Sage Eugenie: Climate Change Response (Removal of Transitional Measure) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Climate Change Response (Removal of Transitional Measure) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11401. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Chair thank you. It is bizarre that we are debating this bill under urgency when it does not come into force until 1 January 2017 and Part 2 does not come into force until 1 January 2019. Why are we debating it under urgency? Is that because the Government was too scared to call for submissions and have a public debate on the lack of any decent progress towards tackling our emissions to reduce climate pollution? Because one of the most inspiring Government-organised meetings I have been to about climate change was the Government’s consultation meeting last year on New Zealand’s emission targets before we went to Paris. It was not inspiring for the video that the Ministry for the Environment showed which was incredibly defeatist about the obstacles to a low-carbon future but it was inspiring because hundreds of people came and hundreds of people there were still wanting to speak at the end of the 2-hour meeting. They had plenty to say about what we could be doing to reduce climate pollution in New Zealand.That is where the Government totally fails to get it. As James Shaw said it does not get climate change. It also does not get the desire of New Zealanders all around this country of ours to do something definite—to have a plan about reducing our emissions. People want a stable climate. They want to protect our future and the future of their children and their children’s children. They want to protect the basis of our economy. People want a plan. This Government with this damp squib of a bill is failing to provide that leadership. People all around New Zealand are getting loud on the climate. We have seen that with the break-free actions to move away from fossil fuels that we have seen over recent weeks. Yet this bill will reduce our emissions by only 0.7 percent. That is not good enough when we have got a target of reducing emissions by 11 percent.It was really interesting to have a look at the regulatory impact statement. One of the reasons for this delay in implementation is because of what has been described as the risk of increased cost to the dairy sector. Because agriculture is totally exempt from the emissions trading scheme those costs of course are to the processers—Fonterra and the milk processing companies—because they use coal to dry the milk. Those costs are passed on a wee bit to the suppliers. The regulatory impact statement estimates that there will be an increase of costs between $1500 and $5000 a year for the average dairy farmer. Because of the losses that dairy farmers are expected to make in the current season this is seen as one of the factors in delaying the implementation of the bill. But that sums up what is wrong about the Government’s whole approach to climate pollution. It is not giving the incentives to change.There was a very good presentation in Parliament last night—or in the building outside the Chamber—from Apiculture New Zealand. Its plan is to actually plant mānuka over large areas to increase our bee industry to increase the income we get from honey exports and make that a billion-dollar industry. Yet this bill and the Government’s failure to lead on climate mean that we are not getting that encouragement for a change in land use—to move away from climate pollution - land uses such as agriculture and dairying with the major methane and nitrous oxide emissions that we get from cows. Bees do not produce nitrous oxide or methane. If we had a decent climate plan we would get a shift in land use away from dairying to much more sustainable land uses across Aotearoa New Zealand but by failing to lead the Government is stifling innovation. It is leaving us stuck with climate-polluting activities like intensive dairying. That is why this bill really fails.We are supporting the bill in the Green Party because it is a baby step but it is completely timid and it fails to listen to New Zealanders around the country who want leadership on climate change in the same way that we have led in terms of being nuclear-free and have led in terms of women getting the right to vote. This bill fails to lead.