Chauvel Charles: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — First Reading 
Chauvel Charles: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5266] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 It is clear that the world has to do something to end its doomed love affair with oil. It is a pervasive aspect of our society from our cars to even bottled-water bottles. Petroleum products in vehicle engines contribute massively to carbon emissions and environmental degradation at a time when we are all clear about the need to deal with that challenge through action both personally and as a country. We just do not know when oil is going to run out but we do know that as it becomes more scarce prices will rise and that will affect all of us everywhere. 
We need better alternatives to carbon-based energy and one fantastic alternative is the use of biofuels whereby energy is drawn from much more environmentally friendly sources than the petroleum we have allowed ourselves as a society to become hooked on. But we need to make sure that biofuels sources are environmentally sustainable. Biofuels are drawn from crops such as corn which is used to produce ethanol and there are problems with that in the US. We have seen massive price distortions as a result. But biofuels can also be drawn from other plant sources or animal sources to produce bio-diesel or biogas. They can even come from waste cooking oil from McDonald’s. But the crops and lands used for biofuels production are also used for food production and the Sustainable Biofuel Bill addresses that problem. 
Before the great global economic meltdown the world experienced what  
The Economist 
 magazine called a “silent tsunami” with rising food prices and shortages. The race to get on to the biofuels bandwagon was a contributor to the “silent tsunami” that  
The Economist 
 referred to. So we need biofuels that are sustainable and produced sustainably. 
The problem we have here however is one that Moana Mackey alluded to: all this could have been in place already. It is very annoying and very frustrating for members on this side of the House—and it must also be frustrating for the sponsor of this bill who negotiated hard to get the provisions in the repealed legislation—that this House is having to legislate twice once to repeal legislation under urgency before Christmas and now this bill for which we have had to wait months to replace it. 
And what are we dealing with in terms of replacement proposals? As Moana Mackey said it is a massive multimillion-dollar payment to industry which is a total waste of scarce taxpayers’ money in the current recessionary environment. It was interesting to hear the previous speaker Chris Auchinvole talk about the market working. Well if this is an example of the market working—because it gets a $36 million taxpayer subsidy—I am sure a whole lot of other parts of New Zealand would like to have a bit more market. But I do not think we will be seeing that sort of approach extended to those who really are in need. 
In the meantime while we have been waiting this legislation could have been in place as Moana Mackey said on 1 July. Instead we will have to wait until 1 May 2010. In the meantime jobs have been lost—we have seen that as a matter of public record—in entities that were relying on the biofuels obligation to make producing biofuels onshore domestically sustainable. 
Nevertheless we are here and certainly Labour members welcome the bill. We are committed to seeing its passage through all stages in the House if the numbers required can be achieved. Although I heard Mr Brownlee say that the Government will support it being referred to a select committee and the ambition then as I understand it is to merge the work being done by officials with submissions on this legislation Labour is happy to commit to seeing this legislation pass through all its stages if the numbers can be achieved. This is effectively as Moana Mackey said a re-enactment of legislation agreed between Labour and the Greens prior to the last election. 
We need the bill as I have said. It will be an important complementary measure to the emissions trading scheme when that scheme finally is confirmed by this Parliament in terms of the tool box that we need to reduce emissions. The bill will be an important part of making sure that we have a balance between food production and fuel production and it will be a very important contributor to that vital principle in which we all believe: encouraging biodiversity. With those concluding comments I welcome this bill.