Street Maryan: Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Biofuel Obligation Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading 
Street Maryan: Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Biofuel Obligation Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:773] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 As this is my first speech in this forty-ninth Parliament I would like to congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on your elevation to that position and your colleagues likewise. 
What the Luddites were to the industrial revolution the New Zealand National Party is to this sustainability revolution. The Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Biofuel Obligation Repeal Bill is nonsense. To repeal a biofuel obligation in legislation that has not yet had a chance to work is nonsense. The National Government will go down in history as the Luddites of sustainability because sustainability has taken off in a revolutionary way internationally and it would seem that the New Zealand National Government is the only Government on the planet that will not accept that truth. I wonder whether this is what the fine crop of new National MPs knew they were signing up to. It seems to me that this legislation is a fast step backwards. 
I want to put this bill into context. First of all the National Government has done a number of things in the very short time that it has been in power. Dr Nick Smith frequently likes to refer to the blue-green credentials of the New Zealand National Party. I have to say in respect of this measure and several others which I will enumerate in a moment that those blue-green credentials are completely in tatters. The National Government went into a confidence and supply agreement with the only climate change deniers in New Zealand and that is enough on its own to turn us from being a leader into a laughing stock internationally. 
Second the Government removed the research and development tax credit which has an immediate impact on biofuel industry development. More than that the research and development tax credit completely stymies innovation and business development particularly where we need it most and where we need it most is in all of the industries that can capitalise on and progress sustainable initiatives whether it is sustainable food production sustainable fuel production or alternative fuel production. 
Third this National-led Government slowed down the emissions trading scheme and turned us from a leader in this area to what it likes to call “a fast follower”. The previous speaker from United Future Peter Dunne said he did not quite go along with all the rhetoric around the damage being done to New Zealand’s reputation. I advise this House that I have been to an Asia-Pacific conference on climate change and the effects on population development. Having just got back from that conference today I can report in quite fresh and stark terms that it was simply embarrassing to say that we were from New Zealand and that the New Zealand Government and its confidence and supply partner ACT had been reviewing and questioning the science around climate change. When one hears the stories from the countries—developed and developing—around the Asia-Pacific region and the impact that climate change is having already not only on their food security but on health and the struggles against poverty then it seems absolutely clear that this National Government is in a Luddite frame of mind. 
The fourth thing National has done which contextualises this legislation is lift the ban on thermal generation. So the answer to all our electricity generation difficulties and constraints in National’s view is that we need to build more thermal generation plants and pollute the atmosphere even more in the course of doing so. There are no aspirations from this National-led Government for renewable energy. There are no aspirations for developing renewable energy sources and for promoting those things and developing the kinds of energy supply that we are good at—in particular geothermal energy. A new plant has just come on stream to demonstrate that capacity most starkly. 
The fifth thing is that this National-led Government has moved away from and will not consider any standards for energy-efficient households in order to enable people to save money on their energy usage and to become energy conservation - conscious. The sixth thing in this complete litany of damnation in respect of the National-led Government’s proposals is the scrapping of the home insulation scheme. That in itself is something this Government needs to be ashamed of because the absolute pay-off in that fund and that scheme will come back to haunt it. 
We have heard already but it bears repeating that this Government which purports to be business-friendly has already with this measure plus the rescinding of the research and development tax credit brought development in this essential area of biofuels to a halt. The Waharoa example is but one example. Of course there has been anxiety—and it was widely canvassed at the select committee—about the production of biofuels from food crops. For that very reason the sustainability principles were written into the legislation. From this National-led Government we have a backwards step—something that will not only damage New Zealand’s reputation but as if that were not enough absolutely damage our capacity to produce alternative biofuels. 
In the first 2 weeks of its existence in this House this National-led Government has brought in legislation under urgency so that there can be no debate no referral to a select committee and no re-examination of issues. I will not go into the other pieces of legislation that do not immediately relate to this bill—about which the same things can be said—but I will say that the Government’s approach absolutely demonstrates a completely disrespectful attitude to the processes that this Parliament is meant to uphold. I cannot believe that this new intake of the new generation of National MPs are feeling very happy about this kind of legislation and these kinds of hallmarks which are going to live with this National-led Government for some time to come. Those members will regret not having been able to discuss these things more fully within their own caucus. 
One of the purposes of the mandatory biofuels obligation was to encourage oil companies to develop the infrastructure needed to deliver sustainable biofuels. It was simply an initial step but an essential one in order to create the backdrop required in order for a sustainable biofuels industry to be able to work in New Zealand.