Parker DavidHon DAVID PARKER (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. There are 300000 vehicles imported into New Zealand every year roughly—25000 a month. The only chance that you get to make those 300000 vehicles efficient is when you import them and register them for the first time because once they're here they're valuable and someone uses them to the end of their useful life. So if you want to improve the efficiency of the vehicle fleet you've got to do it at the point of import and first registration.We know that by the time the last Government was voted out of office by the crowd on the other side of those vehicles that were being imported every month 48 percent were hybrids 7 percent were plug-in hybrids and 20 percent were full battery electric vehicles. That's a total of roughly 76 percent. Three quarters of the vehicles being imported were hybrids plug-in hybrids or battery electric vehicles. What's that now? What's that now?They got rid of the Clean Car Discount because they're all arse about face on the other side. They didn't come up with a mechanism to replace the—Hon Members: You can't say that!Hon DAVID PARKER: It's perfectly parliamentary I would have thought. Maybe I won't repeat that comment Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: It speaks to the member's own habits more than anything else.Hon DAVID PARKER: What are we at now? Now 41 percent of the vehicles are petrol and 16 percent of them diesel which is a total of 57 percent being internal combustion motors rather than 25 percent as it was prior to the change of Government.Now if the Government was going to get rid of the Clean Car Discount it should have already increased the standard to make the standard do the work because every month that that is delayed we get another 25000 vehicles half of which are internal combustion increasing our emissions. And every one of them will be belching greenhouse gas emissions until they're completely worn out in 15 years' time. So the indifference that this Government is showing to emissions in transport is going to have a long-term consequence both for the environment in terms of those increased greenhouse gas emissions for New Zealand's imported oil bill because we have to import more oil. The case for electric vehicles in New Zealand is better than virtually any other country in the world because 85 percent of our electricity is renewable and generated locally and it's going up.If this was the only mistake that the Government was making on climate it would be lamentable but you'd think well maybe they'll get it right eventually. But of course as others have said this is part of a long litany of mistakes that are already being made deliberately by the other side on climate. They signed up to the zero-carbon Act they pretended to buy into the budgets just like they pretended to buy into the child-poverty targets but it was just a ruse. It was just a ruse to get elected because everything they have done tells the truth and the truth is they're taking this country backwards now.No there's lots of reasons the National Party are going back in the polls. This isn't the main reason; it's one of the reasons but it's not the main reason. The main reason is because they're dragging the economy into the dirt. But they show their economic illiteracy in this piece of legislation because it increases the bills of New Zealanders it increases our current account deficit and it takes the country backwards on climate as well.They say they're going to rely on the price of carbon through the emissions trading scheme (ETS) and what do they do? Well they gut it by taking 50 percent of the emissions out that relate it to agriculture. Now agriculture was always going to have a sweet deal. They were always going to have 90 or 95 percent free allocation or the equivalent thereof. But now they can completely let off the hook to the cost of the rest of the economy who bear that cost of the non - price based measure in agriculture.Now the guys on the other side they say I trust the ETS. We'll let the ETS do the work." Well I tell you what: that's a market. That's a market. And I tell you what: we understand markets on this side. The other side don't. And I tell you what: the private sector understands markets. They understand that National's ruining this market because what's happened to the ETS price that they say they're going to rely upon more than the prior Government? The prices collapse. The private sector doesn't believe that the National Party is going to use the price on carbon to release emissions because it's gone down from about $75 per tonne of carbon when we left office to $50. It's $75 to $50 a 33 percent drop in the price of carbon.Now I see we've got the ACT Party saying "Hooray hooray hooray." Well that is absolutely typical given the members that are sitting there that they would celebrate the price and the collapse of carbon when the Government that they are part of says that they're going to rely upon the price of carbon to drive emission reductions. As it happens the price on carbon actually isn't the most effective way of reducing your emissions in cars.Cars are the most energy-intensive item that most people ever own in their life. You buy a fridge in New Zealand that has an efficiency standard. You buy a washing machine that has an efficiency standard. You get a dishwasher. You get a heat pump. All these things have efficiency standards. That's why you need efficiency standards at the point of import for the most energy-intensive carbon-producing item that most people use. That's why you do need to have standards. That's why this Government should already have toughened the standards.This piece of legislation shouldn't be here kicking down the code leaving the discretion to the Minister to actually slacken those standards. I don't trust that they won't do that. But the shame is that they should have already done the analysis as to what is the effect of the abolition of the Clean Car Standard on the make-up of the fleet. The only way to compensate that if you're not going to use feebates like that system had is to have a more rigorous standard for vehicles at the point they are imported.So every month of those 25000 vehicles that are coming in every month the number of those that are petrol vehicles has gone up astronomically—and diesel vehicles—and the number of hybrids battery electric—how backwards is that as a country? Aren't you ashamed of that? I'm ashamed of that. We're a better country than that. You should hang your—sorry members on the other side of the House should hang their heads in shame. We're a better country than that. We're going backwards and we don't even have an industry.I can almost understand the economic illiteracy of the National Party members when it comes to agricultural admissions. They go in for simple tropes that somehow they're protecting the agricultural industry. They're actually not long term. They're actually making a mistake there too. But I can understand their protectionist instincts. They've always had them on that side protectionist instincts for agriculture. I can almost understand that. But you haven't even got a car industry to protect. We don't make cars in New Zealand. We end up producing the bag end of cars produced by the other parts of the world in part because those cars often can't be sold in the countries in which they're made now because they've got standards that are tougher than ours.So look economic illiteracy. It's why you guys are going backwards in the polls. You know you're worried. Look at them smiling. You're going to come back here and you're going to one day apologise to the people of New Zealand for every month of an extra 10000 petrol and diesel vehicles coming into the country that could be battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids and hybrids that would be saving people money at the pumps and actually helping save the world.I know that it sounds a bit dramatic to say that but you know we're actually pretty close to the tipping point. Don't you take fright at the fact that people are dying going for walks in Greece at the moment from these unprecedented heat waves? Don't you worry about the temperatures of the sea being higher than has ever been recorded in history? Don't you worry about that? I know I do. I actually accept the science. I accept that New Zealand has to do our share because if a country with all our advantages and no car industry to protect can't do the right thing here and actually have a decent standard to make sure that those vehicles aren't imported about 15 years before they're worn out. It's pretty poor policy and that's why this side of the House will be voting against this bill.SPEAKER: I thank the member for the long list of things that I need to do."