Hodgson Pete: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Hodgson Pete: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4747] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 I was not going to take part in this debate but I do not think that that contribution can go unanswered. I am going to do so gently but I am going to do so firmly. Nikki Kaye got up and told us how during the Labour Government emissions went up and she is right. She told us how Labour was not very effective on climate change and she is wrong. The member is a new member; the member does not understand I do not think the history of climate change policy in this country. She does not understand it. For the last 15 or 16 years— 
Nikki Kaye 
: What have you done? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: She is going to interrupt now. I sat in silence while listening to that insolent ignorant abusive speech and that member is now going to get a towelling because she has invited it. Normally one says of a young member a new member: “That’s fair enough. They are still learning the ropes.” We have all done that before. But I am not about to put up with that. 
The Labour Government ratified the Kyoto Protocol against the wishes of the National Party. That Government not only ratified the protocol but before ratification it had put in place a policy that was consulted in a draft form and was then announced in its final form over months and months and months. In fact it did not come out until about September 2002 as I recall. That is something like 2½ years of activity and 2½ years of consultation. That is the beginning. 
Under a Labour Government wind energy got going because of the projects to reduce emissions. Under Labour when we became the Government there were no insulation standards in this country except for some temporary ones that had been put in in 1978 by—guess who—Sir Robert Muldoon. They had not been improved during the course of the fourth Labour Government they had not been improved during the 9 years of the Bolger-Shipley Government and they were put in place by me as Minister of Energy. They were then improved twice and are about to go through their third improvement. 
All of the foundation policies were put in place by that Labour Government with support from the Greens. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority which everyone now thinks is great because it is about warm homes and all of that was sitting surrounded by cobwebs in the Ministry of Commerce in 1999; it was completely demoralised. It was taken out given special legislation and put in with the Ministry for the Environment etc. Now everyone knows what “EECA” means; it is all very very ragey. 
We had a biofuels target under the Labour Government. Unfortunately—and I still think it is a sad mistake but we will not go on about it—one of the first actions of this Government was to get rid of it. A lot of the research and development effort that is now we hope starting to come to fruition was begun under Labour although much of it was begun before then. You see there is some history here there is some effort here and some people have done some hard yards. The member who has just resumed her seat ought to become a student of history before she takes a call again.