Hughes Gareth: Cheque Duty Repeal Bill Climate Change Response (Unit Restriction) Amendment Bill Dumping and Countervailing Duties Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Cheque Duty Repeal Bill Climate Change Response (Unit Restriction) Amendment Bill Dumping and Countervailing Duties Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:18065. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to vote in favour of the Cheque Duty Repeal Bill and the Climate Change Response (Unit Restriction) Amendment Bill but to oppose the Dumping and Countervailing Duties Amendment Bill (No 2).This is my first Budget call in this patch of urgency. From listening to the debate in my office and in the House over the last 2 days I think what you can see in the two bills we have seen in front of us in urgency is the Budget actually summed up in the legislation. Obviously we heard the Budget in the Hon Bill English’s speech and we heard it in the leaders’ debate but I believe you can see it in the bills this Government decides to put through in urgency. The fact that these bills which do not require urgency are being put through in urgency also sums up the Government very well.We see a Government that has repeatedly used urgency with no need and a Government that has not given New Zealanders true accessible democracy and the right to a fair hearing and parliamentary scrutiny of legislation which we have seen over and over. We have seen the likes of democracy being taken away in Canterbury. You can see it in the likes of this Government choosing to breach New Zealanders’ human rights by putting on our law books the ability for the Government to terminate people’s internet accounts for copyright infringement. This is a Government that did that in urgency—a Government that made the unlawful lawful with the Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment Bill.You can also see the nature of the Government and of its Budget in 2014 in the substance of the legislation. With the paid parental leave bill the Budget Measures (Financial Support For Newborn Children) Bill that we previously debated you can see a Government that is moving only slightly in the right direction a Government that is extending the inequality we see in New Zealand and a Government that votes against extending the right to the most vulnerable New Zealanders—those on a benefit who are raising kids.You can see it in the housing legislation we are debating right now where the Government is focusing on the 0.7 percent of housing affordability yet ignoring the realissues facing us like how our young Kiwi families can get into homeownership and how we can see cheaper house-building materials greater competition and the State taking a more active role in building more State houses. We are seeing a Government that is throwing the wood industry under the trucks.On the climate aspect of the legislation in front of us you can see a Government that is singling out the forestry industry and a Government that says: “We’ve got one rule for the big emitters and the big polluters if they are a smelter or a factory or a steel mill but if you’re a forestry company you’re out of luck.”You have got to wonder—did they somehow forget to pay their Cabinet club dues and that is why they are missing out? In all the reviews of the Budget and in the actions of this Government what we are seeing is this sector missing out. They are the losers. This is a Government that is quite willing to pick winners sadly in the polluting industries but throw them under the truck.As I am a bit of a greenie who used to work for Greenpeace I am often accused of hugging trees. I am proud to say that I have hugged a few trees in my time. This Government however cuts down the trees pours petrol on the roots and sets them on fire. That is its approach to forestry in New Zealand.I have described some of the legislation we are seeing passed in urgency today but what is the big issue that we see in front of us? Well it is the Cheque Duty Repeal Bill—the 35c that Kiwis are going to be saving the 35c tax cut Kiwis got this election year. That sums up the lack of vision the lack of direction in an economy that sure is doing slightly better than Australia temporarily at this point in time—an economy that has the stimulus of the Christchurch earthquake—but an economy that has no long-term direction. What we need is to embrace the entrepreneurialism embrace the innovation and actually go into the future with confidence with a national strategy so that we can deliver a richer New Zealand and so we can build a more prosperous country for our kids.What we are seeing in New Zealand is Kiwis working hard—we work some of the longest hours in the OECD for some of the lowest wages in the developed world and we pay some of the highest costs of living. Yet this country on the economic rankings is losing the race. Every year we slip a little bit more down those OECD rankings.When we are dealing with wood which is a major part of the legislation we have in front of us it reminds me of my home town of Gisborne. You can actually see our country’s economic story graphically laid out on the waterfront. When we are looking at wood what you see is the beautiful old freezing works. They