Peters WinstonRt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister): New Zealand First rises in support of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. Mr Muller asked the question and bravely so. He said Why are we having this debate in the House?" Well Mr Muller it's because the National Party Government signed the country up to the Paris Agreement. If he doesn't understand what he was doing then then pray tell me: where are those people that signed that document or did they go in there blindly? It's no use blowing hot and cold now; the fact of the matter is that they signed up and here's the rub: today his leaders said that they supported the person that they nominated to be the environment commissioner—that's Mr Simon Upton—and then they wanted him to be the ultimate arbiter have the final decision and then they forgot to tell you that they don't agree with this target. There it is in a very substantial article by Louise Gibson today which every farmer should read because that's how confused the National Party is. They want Mr Upton to be the arbiter they don't agree with his science but somehow they think they can blow hot and cold. I want to know what the reason is for what you might call all these different stances. Are we going to hear from the Mitchell-Bennett ticket or the Bridges-Bennett ticket or the Collins ticket—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think we'd actually prefer to hear about the bill.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —or maybe the Muller ticket?—I beg your pardon?DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'd rather we debated the bill.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: You might prefer me to debate the bill but I'm just dealing with some of the inconsistencies that I'm hearing over there. It is a parliamentary debate Madam Deputy Speaker something which I know about slightly more than you. Now can I get back to the point? [Interruption] Well I'm not going to be taken—in one sentence being stopped in a speech that I'm making. This is outrageous. We will not be bullied by anybody in this Parliament because you are talking about a serious issue: the National Party went off to Paris and signed an agreement and they're now back here—Hon Member: What about the bill?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —half in and half out. Well I've got the bill. Let me tell you why this bill is important. First of all it fulfils New Zealand First's agreement with Labour to establish a climate change commission but one that does not resemble the statutory or arbitrary or final powers of the Reserve Bank precisely what I heard Mr Bridges saying today. So that's the number one thing that farmers should know. It begins with a process where the Climate Change Commission will provide the free allocation to agriculture with all revenues cycled back into agriculture for mitigation for the additional planting of forestry and for research innovation—also part of our coalition agreement. Now that's critical. What we're saying to farmers is that we know as they know in Scandinavia and in great countries like Denmark we will make the changes and we'll have the money to make those changes and that we are confident in the farming community to be able to get there but not with the kind of double-talk cynicism that I'm hearing from certain people in New Zealand politics today.Hon Dr Nick Smith: What's your view on biotechnology?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: In recognition of New Zealand's—look we do not want to hear from "the old man in the House" Nick Smith. The last person we want to hear from is a person called Nick Smith. In fact I can't believe he's still here.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Because I win my seat.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: In recognition of New Zealand's unique methane profile—yeah he won his seat. Yes you won your seat way back in 1990 because somebody called Winston Peters came down and packed the Richmond hall for you. And what a mistake that was. I've regretted it ever since.In recognition of New Zealand's methane profile it splits methane from the more longer-living greenhouse gases. Could I just say I am very aware of a speech made to the most recent regional conference with the National Party. And guess who was making the speech? One Todd Muller telling his own party not the message I heard today but inside the in camera confidential meeting with his colleagues he's telling them to wake up and do what they have to do. I agree Mr Muller but that's the speech I wanted to hear in the House today. It's no good inside the inner sanctum of the declining National Party—no no. We want it here and in front of farmers in New Zealand so we can all be on the same wavelength.It establishes an initial gross methane target of 10 percent from 2017 levels from 2020 to 2030 which it projected all the way to 2050 corresponds with a 26.7 percent methane target. Now let's have the end of this alarmism from some people in Federated Farmers who are way out of kilter with their membership.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Are they the moaners? Is that what your colleague called "the moaning farmers"?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh no. He called them—the so-called spokespeople who saw Fonterra go bankrupt who saw Westland go into liquidation virtually and who saw for example Silver Fern Farms being sold off to foreign ownership. He said that those leaders were moaners and groaners and useless—and so say all of us and so says every farmer out there.I'm talking about the farmer that's doing his job trying to pay his way and looking around for a bit of political leadership. He'll be looking a long time to find it over there on that side of the House because they do not have a position to preserve long-term sustainable farming. I am confident that farming will be more wealthy than ever before because it will also have this about it: not only being sustainable; it'll finally get to added value which is a policy that this country should have been pursuing a long long time ago. No no—all they worry about is cow hoof numbers. It's what you do with the cow that's important. Instead of having for example Fonterra sell milk product at its lowest price like milk powder; no instead of making sure that Fonterra got exclusive control of the world infant formula business these people over there who claim to be defenders of farming did nothing—or worse still they facilitated or worse still when somebody wanted an inquiry as to what was going on they shut down the inquiry. Then all of a sudden here they turned up all cloned thinking they can get away with the kind of defence they're trying to make now—as though they give a rat's derriere about farming. Oh no they don't because if they did when they went to Paris they'd have got back home and said "This means we have to do some work. This means we have to do some science. This means we must know in a very short time to be world leaders here and in the Pacific and alongside Australia"—which we hope comes our way—"we have to do some work now." Not nothing sitting there—not an idea. In fact if I was to ask half the rural members "What's your position?" they wouldn't know. Not surprising. When you've got a leaderless rabble it's quite possible half of them don't know.But that's where it sits. That's where it is. Who is it that set out with the Provincial Growth Fund to back up the process we've got?Barbara Kuriger: What's in the bill?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: What's in the bill? Well I tell you what I'll do. I'll read it out slowly and for that member I'll send some cartoons. I'll send a few pictures. This is the very member—I can remember her. I can remember her down in—DEPUTY SPEAKER: No no. Order! Order! Can we just come back to the bill and not—Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Look she interposed herself.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's right.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Can I just tell you Madam Deputy Speaker that since 1854 if someone interposes themselves in the debate you can respond to them. Or are you going to write a new rule?DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah that's right. But without any personal—Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no no—we won't have your judgment of what that means either.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No I'm sorry but you will.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: If they want to get personal with me if she as uneducated as she is wants to suggest I can't read the bill with my legal background against hers then she's the one that's getting personal.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No no. I'm asking you to come to the bill.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: And I'm sorry Madam Deputy Speaker you can try it with somebody else but don't try it with me—with the greatest respect.I want to make it very clear—I want to make it very clear in my next 1 minute and 58 seconds—that what is important is also the back-up of the Provincial Growth Fund. There are so many things that we can do to assist the mitigation we're talking about. For example we're not going to be dumping waste in the Pūhoi Straits.Hon Member: Oh this is embarrassing.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no—no it's not embarrassing. We need to look at the emissions from waste itself. What are the Scandinavian countries doing? They're not dumping underground and leaching it everywhere. No no—they're doing something about it and so must we.One of the long-term projects of the Provincial Growth Fund will be to start doing responsibly something with our waste—turn it back into energy instead of thinking we somehow can leach it out of the ground and out into our streams into the Kaipara and everywhere else and somehow it'll be all OK. All those days "Madam King Country" are over. Everybody is responsible and King Country farming will know that there is a new Government in place that it has got a plan and that that plan is clear as daylight. But I want to make it very clear. I want to hear from the next National Party person: have they read this article about the misrepresentation from the leadership of Federated Farmers where this bill is concerned because it makes it very clear—and this is from a neutral person who reports to the BBC and elsewhere—that there has been a massive misrepresentation in and outside this House? What we have set out to do is set the goals as clear as daylight—Mr Shaw the Prime Minister and us. Thank you very much."