Hide Rodney: General Debate 
Hide Rodney: General Debate 
[Volume:663;Page:10983] 
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 It is has been a great pleasure to be part of this Government to support this Government and to work with the many fine Ministers on public policy and the Budget. A particular pleasure has been the opportunity to travel around New Zealand to speak at National Party functions and to meet the many decent hard-working people good people who support the National Party. And I stand up in this House on behalf of the hard-working National Party membership and make their case for them—what they are telling their MPs what they are telling their chairman and what they are telling their leader of the National Party. 
National supporters are asking National to defer the emissions trading scheme. They do not understand why their party is leading them ahead of the rest of the world. They know that Nick Smith is wrong when he says that there are all those countries implementing an emissions trading scheme because in Europe it is only big businesses that are paying and then there are so many exemptions it affects only 4 percent of their output. The National Party membership who are the dairy farmers the small-business owners the householders—the backbone of the productive economy of New Zealand—do not understand why their party in Government is moving to put a tax on them through the emissions trading scheme that will hit every business in New Zealand touch every household in New Zealand reach every family in New Zealand and extend its tentacles into every New Zealander’s pocket. On 1 July electricity will be going up 5c a unit petrol will be going up 4c a litre and in 2013 that will double. 
Helen Clark as Prime Minister was keen to look good as far as the UN went and she wanted New Zealand to lead the world in climate change policies. One of the reasons people swapped their vote from Labour to National at the last election was that they were sick of the nanny State and they were sick of a Government that was telling them what to do. They were sick of a Government that wanted to lead the world who knows where and they voted for the pragmatic honest decent National Party to put an end to that. The membership of the National Party cannot understand it. Whether in Invercargill or Kaitaia at every electorate meeting that is being held people are asking why we cannot follow the rest of the world why we cannot tuck in beside Australia why we cannot take account of the evidence and the facts that are now apparent and stop the madness of the Labour Party’s emissions trading scheme for New Zealand which will—and I see Jacinda Ardern with a big smile on her face—put farmers out of business in this country. It will tip farmers over in this country. 
Jacinda Ardern might think that is funny but I see that no National member thinks it is funny because they know that on this issue the ACT Party speaks the truth. The ACT Party is reflecting what the National Party membership is telling the National MPs and the ACT Party is reflecting what New Zealanders want which is the emissions trading scheme stopped deferred postponed ended and not introduced on 1 July this year. Why we should be ahead of the rest of the world is beyond comprehension. The member for Pakuranga knows it the member for Waimakariri knows it the member for the West Coast - Tasman knows it the member for Coromandel knows it and John Key knows it. Why on earth are we heading off to put this intolerable cost on to New Zealanders?