Simmonds PennyPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Speaker. This is a tax. This is a redistribution of funding from middle and lower income New Zealand to wealthier New Zealand. This is those who can't afford an $80000 electric vehicle (EV) and it's taking money from them to assist the wealthy to buy their expensive EV. This will hurt middle New Zealanders it will hurt families and it will particularly hurt rural people who have to have cars to get around. They do not have the option of public transport. The geography of Southland is the same size as the country of Switzerland. You cannot get around Southland easily in an EV. People in Southland have to take their children to their sports practices to their sports games to their music after school. They have to be able to take their family around in a reliable car that they know can get them there and back and this is going to cost them extra. This is happening at the time when cost of living is increasing so the middle New Zealand family is going to be paying more for their housing whether it's more for their mortgage repayments—higher interest—or more for their rent. They're going to be paying more for their food they're going to be paying more for their petrol and they're going to be paying more for a vehicle to get them safely around.The Motor Industry Association as my colleague the Hon David Bennett has said do not support this bill. They have said that it has an appalling lack of understanding of how to effectively reduce emissions. They are saying that it ignores well-thought-out and considered advice from industry. And this would have to be what we are seeing over and over again from this Government: ignoring the advice the considered thinking from industry and from people on the ground. I would have said from my experience running a business that when you are trying to embark on change you try and take people with you and you try and surround yourself with experts and people who will be living the consequences of your change and you try and take notice of them. But this Government which is seriously lacking in expertise and experience has chosen to ignore the advice of their own advisers as well as those in industry. And this is becoming a pattern whether it's in education health water or now this Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill. The Motor Industry Association has said that it will increase car prices by 15 to 20 percent. So if we look at a family car of around $40000 that's an extra $8000. Each year we import around $5 billion worth of vehicles. That is about a billion-dollar tax grab with this legislation. So be very sure that we understand this legislation is about a tax that will take money from the middle and lower income New Zealand and redistribute it to the wealthy. Labour has said that the highest-emitting vehicles will be taxed to subsidise EVs and hybrids but if you look at the Minister's Cabinet paper the table illustrating a pathway forward by 2028 the humble Suzuki Swift will be taxed. A hybrid RAV4 will be taxed. In fact any family vehicle aside from an EV will be taxed. National is also opposed to the Clean Car Standard in this bill. It just goes too far. The target is unrealistic and it would take us ahead of Europe. This doesn't make sense. We are not a producer of vehicles. We can't get ahead of the producers of vehicles. It would require a 38 percent improvement in fuel efficiency in just three years. And where car importers can't meet that target they will be heavily fined and they will have to pass that on to their customers. Now this is about trying to reduce emissions and the bill was introduced today to the House by the Minister for the Environment James Shaw. You would have to say today how did he feel about introducing what is going to be a tax on middle and lower income New Zealand to reduce emissions when he and nine others from New Zealand are going to head over to a conference in Scotland to reduce emissions—to discuss reducing emissions—and by the way take up those managed isolation and quarantine places when they come back. Where ideology is driving the bill the unintended consequences are not looked at and my colleague the Hon David Bennett has pointed out a number of those unintended consequences. Those middle-income New Zealanders those families who cannot afford an EV will hold on to their vehicles longer. They will be gas-guzzling vehicles and they will be less safe vehicles. So it's really important when we're looking at a bill like this that we consider those unintended consequences and what they are going to mean to our families in New Zealand. It is really unfortunate to be bringing this bill up in the House at this time when so many families in our country are going through such difficult times when people are at home trying to keep their children schooled trying to do their own work from home or even worse not working and not knowing if they will have a job to go back to or a business still there. It's not a time when they can concentrate on something like this. It's not a time when they can think through the consequences of legislation like this. And it's a real concern that we're going to have people having to try and think about putting submissions in on a bill when they are going through so many other issues in their life when they are trying to think of the ways in which they are going to cope with the increases in the cost of living as well as increases like this that will be coming at them.National is opposed to this bill. We believe that it is not the time to be putting extra costs on to middle New Zealand and on to our families who can't avoid them. We believe it is not the time to be rewarding those who can afford an EV at the cost of those who can't. It is not a redistribution of wealth that we think is fair and it is not something that should be foisted on to middle New Zealand lower-income New Zealand at this time. Thank you Mr Speaker.