Henare Tau: Biofuel Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: Biofuel Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18277. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Let me just respond to the comments of the Minister of Finance. The issue about costs is that they will be an impost on those who are involved in the transportation industry. So it will be a cost on them; and if it is a cost on them then surely to goodness it will be a cost on the mums and dads out there. Even the transportation of a budget loaf of bread will result in an impost a cost to the mums and dads. So that is where the issue of costs arises I say to the Minister who has gone now.  
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Order! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The whole thing about coming up with a standard is that if we develop a standard everybody in New Zealand knows the standard and that is what they have to do to make their business work. But there is nothing of the sort in the bill. There is no standard whatsoever.  
Moana Mackey 
: Read the bill. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: So there is a standard? So the standards have been sorted out in somebody’s feeble mind—for the future. John Harrison of Harrison Motors the transport company up in the mid-north has to think: “That’s right. The standards are there in the feeble mind of the Government but it’s not going to tell us.” So how can they run a business; how can people possibly operate on an idea of standards? What are the standards? 
Moana Mackey 
: Read the bill. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: So there are standards? The standards have been sorted out? That is what list member No. 43 is saying—no sorry that is not the member’s number. That is Louisa Wall’s number.  
Allan Peachey 
: What’s the number then 48? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well if she is not No. 48 she should not be there anyway. I want to set out that the bill creates an obligation for fuel companies to blend diesel and petrol with 0.5 percent biofuel on 1 October with the requirement increasing by 0.5 percent each year to 2.5 percent in 2012. We couple that with the bill’s stated intention that requires a person subject to the biofuel sales obligation to file an annual return. What have we heard over the last 2 or 3 years from businesses? We have heard that the impact of red tape is huge on that 90 percent making up small to medium sized enterprises in this country. It is a huge impost and has a huge impact on their day-to-day business. Because they have just been told that the fuel companies will have to file a return every year—it is another piece of paper they have to fill out—then that is an impost. It has an impact not only on the transport companies and on the fuel companies but also on mums and dads. At the end of the day when they toddle off to Woolworths to Countdown or to Foodtown that is where they get it. Who pays for it? The mums and dads do. So on the one hand we get a tax cut from the great Labour Government but it gets taken away with all these other little add-ons. In the end they do not see anything. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: Have a talk to Maurice. He will tell you about it. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Leave it until tomorrow? Well we could leave it until tomorrow. We might leave it until tomorrow. If the Minister wants to leave it until tomorrow if that is his philosophy then it is no wonder he is no longer the Minister of Health.  
Let me say this. It would have been all right for the House to accept no standards if the Government had been here for only 6 months. We could have forgiven the fact that there was only a small amount of time in which to figure out what the standards were to be and to put them in place after the compulsion bit. But let us not forget the Government has been in office for 9 years. 
Eric Roy 
: How long? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: For 9 long years. What has the Government been doing for the last 8 years? Has there been anything on standards? No. Has there been anything on listening to other nations and organisations from around the world? No. The Government has gone ahead and thought it knew everything; and all it has done and all it will do on the passage of this bill is put an impost on mums and dads. That is where it will happen. Mums and dads will pay for the Government’s weird ideas about saving the planet because that is all it is. It is the weird ideas from the Labour Government and the nanny State supported by the Greens over there. For goodness’ sake! Talk about putting the cart before the horse! My goodness me! The next thing we will know is that we will be riding around in a horse and cart. Mind you there is nothing wrong with that I suppose if we are on holiday down in the South Island somewhere. But if we have to get to work from west Auckland out to South Auckland and there is no highway because the Government could not afford to look forward on the transportation—[ 
Interruption 
] Absolutely Mr Chairman.  
I want to finish by coining the phrase that Moana Mackey used in this House not so long ago—get with the programme. Absolutely! We have to say “Get with the programme.” What is that programme? The programme is to get rid of this Government.  
I feel sorry for my colleagues on the other side of the Chamber. Half of them will not be back here after the election and they might need some biofuels. Where they are going they will need our help. In all seriousness this is nothing more than a cost on mum and dad. Mums and dads in these times cannot afford another tax another impost on their meagre wages.