were demolished and now all you see is literally almost a mile or more of raw logs piled up for export. What you can see is a good example where 100-plus years ago our country embraced the future new technologies looked to the future trends and invested in technologies like refrigerated shipping. That is how we built our wealth. That is how we raised our kids in a prosperous country. Yet what we are also seeing now is the short-sighted nature of our modern economy—the simplification and the reliance on simply exporting raw logs and milk powder around the world. That is not a recipe for a prosperous country or for lifting those 290000 Kiwi kids out of poverty.So when we look at the wood aspects of the countervailing measures part of the separated bills—the bill that removes the dumping tariffs or suspends them temporarily—you have really got to question the reason for urgency. I have not heard a compelling reason from the Government benches. This should have gone through a due process. We should have seen a select committee. We should have been able to hear from the companies that are being affected by this legislation because when you look through the Government documents it describes the impacts on the companies but this is what you see: black marks—the redacted parts of the regulatory impact assessments.We should have been able to hear from these companies being affected. Every New Zealand company just like every New Zealander deserves a fair go.We should have had the chance to debate the pros and cons because I admit that there are pros and cons. But on something as let us say arcane I think many New Zealanders would not be aware that we have tariffs on dumping provisions overseas. We have not had a chance for a national discussion because there are I acknowledge pros and cons. But at a time when we are seeing our sawmills close like Southern Cross Forest Products sawmill recently and at a time when we have recently seen 4000 Kiwis laid off in the timber and forestry sector we should not be risking further job losses and contraction in that sector with bills under urgency when we cannot even hear from the sectors involved. We cannot keep going on as we are at the moment just hoping countries will continue to buy our raw logs.The cost of this suspension of the tariffs is estimated at $27.8 million. We should have been able to have a conversation nationally involving the sector involving experts economists academics the public and our Parliament. Gee could that $27.8 million have been better spent on supporting the New Zealand home-building supplies industry to become more competitive to ramp up with the challenge of scale in the Christchurch rebuild? We should have had that conversation.Both the Labour Party and the Green Party have put out comprehensive well-thought-out strategies for our timber and building sectors in New Zealand. A few weeks ago Dr Russel Norman announced a structural timber award. In the rebuild of Christchurch we should be using timber products and supporting them. What we need to see is a comprehensive plan for cheaper housing. Focusing on the 0.7 percent as this legislation does is no panacea for the chronic crisis we see. With the new data showing we can expect up to 41000 immigrants to New Zealand the challenge or the crisis as it already is is going to get a lot lot worse.What we see in this Budget legislation is a lack of action for first-home buyers a lack of action to drive down the costs of housing for Kiwis. Too many of our Kiwis are living in housing poverty. They are spending too much of their income on it and that is increasing every year over those historical trends.When it comes to climate change—and I am running out of time—what we see is that the arbitrage rule is changing. Sadly it is changing for only one sector. Very briefly what is happening is that the Government over the last 6 years has gifted New Zealand emission units to polluters but also to foresters who do the right thing by sequestering carbon. But it has also said you can bring in any number of cheap offshore credits from Ukraine or Russia where they did not actually see real emissions reductions.What you saw in the last year and I think this most graphically demonstrates it was that the Government handed out on a platter $110 million of New Zealand Units but all the companies had to do in reply was purchase $7 million equivalent of offshore junk units making a $93 million windfall profit. That is not good for the New Zealand economy that is not good for New Zealand competitiveness and it is not good for us building a smart economy which takes the gravest challenge of our time climate change into effect.What we need to do is do what the amendment and the member’s bill by Dr Kennedy Graham would do which is stop these junk hot air credits coming in offshore and to actually focus on building an economy that is a low carbon one that grows jobs that has people planting forests people using timber products in their buildings people insulating under people’s roofs and other people installing solar panels on the top and investing in public transport. That is the smarter greener economy that we are going to be building and taking to the public on 20 September this year. Kia ora.