Smith Nick: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:18171] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 No area of public policy around climate change is as big a mess as what we have in respect of thermal generation. Let us just look at the Government’s own record over the last 9 years. Despite all the talk of increasing the amount of renewable electricity every year that Labour has been in office we have actually seen a decrease in the amount of renewable electricity. When Labour became the Government it was 72 percent of New Zealand’s electricity. Last year it got down to just 66 percent. The latest prediction for this year is that it will be as low as 56 percent. Why on earth should anybody believe that this Government will get to 90 percent renewables when it has been going backwards for 9 years? 
Then there is the absolute contradiction in public policy. The Government came along in 2002 and used public money to build the new Whirinaki diesel power station. This Government is supposedly the carbon neutral world leader on global warming and it is spending our money building a dirty great fat diesel power station. A few years down the track it actually provided a Government guarantee to build the biggest new thermal generator since Huntly was built. Now is it not extraordinary that it would do that and then 6 months later put a ban in place? One minute the Government is intervening in the market to build more thermal electricity and the next minute it does a backward flip and puts a ban in place. That is the sort of mixed bag of confused public policy that has got the New Zealand electricity sector into the awful mess that it is in and it has seen greenhouse gas emissions from that one sector where one actually can do something about it grow faster than ever. 
Then we have the botched provisions of this bill. David Parker talks about the importance of market instruments—getting a price on carbon—and the moment he has got a bill to do it he says: “Oh I don’t trust the market. I’ve got to slap some regulations in there as well.” We say he is mistaken. We say it is confused and the overwhelming evidence to the Finance and Expenditure Committee was that it is confused. The Minister talks about it being a ban; it is a Clayton’s ban. There are so many outs in this ban that it is exactly what Business New Zealand has today said it is—cynical politics and a political circus. It has said that there has been no listening and that these latest politically driven changes will mean the scheme and this bill will not work. 
This bill is not about what is best for New Zealand. It is not about what is best for the environment or about New Zealand doing the responsible thing. This bill is about crude simple Labour Party branding. The branding of the Labour Party is far more important it seems than the interests of New Zealand. What National has said—and we said it in our document  
A Bluegreen Vision for New Zealand 
 over 2 years ago—is that we want to get a market price through an emissions trading scheme and then let that market operate—but it is just nuts just foolish to then extra-regulate. 
I put it to the Minister in the chair David Parker this way. During this Government’s term the amount of electricity produced from coal has trebled. I tell members that during the 1990s the Huntly power station operated for an average of 2 hours and 20 minutes per day and under this Government it has operated on average for 8 hours and 40 minutes per day. And the Government wonders why New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up by over 26 percent and we are miles away from meeting our Kyoto targets. 
I simply say to any New Zealander who is concerned about climate change: “Look at the Government’s record.” It can pass all the silly legislation it likes and it can build as many diesel or gas generators as it likes; its record is awful. This bill is poor public policy. We do not need all these extra instruments; what we need is a price on carbon. I know there are rumours all around that Dr Cullen has never supported this stupid thermal ban. We know that a large number of other Ministers do not support this policy.