Hughes Gareth: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hughes Gareth: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1684. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora. Nga mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to support this important bill the Sustainable Biofuel Bill in the House which is raising this important issue. I would like to acknowledge the drafter of the bill Jeanette Fitzsimons and my colleague Dr Kennedy Graham who has progressed it through the select committee consideration. It is disappointing that we are not seeing this bill proceed through the House. I challenge some of the older members to see where we have actually seen this House think ahead act proactively and legislate in advance of a problem. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I think we’re all older than you mate.  
GARETH HUGHES 
: So often we have seen under successive Governments Mr Cosgrove that legislation responds to problems that we have seen in our community. It is reacting to problems. Here was a classic opportunity for this Parliament to think proactively and to set sustainable standards before we had a problem. What we know now is that we are going to wait until the Government uses its regulation powers after there is a problem. So it is disappointing we are not doing that. 
This bill would have set sustainable standards for biofuels and futureproofed our legislation it would have given industry a leg to stand on and it would have given industry what it craves most which is certainty around the standards. There is of course a serious issue of the sustainability of biofuels globally. We are seeing the last of the tropical rainforests in South-east Asia cut down for palm oil in part for biofuels. Of course we are importing a great percentage of it—in fact the world’s largest percentage of palm kernel expeller—for our massive dairy expansion as well. We are seeing even jatropha oil—marketed as a wonder biofuel not competing with food product and used by Air New Zealand—in fact provoke conflict in Kenya. What we are seeing there is land that otherwise would be used for food production used for jatropha. It highlights the most important issue we see with biofuels globally which is when there is a competition between the fuel tanks of the rich world and the bellies of the poor world it is the fuel tanks of the rich world that win out in that conflict. We acknowledge that there is a serious issue globally and we think we will see these issues in the future in New Zealand if we actually see some more biofuel used in New Zealand.  
Like Labour we lament the low amount of biofuels we are seeing in New Zealand. This is not a reflection of biofuels; it is a reflection of the National Government’s policies its focus and its drive which is not prioritising biofuels at all. In fact it is promoting drilling mining and digging up the lignite in Southland to convert to diesel. These are the National Government’s answers to the big issues. 
This bill was needed. Essentially it set three standards for sustainability. It would have asked the Minister through Order in Council to set a sustainability standard. Three principles are enumerated in the bill. Principle 1 “Less greenhouse” states: “sustainable biofuels emit significantly less greenhouse gas over their life cycle …”. Principle 2 “Food production” states: “sustainable biofuels do not compete with food production and are not grown on land of high value for food production.” Thirdly and lastly principle 3 “Biodiversity and land with high conservation value” states: “the production of sustainable biofuels does not reduce indigenous biodiversity or adversely affect land with high conservation value.” So there is one definition of sustainable fuels and three principles to guide it. What we would have seen is some proactive smart legislation coming out of this House but instead in a retrograde step we are seeing the National Government just voting against it which is highly disappointing and is going to see a problem in the future that we could have remedied in 2012. 
The bill would also reinstate the legal framework for selling biofuels in New Zealand that did not reach the World Trade Organization obligations. It would not distinguish between imported and locally produced biofuels but would require both to meet a sustainability standard. We would not be discriminating against foreign-imported biofuels; we just want a sustainability discrimination standard. 
We would like to thank the submitters who went to the Local Government and Environment Committee the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and the officials at the select committee. The select committee found four things in its report which I would like to address. The first was that there was no immediate concern for sustainability issues around biofuels. The select committee wanted to leave it up to the industry to voluntarily ensure the standards of sustainability for its fuels. The National members I have heard tonight said that they are sure these companies would have this issue paramount in their minds and not use unsustainable biofuels. But that is not what we have seen overseas that is not what we have seen in the European Union and it is not what we have seen in America. The National members provided no evidence that it is going to be any different in New Zealand if we actually saw our biofuel promotion schemes working. 
The second reason was the report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. I would like to acknowledge the amount of work that went into it but let us not take this report out of context. What we are talking about is a big report and all the commissioner said was there was no credible cost-effective means of monitoring. It was not a damning report of the whole bill that meant it should be thrown out. We could have addressed it in the select committee; we could have amended it. But the fact is the main problem that the Parliamentary Commissioner’s report highlighted was that we are going to have a double standard. We are going to have sustainable biofuels but how on earth are we going to have sustainability standards for fossil fuels? Because what we know is that this is the greatest strategic risk to our economy but also to our planet. We know we are seeing a temperature rise of 0.8 degrees. We have got dire warnings coming from the world’s top scientist in relation to climate change and the fact is that it highlights how unsustainable our current oil addiction is in New Zealand. So I note when you look at this report the one recommendation that National took out of this pretty substantial report was the one recommendation that we should get rid of the bill. What about all the other recommendations that we have seen in this report? Why were they not adopted by the Government? I think that is a key question that I have not heard any of the National members address tonight. 
The third issue identified in the select committee report was the lack of immediate biofuel take-up in New Zealand. We have heard that it is less than 1 percent. The Government scrapped Labour’s scheme. The Government budgeted $36 million towards supporting biofuel production. What we have seen today is that there is less than $3 million in pick-up. This does not say much about biofuels but it says a lot about the National Government and its promotion of it. What we have seen is the Government delay the fuel levy so the market signal has been skewed towards consuming more petrol and diesel in New Zealand by its decisions. 
The fourth point raised in the select committee report was that the Government already has under the Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Act the ability to set standards through regulations on fuels including biofuels. We acknowledge that point but the question to the Government is whether it has any plan to actually enforce some standards using these regulations it has in its power. Because it is not. It is not thinking proactively. It is stuck in the “drill it” mind-set and all it wants to see is New Zealanders keep on consuming oil and gas because it lines the pockets of a few companies that are delivering hardly any jobs hardly any profits and hardly any taxes because there are so many exemptions. All the profits flow offshore. 
So at a time when the greatest strategic risk to our economy is in fact our oil dependence when our single greatest import is imported fossil fuels from overseas when for every US$1 price rise in a barrel of oil we are seeing $40 million to $60 million wiped off our GDP—with a US$1 increase—and when we are seeing fuel prices now at the highest rate they have been in 4 years this Government is not doing enough to promote biofuels. It is not promoting certainty in the industry by passing this bill and allowing biofuels sustainability. It also comes with a massive opportunity cost because as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment the select committee and even Minister Brownlee have identified biofuels are a tremendously exciting opportunity for New Zealand. The biofuels industry believes it could supply 30 percent of the country’s transport fuel needs from biofuel—from dairy waste product forestry product used cooking oils and New Zealand - grown canola. The Bioenergy Association believes this could be a $6 billion industry here.  
We are pioneering the science around cellulosic ethanol around algae of the second-generation biofuels. This is what we should be exporting overseas but instead the Government is stuck in the “drill it mine it sell it cut it” mind-set. It is the only plan it has for the economy which is benefiting very few and is actually harming our economic prospects. So we can have sustainable biofuels in New Zealand we can be delivering cleaner fuels we can be delivering jobs for Kiwis we can be reducing our strategic dependence on oil and we can kick that addiction but we are not going to do it with the current mind-set of the National Government. Kia ora.