—and it is working against industry instead of with it and there are no surprises there with a Labour Government. It will add cost to the vehicles the very vehicles that middle and lower income New Zealanders buy—the humble Suzuki Swift the good old Toyota Corolla and the hybrid RAV4—even though one of the previous speakers from the other side suggested that people should be buying the hybrid vehicles. Perhaps you should have a look to see that they will also be hit.I sat on the select committee for a number of the submissions on this bill. The Motor Industry Association are absolutely frustrated and have withdrawn their support for the Clean Car Standard. They've calculated that the increase in prices of cars from these standards will be 15 to 20 percent. They believe that Government has ignored well-thought-out and considered advice from the industry. Absolutely no surprises there. This is what this Government has got a reputation for.The bill deviates from standards that are being implemented in other countries. The rate of reductions is so steep that it will only be able to be met by those distributors who currently are supplying solely battery electrical vehicles at the moment. So why is this Government introducing something so impractical? You'd have to think it's because they think if they say something can happen it can happen regardless of what the worldwide situation is regardless of what industry tells them. The reduction targets are greater than any other jurisdiction in the world. They are setting us up for failure. We don't produce vehicles we can't get ahead of what industry is doing. We are a tiny player in this market so we don't get to call the shots on industry. When industry can't meet the targets they will be fined. So who will bear the cost of these fines? You can be absolutely certain it will be the consumer.You'd have to wonder and I'm sure there are plenty of people out in the country at the moment wondering just how much more does this Government want to increase the cost of living and hurt average New Zealanders? We've seen the housing market go absolutely haywire. Petrol—people having to pay over $3 a litre. Food—cauliflowers over $9 each. And now they want to increase the cost of cars by 15 to 20 percent. Where do they think the average New Zealander is going to magic up the extra money to pay for these things? Hon Michael Woodhouse: Norway.PENNY SIMMONDS: Well as my colleague says Norway." Well that was a delightful intervention. The previous Labour speaker spoke so glowingly about Norway's electric cars. Does she not know Norway's wealth came from their vast oil reserves? Goodness me. It just is an embarrassment to hear that given as an example. This Government is absolutely allergic to performance indicators. They do not like to be measured on anything but gosh they should have put their hand up to be measured on making the cost of living higher because they would have excelled in that performance indicator.This legislation is also punitive. It attacks the very people that make money for this country: the rural people the tradespeople and those that need utes and light commercial vehicles to operate their businesses. The Government knows very well there will be very few options for low-emissions alternatives for light commercial vehicles before 2030. They might again stand up and say "Oh no they're coming." but it must be embarrassing when over and over the industry says they won't be here—they won't be here in the supply that is needed at the price that is needed by people who need these vehicles for their businesses. So Government is penalising farmers and business people again. They simply don't care about anyone running a business and about anyone in the rural sector. But that will be no surprise to farmers after what they have got from this Government. It will be no surprise to business people for the costs that have been added on by this Government and it will be no surprise to the tradies. I wanted to give an example—and I will give this example although I was terribly tempted to give the example of a Dunedin relative of mine seeing as the previous speaker Rachel Brooking talked about how many second-hand Leaf vehicles there were running round Dunedin. She's right. A relative of mine has one. He can't come down to us in Southland for Christmas because he can't get down and back. But I'll give you the example of the roofers in Southland that regularly go to Te Ānau daily for their roofing work. That's 155 kilometres each way carrying materials equipment and a number of staff. Two hours' drive each way eight hours' work up there and perhaps the Government thinks they should just stop for half an hour each way and have a coffee to make it possible for them to do this. Do you not wonder why tradies laugh at the impracticality of this Government and the sort of things that they are bringing in? This Government needs to talk to—or even better still listen to—some of the real people out in the country doing real jobs and making money for the New Zealand economy so that they can understand how impractical this legislation is that's to be implemented. We oppose it because it is not practical. It will do more harm than good particularly to those people who can least afford it. It is working against industry and it is punitive to the business people and the rural people who make money to keep the economy of this country going. This Government needs to start listening to people instead of just talking because their talk doesn't mean it can happen. Thank you Madam Speaker. National opposes this bill."