SpeechLAND TRANSPORT (CLEAN VEHICLES) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I present a legislative statement on the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That statement is published under the authority of the House.Hon MICHAEL WOOD: I move That the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.This is a very significant day for transport policy in New Zealand and for the work that we have ahead of us as a Government a Parliament and a country to meet the great challenge of decarbonising our transport system and our economy. That's because with the passage of this legislation we will finally be taking meaningful action to reduce emissions coming from New Zealand's vehicle fleet which has been the largest increasing source of emissions across the entire New Zealand economy.Since 1990 emissions from our vehicle fleet have increased by 90 percent and that is far and away the biggest increase of any sector—a bigger increase than agriculture a bigger increase than energy a bigger increase than industry bigger than any other sector. One of the reasons for that is because there has been a total lack of legislative or regulatory leadership in this area. New Zealand up until today is one of only three countries in the OECD alongside Australia and Russia that don't have a vehicle emissions standard. And that is one of the reasons why we have one of the dirtiest vehicle fleets in the world. It is one of the reasons why we have those increasing emissions. It's one of the reasons why we have such terrible air quality in our cities. It's one of the reasons why our vehicles cost more for Kiwi motorists to run because of their sheer inefficiency. It's very very clear that as the rest of the world continues to increase its level of ambition as the rest of the world moves to bring cleaner cars into their fleet if we don't take action here in New Zealand we will become even more than we are now the dumping ground for the dirtiest vehicles in the world.What I said very clearly at the beginning of this address is that there's something here about this House and all parties in this House backing up our fine words with action because this House nearly unanimously passed climate-change legislation to establish the independent Climate Change Commission to set the goal towards reaching net zero by 2050 to say that we wanted the commission to tell us how to bring emissions down by sector. Inherent in that was the fact that we would then accept that advice and do something about it. Well we've set up the commission an expert group led by Dr Rod Carr which has engaged extensively with the scientific literature and consulted with the public. And they've come back and they've told us the steps we need to take to get down to net zero. They are very clear that we need to substantially decarbonise the transport sector if we want to achieve that. If we don't decarbonise transport we don't reach net zero.So to every other member of this House who voted for net zero and voted for the Climate Change Commission my question for you in this debate is this: at what point are you going to do something about it? On this side of the House we will because this is a piece of legislation that will have a major impact on the emissions coming out of our transport sector. Approximately 12 megatons—that's 12 million tons—of emissions will be avoided through the clean car package that is contained in the legislation before the House today. That is a major contribution to the urgent task that we have of decarbonising our transport system. As I say we have to back up the words; we have to back up the votes with actually doing something. The time for sitting on our hands on one of the biggest issues of our time is over.I say in particular to colleagues in the National Party that having done the right thing in the previous term and working with parties on this side of the House on climate change legislation and on the net-zero goals they are now running perilously close to becoming the climate change deniers of our time. Denialism used to be about denying the scientific consensus for climate change and they had plenty of members who took that view up. The new denialism is saying Oh yes we accept it." but finding every excuse in the world to ever do anything about it and that is how they are positioning themselves in their consistent opposition to any measure that actually meaningfully reduces emissions including this one. My challenge to them is: if they're not going to front up and actually support these policies tell us what the policies are that you would deliver that would reduce the same amount of emissions because whenever that question is asked we hear the deafening silence. From members on that side of the House we hear their support for electric vehicles for low-carbon vehicles but they do nothing. Their policies failed in the last term and doing nothing will continue to fail.It actually was extraordinary to me when I read through submissions from the vehicle sector on this legislation—and they've had their critiques; let's be honest about that—that virtually every part of the vehicle sector in New Zealand supports action in this area. The clean car discount is supported by both major importing associations and the AA. The clean car standard is supported by one of the major vehicle importing associations. The National Party's position is actually a more conservative more aggressive more backwards looking one than the industry itself which we are regulating as a result of this piece of legislation. That just illustrates the frankly dinosaur position that they continue to take on this issue. What emphasises this even more is the fact that the first steps of the clean car package which were implemented from 1 July are already shown to be working. Since the implementation of the clean car discount the average sales of zero-emissions vehicles per month have roughly tripled. They have roughly tripled. And approximately one in four electric vehicles on the road today has been purchased since the clean car discount took effect. As a result of those policies the new-car fleet being imported into New Zealand has already achieved at a national level the 2023 clean car standards under this legislation. That is how successful and effective the clean car discount scheme has been. We always knew that would be the case because time and time again Kiwis say they want access to cleaner vehicles.What this legislation does is to facilitate that in two ways. The first is through the clean car standard. The standard is about making sure that we actually have a vehicle emissions standard like nearly every other country for new vehicles coming into New Zealand. It sets targets which get more ambitious year by year and it enables importers with considerable flexibility to meet those targets by banking borrowing and being able to trade their credits if they are not able to achieve. These schemes have been shown internationally to make a big difference. The most important thing they do—and importers already tell me this—is they enable New Zealand importers to go to their head offices and actually get the stock of clean vehicles here because there is now a regulatory direction like every other country. Previously that was not in place whereas other countries did have it and so importers found it hard to get the stock of clean vehicles here that Kiwis want. So it's already making a difference in that respect. The clean car discount then accompanies it and helps to stimulate demand by incentivising Kiwi consumers to swap the dirtier vehicles for the cleaner vehicles. As I say that has already been shown to be working and it works in country after country after country internationally.There are two very important things to note about this package as well. The first is the abatement rate. The abatement rate means: how much does it cost us to reduce a ton of carbon under this policy? The answer is that actually under this package New Zealand saves money for every ton of carbon that we avoid. That is because of the massive fuel savings that occur as we transition our fleet to low-emissions and no-emissions vehicles. So not only are we cleaning up the air not only are we reducing our emissions which Kiwis want to do not only are we making it cheaper for them to fill up at the pump; we're doing that all at a saving to the country overall. Secondly the clear international evidence is that these policies are progressive; they actually benefit people with the least the most. That's because as more efficient vehicles come into the fleet they offer people massive savings on the maintenance and the running of vehicles—massive savings. You think about the lifetime costs of running a vehicle and they are slashed when a family is able to own a clean efficient vehicle. That is going to be of huge benefit to New Zealanders.This is a big change—it's one that we've been talking about for a long time—but it's actually not a radical change internationally. This is about New Zealand catching up. It's about us catching up and actually doing the things to tackle climate change that other countries are doing. It's about us catching up with the automotive industry which in country after country manufacturer after manufacturer is already shifting to cleaner vehicles. So this about how we do the transition and how we make it more affordable for Kiwis to get into the clean cars that they want so that they can play their part in tackling climate change. On this side of the House we're proud of the change that that will make and I ask other members of the House to do the right thing to put our words into action as a House and to support this important piece of legislation. I commend the bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."