Wagner Nicky: Climate Change (Government Vehicle Procurement) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Climate Change (Government Vehicle Procurement) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 18 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:7813. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I really support the principles behind the Climate Change (Government Vehicle Procurement) Bill. I absolutely agree that transport is a major contributor to New Zealand greenhouse gas emissions. That is an area of focus for all of us. 
The problem with this bill is that it is just another layer of legislation another layer of expensive bureaucracy and another layer of red tape. It is a classic Green Party response to any problem: legislate legislate and legislate again—add some more rules add some more red tape and add some bureaucracy. I have a lot more faith in the people of New Zealand to make intelligent choices about transport and to do the right thing than the Green Party does. 
I will give members some examples to prove my case—examples of people making carbon-saving transport changes because they want to do the right thing and want to be environmentally sensitive and not because we have legislated it. Of course the new emissions trading scheme will reward their low-carbon behaviours. A couple of months ago a taxi driver from a luxury taxi company visited my electorate office in central Christchurch. He was complaining that the Government had instructed the public sector not to use his company because the cars were too big and too carbon intensive. It was ruining his business. I had to explain to him that the National Government would never make arbitrary rules to ruin his business but we were certainly encouraging better environmental practice and that the public was very keen to do the right thing. 
We need to look just at the growth of the Green Cabs taxi company to illustrate that people really want to respond and make good environmental choices. I also explained to the taxi driver and his luxury taxi company that to compete he needs to understand that many New Zealanders have moved past gas-guzzling luxury cars. Since then he has faced the music he has recognised the need to be more environmentally sensitive and his company has created a carbon-mitigation tree-planting scheme. Similarly right across the country other taxi companies are doing the same thing. Members will have noticed the cooperative of Wellington Combined Taxis has gone carbon neutral. It has gone in with Landcare Research New Zealand and the taxis have the little tui on their cars to tell us that they are doing the right thing. 
We also need to note that the sale of hybrid cars has gone through the roof. There has been no legislation no expensive bureaucracy and no stifling red tape. I will give members another example. Last week I visited Progressive Enterprises the company behind Woolworths Countdown and Foodtown. I spent a morning with its representatives talking about its environmental initiatives. The representatives showed me their new methods of handling food which gets rid of tonnes of polystyrene cardboard and plastic wrapping. They talked about their upgrading of refrigerant technology to cut emissions and their strategies to cut energy use. But the initiatives that are particularly relevant to this bill are those actions that are focusing on cutting the emissions of their transport. Their latest transport contract uses the newest Euro 5 energy-efficient and emission-efficient trucks and computer scheduling to ensure the most effective loading and routeing which are dramatically cutting costs and emissions. 
The most telling change at Progressive Enterprises and the signal that its company wants to walk the best environmental practice talk is that the members of its management team have traded in their big corporate cars for energy-efficient small-engined car alternatives with a resulting 30 percent drop in emissions.