te Heuheu Georgina: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
te Heuheu Georgina: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:18173] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to take a call on Part 2. I want to pick up on a comment of my colleague Dr Nick Smith that National certainly supports the 90 percent renewable energy target but of course—and it will not be a surprise—we would have a different method of reaching that target. I must say that this is an area in which the Government’s climate change policies have failed. 
I ask the Minister in the chair David Parker to clarify this particular issue. From our point of view it seems that the Government’s interventions in the electricity industry have been contradictory. I challenge the Minister to stand up and refute that. Far from moving New Zealand towards the goal of 90 percent renewables which I think was the Government’s aim the proportion has fallen— 
Hon Annette King 
: An estimation. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: It might have been an estimation as my colleague says but if I recall correctly the Government put it forward as a definite aim. Whether it was an aim or estimation the Government has failed. Far from the Government moving New Zealand towards the goal of 90 percent renewables the proportion has fallen from 72 percent in 1999 to 66 percent in 2007. That is a long way after 9 years from 90 percent. I did not have the opportunity to sit on the select committee considering this bill. I would like the Minister to take a call to explain why with all the Government’s trumpeting hurrahing and what have you over these last three terms it has failed dismally in that respect. 
The Government’s interventions have been contradictory. Renewable developments like Project Aqua and the Dobson hydro project were stopped by Government decisions. Thermal projects like the new oil-powered Whirinaki power station have been directly funded by a consumer levy and the massive new 385-megawatt e3p combined-cycle gas turbine built by Genesis was unusually underwritten by the Government. Of the new generation built by this Government 75 percent has been thermal. So the moratorium proposed here represents a radical shift in policy. How long is the moratorium for? 
David Bennett 
: 10 years. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: That is an eternity frankly given the way that things are moving particularly in an area where we want to take the lead. We certainly have a record of doing that on a number of important things. It would seem that on this issue we might at least have waited to see what Australia does with its emissions trading scheme but no this Government wants to push us out in front with no proper structures at all being proposed. Am I right in saying that the Government proposed to put off the scheme for 2 years in order to design it properly? Maybe not. In any event after 9 years the Government fewer than 2 months before the end of its third term is pushing it through. It is not being done under urgency—although I am sure the Government would like to do that—because the Greens I understand would not allow it to happen even though they are supporting the bill. There are 785 amendments. That is nearly unconstitutional quite frankly I say to the Minister. He should hang his head in shame. [ 
Interruption 
] I certainly was a Minister but I was never as arrogant as that. 
National Party members have a concern about security of supply. Many submitters from the industry I understand believe that the moratorium will put security of supply in jeopardy. We can see why that would be. If we put a moratorium on something people do not know where they stand. Things tend to come to a bit of a standstill the Government hums and ha’s and those who would make the investment do not know where they stand. The second concern is the effectiveness of the moratorium. It is a very blunt instrument as most moratoriums are and it does not seem to be part of any coherent policy.