Moroney Sue: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Moroney Sue: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Sitting date: 06 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6317. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is indeed a pleasure to rise and speak in opposition to clauses 1 2 and 3 of this bill the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. It is quite misleading—in particular clause 2 the commencement clause. It has two commencement dates. One is 1 July 2013 and the other one is 1 January 2013. I think that is quite misleading in terms of the big impact that this proposed legislation actually has because in fact the major thing that it does and the big blunder it makes for New Zealand is that it removes the entry of agriculture into the emissions trading scheme. The date that is in the Climate Change Response Act currently for the entry of agriculture into the emissions trading scheme will in fact be removed. So the commencement dates are quite misleading because when it comes to agriculture there is no commencement date for its entry into the emissions trading scheme. 
That will mean that on the international stage our country will be seen to not be pulling its fair share. Worse than that its international reputation will also be damaged. This international reputation has made us world leading in terms of agricultural products. That is why the market place out there wants to buy our goods—in particular our dairy products. It is not because we are the cheapest or because we are the largest mass producer. We will never win that race—we will never win that race. We are never going to be the largest producer. We are never going to be the cheapest but we can be the best and we can have the best quality. 
In particular we could trade on our clean green image if it were not for the stupidity of this Government which is via this bill dumping the biggest trading edge we have when it comes to agricultural products. The biggest trading edge that we have is our reputation—our international reputation. You know that reputation that the Prime Minister trashes day in and day out by going after David Beckham and annoying everyone in the UK with the stupidity of his comments and that Gerry Brownlee trashes by annoying Finland and its neighbours with stupid comments with regard to that country. It seems that this Government is hell-bent on ruining our international reputation rather than enhancing it. 
This bill I am afraid is yet another example of this. Although the title is indeed the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill I think it should be called the “Climate Change Lack of Response Bill” because in fact that is what this bill is proposing. The largest amount of emissions by any sector is through agriculture. The main thing that this bill does is it removes agriculture from having obligations and from having a financial incentive to actually lift its game when it comes to actually emitting pollution. Agriculture is New Zealand’s largest source of emissions. It generates 47 to 48 percent of our total all by itself—all by itself. That is the sector that the Government has delayed. Well I say “delayed” in the hope that it will eventually have a commencement date but in fact it is removing the date completely from the Act. 
So is the Government telling us that it never intends for agriculture to be brought into the emissions trading scheme? It has not proposed an alternative date; it has just gone silent on it. But is that not what New Zealanders are coming to expect from this Government: that it has no plans? It has no plans in place; it just goes silent. It just sits on its hands and does nothing. That is not the way that it will produce the brighter future—the so-called brighter future—that it actually promised New Zealanders at the last election. This bill I think shows exactly how devoid of ideas this Government is for that actual brighter future that it promised because far from delivering a brighter future this bill actually ensures that the Government cannot meet its commitment to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2050. That is not the brighter future that it promised at the election. It is in fact a dirtier future.