Hughes Gareth: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 10 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15380. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker.Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to offer a dissenting view on this bill the Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill.It is a complex title for a bill. I do not think that many members could rattle it off. But let us call this bill what it is. It is a fossil fuel subsidy bill. What we see in this legislation are more handouts for one of the most profitable industries in the world. We see more tax breaks for the oil industry and for fossil fuel pollution in this bill. That is why the Greens are quite proud to be opposing this tax bill. We should simply be calling this the “Tax Breaks for Fossil Fuels Bill”. The Greens are opposed to it.There are many parts in this bill that we can live with and we support. The bill deals with a huge range of tax changes from police private investigators’ clothing allowance through to accommodation and tax rates paid for by Kiwi workers through to the enforcement costs of the tax regime many being changes we could support. But what the Government has done is it has snuck in a regressive and wrong economic signal change—that is to extend the tax breaks to fossil fuel drilling in New Zealand—and that is why the Greens are opposed to it. We cannot support further distorting fossil fuel subsidies that are putting at risk our climate and our environment but also putting at risk our economy. Our economy depends on a stable climate and our economy depends on the environment which is the basis of our prosperity.The scientific consensus is clear. When you look around the world extreme weather events are literally killing thousands and millions of people—according to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan—around the world we need to take climate change seriously. What we need to do is end distorting subsidies to fossil fuels. What we are doing with laws such as this is sending the wrong message. We are sending the message to the oil industry: “Keep investing capital in further drilling rigs. Do not invest your capital in low-carbon alternatives.” We are sending perverse economic signals and it is disappointing to see some of the parties supporting this in this House because this is not New Zealand’s future.For a generation that has grown up watchingThe Beverly Hillbilliesthis is the way the Government thinks about economic development. All it has to do is get lucky like Jed Clampett. I see the member Maggie Barry shaking her head but where is her vision for a prosperous economy and a richer New Zealand? Because all I hear is that this Government has got to give taxpayer handouts to the oil industry in the hope that it finds something down there and it does not leave too much of a mess.This Government likes to portray the Greens as not having any ideas but the fact is that all this Government is about is handouts for its mates—already one of the most profitable industries. It is not just the $5 million in tax exemptions for non-resident drilling ships as this “Tax Breaks for Oil Bill” contains; it is also $46 million in tax breaks in the last financial year alone according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. So here is an industry where the Government likes to bring out big numbers about all the GDP benefits we may see from oil drilling—in fact that is what the Inland Revenue Department advises us in the regulatory impact statement—but it is happening only because of all the taxpayer generosity.I have never heard a National member stand up and say: “I am the party for big oil. They are only going to come here with more generous taxpayer subsidies.” I do not want to see a New Zealand that subsidises oil drilling. I do not want to see a New Zealand that sends the wrong economic signal. What I want to see is a New Zealand that sends the right economic signals and sends the market the right signals to invest in the future economy not in a lazy gamble—aBeverly Hillbillies -style approach to economic development—a drill it mine it frack it approach as the former Minister of Energy and Resources Phil Heatley best epitomised.It is not just the Greens of course that are opposed to this bill; in fact it is Treasury. In the regulatory impact statement Treasury advises against it because of the precedent the bill sets but also because of the economic signal it is sending. What we want to see is not a Government that picks winners particularly in the polluting industry and that puts at risk the actual basis of our economy. What we do not want to be doing is picking winners in the oil and gas sector because what we do know is that we have got a much brighter richer future for New Zealand in clean energy. That is where the Government should be putting some of the leadership some of the attention and maybe some of the tax thaw when it comes to things like research and development tax credits. But instead it has got a platter full of $46 million in tax breaks for the oil industry and $25 million in free seismic survey data handed over. As one of the most profitable industries in the world which is risking our environment and risking our economy I do not think this industry this sector needs any more tax breaks or taxpayer generosity.What we need to be doing is orientating our economy towards the clean energy future. When you look around the world the trends are clear. More net international capital investment was invested in clean energy than in fossil fuels in 2011. At a time when China Europe and America are spending vast sums billions of dollars on clean energy the Government and the Inland Revenue Department through our tax settings are orientating our economy towards a fossil fuel economy. It is an old-fashioned approach to economic development that does not look at our strengths which is our innovation—the fact that we are two-thirds renewables and could easily be 100 percent. This is our brand advantage these are our strengths and this is where we need to be using our tax system to promote to stimulate and to provide leadership.This is just a small bill and a large number of supports subsidies tax breaks and laws for the industry by the industry that we are seeing by this Government. When you look around the world you see the OECD warning against more tax breaks for fossil fuels and contributing to climate change. It estimates that around the world we could be seeing $610 billion. So this $46 million is only a small component. For a little country struggling with major economic trends we cannot be orientating ourselves to the past to destroying the environment to the old fossil fuel economy. We need to listen to the likes of Treasury on this issue listen to the likes of the OECD and listen to our great entrepreneurs Kiwi businesses that are doing great work at the moment despite the lack of Government leadership despite all the laws and attention going to fossil fuels and despite the lack of an adequate carbon price.So this is our future. The Greens are going to keep championing for a fair go for Kiwi taxpayers a fair go for Kiwi businesses and a halt to the subsidies and the tax breaks and all the attention lavished on polluters. I think when we go to the electors at the next election they are going to want people who have actually got a plan—a plan built on innovation on our country’s strengths not on aBeverly Hillbillies approach to economic development. Kia ora.