Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I think someone should get some help for the previous speaker Mr Tabuteau because I think right now that Mr Tabuteau is probably choking on the big dead rat that he had to swallow. What I will say for Fletcher Tabuteau is that at least Fletcher Tabuteau stood up in this House and talked about some of the other options that may be available on transition and that's something that I've heard from that member that I've not heard from any other speakers that have got up tonight. We've heard about burning the earth and all this scaremongering stuff that's going on and Fletcher Tabuteau's contribution was much more constructive than that. I would imagine that if Fletcher Tabuteau was in Cabinet and not an under-secretary then maybe Cabinet might have paid a bit more interest in this decision.We have actually witnessed something that has been disastrous for Taranaki. We have witnessed it being disastrous for New Zealand. It is disastrous for climate change and we didn't even get the opportunity for Cabinet to debate it let alone any consultation along the way.Now everyone talks about the oil and gas industry and how this Government's going to transition it. Doesn't this Government actually think that the people with the knowledge to do the transition might be in the oil and gas industry? We've got a whole oversupply of sudden experts over here who know so much about the oil and gas industry that they've decided that this is not going to be a transition; this is going to be the big bang theory. New Zealand is closed for business and they can talk about the 30 years and the permits and all of this other stuff that they bang on and rattle on about as members on the other side but actually when you put up a sign that says Closed for business" people start looking elsewhere.Transition actually means that we have to start from where we are today and we have to end up going to some other place and you don't do that by announcing the stopping of what we're doing now. As a knowledgable member on this topic Jonathan Young said you're actually banning innovation. You are banning innovation. You are attacking—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! I just want to encourage—please.BARBARA KURIGER: Sorry Madam Assistant Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you.BARBARA KURIGER: The Government is banning innovation by attacking the very people who have the ability to make a transition. And guess what: there will be no one more interested in a smooth transition to renewable energy than the people who are in the industry of energy. Because guess what: if they don't they will have a dead business and this is exactly what this Government is doing to them.I think it's rather rich that the Prime Minister made this announcement and then travelled off overseas on jet fuel—travelling off overseas again on jet fuel—and it is all about making an announcement on the global stage about how good New Zealand is and how great we are and how we're going to deal to climate change. Well guess what: every piece of advice on this has been ignored around climate change.You can talk about this being a climate change issue—an environmental issue. Well apart from being an economic disaster and a job-loss disaster this actually is likely to be the thing that's going to reverse the climate change. And then guess what Ms Russell: the earth will actually start to warm up. So watch out.It's been a very bad process. This is a Government that has 153 working groups I think I counted last time; it may be more than that now. And this major major major decision was not even put through Cabinet. One person I will commend within the Labour Government was the Hon Andrew Little because Andrew Little is the only person in the Labour Party that has made the effort to front up to Taranaki. We heard before about the Prime Minister coming to Taranaki. Well it was a closed meeting not a public meeting so what does that say? How proud is the Prime Minister about that announcement when she can go and stand on a global stage and make a big noise about how wonderful this Government is and she can't even come and front up to the people of Taranaki? So I do commend Andrew Little for that. At least he stood in that seat a couple of times. At least he's committed to Taranaki. Ms Russell hails from Taranaki as well so she might want to come back and actually come and explain why there was no consultation process with this whole announcement.So I wonder what this Government's going to do when the lights go out because when the natural gas doesn't flow from this country any more we will have to import some because we are in transition. But what happens when we've got a whole country of electric cars? How many more dams do we need to build?Jonathan Young: Twenty-two Clydes.BARBARA KURIGER: Oh about 22 Clyde Dams we're going to have to build to drive a country full of electric cars. Has the Government thought about whose backyard these dams are going to be built in? We all know the story about water storage. We all know the story about irrigation. We all know that nobody wants anything like that in their backyard. So what's going to happen when these electric cars won't go and what's going to happen when the lights don't go on? This decision has been based on paper-thin evidence because all of the evidence that's been offered by officials to this Cabinet and this Government has been ignored. It's been done against the advice of the officials and our mayor Neil Holdom did say publicly on television a couple of days ago—and he has said it before—that "The Government has no plan." A transition involves a plan and this Government has no plan.It beggars belief for me that this decision has nothing at all to do with climate change; it's virtue signalling to the world. It's just being out there on the world stage. It's always nicely timed so that we can make these big global announcements but we know that to be economically and environmentally effective we have to run with the world—we can't go ahead of it. What's going to happen is we're going to start seeing countries burning more coal. We're probably going to have to start burning more coal ourselves. We already have to burn coal in very cold weather because we haven't transitioned enough to get away from coal. So how are we going to effect that transition? It's something that I'd like to hear from one of the members—at least one of the members—when they get up on the other side of the House. If we're already in the last winter going back to burning coal because we're running out of energy on cold days how without natural gas are we going to get away from burning coal in the future? It's just worth a thought or two. I'd also like to ask them how they're going to go through the process of resource management when they have to build something like 22 dams.So look if I look around Taranaki—and I don't know how many of you people have been there; I know that Ms Russell came from there and Andrew Little spends a bit of time in Taranaki—you've only got to go around Taranaki to know what good social corporate people our oil companies are. There are plaques and signs everywhere to infrastructure. They have spent a huge amount of money on infrastructure. They do have a massive social heart. They do have an interest in the environment. They do have the funding to be able affect it. I wonder how this Government is going to effect so much change with $8 billion that's going to come out of the Government's funds. That's not counting the money that's going to come out of the industry funds. It's not counting the money that's going to come out of job losses out of the communities. It's all very well to say "Oh yeah you know it'll be fine. Business will carry on." I can tell you that in Taranaki every little coffee shop every little business and every person in Taranaki that I've talked to is extremely worried about the future of Taranaki and we've got some potential to take this future and do something with it and help the climate change on this planet.So I would ask this Government to open their eyes and if they really want to do something to help—Brett Hudson: And open their minds.BARBARA KURIGER: And their minds; thank you Brett. If they want to do something to help climate change in this world then they should actually reverse this decision.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you. Your time has expired."