Hughes Gareth: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 27 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18326. 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 oppose the Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill. I am opposing this bill because this is a fossil fuel subsidy bill—plain and simple. That is what this bill is about. It is an omnibus bill. There are some parts in it that we can support like the clothing allowance—non-controversial changes such as that. But there are some other parts of it that we are concerned about such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act provisions where the bill is deeply surprising. It is quite novel to be agreeing in legislation to an international treaty system that is yet to have its negotiations concluded. I share the Labour Party’s minority view on that. We will be opposing this bill and we will be opposing this bill because of the $6 million in tax breaks for the oil industry.This is one of the wealthiest industries in the world and it is one of the last industries in the world that we should be subsidising with New Zealand taxpayer dollars and incentivising with tax breaks. What this bill does is extend the previous Labour Government’s non-resident offshore oil rig and seismic vessel tax exemptions.Our vision in the Green Party is for a clean-energy economy—a clean-energy economy that delivers greater jobs greater profits greater taxes greater prosperity. This is the recipe for a richer New Zealand. The recipe for New Zealand’s economy is not to entice theAnadarkos thePetrobrases the TAG Oils and members of the oil industry from around the world down to our shores risking our environment and risking the economy that depends on it. That is not a recipe for a richer New Zealand. It is not even a credible economic strategy. It is simply hoping that someone finds something downthere and that they do not leave too much of a mess as they get it out. It is symptomatic of the entire economic strategy of the National Government which is predicated simply on raw logs milk powder and hoping for oil.What we saw in the Budget was that Bill English wants to focus on just the fiscal surplus. What we did see was a surplus of poverty. We saw that 290000 Kiwi kids or 30 percent are growing up in poverty. There was a surplus of poverty and a surplus of inequality but also a deficit. It was a deficit of ideas a deficit of innovation looking towards the future. A progressive Government would look to the future to a richer New Zealand that builds on our strengths which is our current clean-energy expertise and would take it forward. So we are not supporting tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry—the $6 million that officials advised—because we listen to the scientists. We listen to the scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who have recently warned us in dire tones of the consequences of increased fossil fuel emissions going into the atmosphere. Scientists down in Antarctica have warned us of the potentially irreversible collapse of the West Antarctica ice sheet. If these facts are not going to persuade the Government to stop playing fast and loose with taxpayer dollars to promote a dirty industry that warms our planet and risks our livelihood and literally the lives of tens of hundreds of thousands of people around the world you have to ask what will.The Government should be listening to the International Energy Agency and to UN head ChristianaFigueres who urge Governments like New Zealand’s to leave two-thirds of the fossil fuels in the ground. Obviously we are still an oil-dependent economy. We still need oil to get around for our industrial activity. What we need to be doing is transitioning to a clean economy urgently. What we know is that these oil reserves which Minister Heatley was spending a lot of his time trying to uncover in New Zealand’s waters were assets—or so-called assets—that we could not afford to burn. The scientists are saying that we cannot afford to burn two-thirds of them if we want a stable climate for our kids to grow up in. So these are toxic assets. It is a carbon bubble that the Green Party would avoid because we would focus on the clean-energy opportunities for New Zealand.As well as the $6 million in subsidies contained in this bill which is soon to become an Act there is the $46 million in tax breaks going to the oil industry which the World Wide Fund for Nature calculated last financial year—$46 million of taxpayers’ money going to the oil industry to promote more oil drilling and to promote more fossil fuels. There is the $25 million in free seismic survey information which is a direct subsidy to this industry. You have got to question the motives of this Government when it is subsidising the oil industry. There are handouts forTīwai Point and laws for Anadarko.I would rather be focusing on the real New Zealanders who are struggling with the high cost of living the high cost of housing and the low wages compared with other developed countries. You know we work some of the longest hours for some of the smallest wages and pay one of the highest costs of living in the world. There are real people in real houses and real families who need support but sadly this Government seems to be more focused on theAnadarkos thePetrobrases and theTīwai Points. It is time to focus on real New Zealanders.This Government will change the law under urgency. It will spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to promote oil drilling. What would the Green Party do? Well the Green Party would promote a clean-energy economy. We would get us to 100 percent electricity faster than the other parties would get us to 90 percent. We would transition our oil industry. We are opposed to deep-sea oil drilling. Onshore oil drilling which does not carry the same risk profile we would transition away. It is a good thing because from what we know from the data there are four times more jobs in cleanenergy than in fossil fuel. We would build a clean-energy export economy. This is something that Investment New Zealand says could be a $150 billion export opportunity by the 2030s. Through the Green Investment Bank which we have recently announced we could empower Kiwi businesses to be exporting the technology the expertise and the intellectual property selling the world what it needs and selling the world what it wants. At the moment when you subsidise the oil industry and you send those economic incentives we are looking to last century’s economy—an economy that the science now says cannot go on and on for ever. What we have seen globally is a tipping point. In 2001 according to Bloomberg more net capital investment was invested in clean energy than in all the fossil fuels and all the nuclear plants for electricity. The world is looking in one direction but sadly the National Government is looking in the other direction.We need to embrace the clean-energy export economy. That is what New Zealanders want. It is more secure and more resilient it is about energy freedom and it is about new jobs but it is also about a richer New Zealand. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that we have a $7 billion to $22 billion annual economic opportunity from clean energy. So we would promote it through Government leadership through an updated energy strategy. We would promote new businesses through the Green Investment Bank. We would have a strong and effective carbon price signal. We would update and modernise our laws for a climate reality world. We would work with the wind energy sector the wave energy sector and the biofuels sector to support them with research and development.This is the richer future for New Zealand. My vision is not a handful of mostly foreign people working on these oil rigs risking our jobs albeit with taxpayer subsidies and taxpayer-funded tax breaks to entice them down here. My vision for the future of New Zealand is thousands of Kiwis installing insulation under people’s roofs. As we know that has a 4:1 benefit. My vision is installing insulation under people’s roofs and putting solar panels on the top. It is exporting clean-energy technology which the world wants needs and is paying top dollar for. That is the recipe for a rich New Zealand not subsidising the fossil fuel industry with more tax breaks. Kia ora.