5. Question No. 5—TransportHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 5—Transport5. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai) to the Minister of Transport: What did the official advice provided to Cabinet on 4 December estimate would be the impact of discontinuation of the clean car discount on New Zealand's carbon dioxide emissions and were there any inconsistencies between this advice and other analysis provided by the Ministry of Transport? Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): The advice to Cabinet noted that the transport sector remains on target to achieve its contribution to the first emissions reduction plan. Advice provided to Cabinet is consistent with all the advice provided to me by the Ministry of Transport.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister has referred to this document and I'm wondering if we could ask the Minister to table the documents since he's referred to the content of it in the House.SPEAKER: It's a matter of whether or not he relied on the document in the House or was simply making a statement from it. So I'll ask the Minister: is that a document he has with him in the House that he would want to table?Hon SIMEON BROWN: I just said that it was advice provided to me.SPEAKER: Advice provided—yeah. I think there's a slight difference between advice provided and a document. So thank you but—your next supplementary?Hon Julie Anne Genter: Why won't he release the draft regulatory impact statement that was prepared by the Ministry of Transport on the impacts of carbon emissions before we vote on the legislation today?SIMEON BROWN: It was a draft document.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Why won't he release the draft document so we can see what the draft advice was before we vote on the legislation?SIMEON BROWN: It was a draft document. I've asked Ministry of Transport officials to prepare the proactive release of this Cabinet paper and regulatory impact statement.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Why won't the Minister release the advice produced by the Ministry of Transport telling us what the impacts of the repeal of this legislation will be on New Zealand's carbon dioxide emissions before we vote on the legislation in the House today?SIMEON BROWN: Well as I've said the advice to Cabinet noted that the transport sector remains on target to achieve its contribution to the first emissions budget.Simon Court: What impact will removing the Clean Car Discount have on transport emissions given they're already covered by the emissions trading scheme?SIMEON BROWN: Well that is a very good point; they are covered by the emissions trading scheme and capped under that scheme. But also as I said in my answer to the primary question the advice to Cabinet noted that the transport sector remains on target to achieve its contribution to the first emissions reduction plan.Mark Cameron: Are there other impacts from removing this ute tax like the benefits to the rural communities who will no longer need to pay the fee on their farm vehicles?SIMEON BROWN: Well yes this removal will have a huge benefit for our rural communities. In fact the advice I've received shows that of the $290 million paid in tax under the ute tax scheme half of it has come from people buying utes. Many of them will be farmers and tradies in our rural communities.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Does the official advice that the Minister is refusing to release before we vote on the legislation concur with the report released by Concept Consulting for Drive Electric that the reduced uptake of electric vehicles because of the repeal of the Clean Car Discount will see New Zealand spending over a billion more on imported oil from overseas and mean that we will import 100000 fewer electric vehicles in the period from now to 2030 thereby increasing carbon emissions relative to if the scheme stayed in place?SIMEON BROWN: I dispute the assertion made by the member. In fact I was very pleased to see yesterday that Ford announced that from 1 July the day after the tax will be removed they will be reducing the price of some of their electric vehicles from between $5000 and $8000.Chris Bishop: Has the Minister received reports about past examples of Ministers adamantly refusing to release correspondence about related matters to the transport portfolio that might be in the public interest to release?SPEAKER: You may want to ask that question but the Minister's not going to answer it. It's in the same category as the questions we had earlier: interesting but not particularly relevant to the question.Hon Julie Anne Genter: If the Government is concerned about subsidising wealthy people why is the Government happy to give money—billions of dollars in tax breaks—to wealthy landlords when that does nothing to reduce emissions? Is it the case that this Government is happy to give money to rich people when it does nothing to reduce emissions?SPEAKER: Sorry that question is out of order as well.