Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): Thank you Mr Chair. I'll go through the four questions that I've had put to me so far. The first was around the Warmer Kiwi Homes. I mean very good to hear very personal stories about how this programme which is where we bring together our energy and our housing policy and our health policy as well—how they intersect. So this is a scheme that we brought in in our first Budget when we were in Government. It has been a scheme that has been very successful. In fact we've had to top up Budgets all the way through because we have met or exceeded targets. One of the things about this scheme that makes it different and marks it out from previous insulation schemes is that it focuses not only on insulating the home but also providing efficient and affordable heat source options for families as well. I very much believe that you can have the best insulated home in the world but if you can't afford to heat it it's still going to be a cold home. So that is why I'm delighted that we have been able to achieve our targets around this and in fact last year had to bump it up again. The $120 million that was provided in this year's Budget will see us add another 47700 homes eligible for both that insulation and heat source scheme. It's something that we are looking to combat some of the health challenges that we have in New Zealand that frankly we should not be seeing in a First World country. We see it very much connected to some of the programmes that we have operating under Vote Health in terms of rheumatic fever. And we know that warm dry homes are absolutely critical if we are going to combat the scourges in our communities such as rheumatic fever.In terms of the GIDI programme—the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry—this is a scheme that is achieving very well for the Government. We've allocated $279 million in the first round and that will actually achieve close to 10 percent of all the carbon savings that will be required under our first carbon Budget. In the 16 projects that have been funded to date: five high-temperature heat pumps two boiler conversion to biomass fuel two new biomass boilers two new electrode boilers four energy-efficiency projects one biogas boiler and four other technologies. It is achieving beyond what we thought it could. I mean in terms of the 16 projects that we funded in the first round it's the equivalent of taking 62500 cars off the road. So I think we can see that for $22 million we are looking forward to round two of that programme being announced soon and being able to point to some equally good programmes. I probably note that some of the exceptional results that we saw in round one I'm not sure that we'll be able to replicate those in every round but certainly there.I'll also address the question that was put to me around the New Zealand Battery project and whether we'll be revising the target in light of the independent climate commission's report. Of course Cabinet has yet to consider the recommendations of the independent climate commission and so that is something that we are yet to do. But what I also point the member to is: as well as making that recommendation around the 95 to 98 percent the independent climate commission said that we also had to look at a broader energy target. So while New Zealand may score very well on the renewable component of its electricity sector our broader energy system still has a lot of work to do in terms of decarbonisation. I very much take the view that there's a dichotomy—that we cannot do either unless we address the issue of the decarbonisation of dry-year storage. At the moment as we all know—and we are seeing far too much of it this winter—New Zealand stores energy for a dry year in the form of fossil fuel whether that be gas or whether that be coal. What we are seeing is that gas isn't performing as the system would expect it to this year so we are burning increased rates of coal. That is not something that our Government is content with. It is not something that we are willing to leave a system in place where the only option is to burn fossil fuel to counter a dry year. So that is why we have invested in that $100 million battery project.I'm going to turn to the last question that the member raised—and that was that the singling out of two members of the technical reference group look I find somewhat disappointing. Two young women being appointed to a reference group in an industry that is so male dominated I am disappointed that this is a line of questioning that that member has been pursuing for a period of time. I am going to defend the CVs of those two young women. So the young woman that the Opposition member writes off as a Greenpeace activist actually has a Master's in ecological economics. So I could say that is actually someone that is more than capable of sitting on a technical reference group that is appraising whether or not this makes sense both from an environmental and a business point of view. The other young woman that the member has chosen to target with her questioning is Isla Day who was part of the School Strike 4 Climate. Isla is actually studying physical geography and biomedical science. She is a member of the Wellington City Council Environmental Reference Group. Actually I think that member needs to move herself a little bit more into the present and realise that actually when we are considering projects that do impact on our future that are about climate change it is absolutely imperative that we include the next generation in this. I'm not content to have the usual industry players which are largely not as diverse as the technical reference group that we have appointed to this. This is too big of a question for New Zealand's future and one that I will make sure represents what the future of New Zealand looks like.