Foss Craig: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Foss Craig: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4743] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 Before I speak on the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill I acknowledge the officials who have been part of it. It is a small bill but of course they have been part of the greater review of all things emissions trading. I pick up from the previous speaker Stuart Nash who has a master’s degree in forestry or something and shared with us that foresters plant trees. I thought it was very interesting that it took 4 years of studying to learn that whereas one of my colleagues here actually planted trees so perhaps he may know a fair bit more. I note that the bill had its first reading on Tuesday 23 June and went to the Emissions Trading Scheme Review Committee on 25 June. I acknowledge the fact that members considered and deliberated on the bill on the same day which needed a lot of cooperation and leave applied for and granted from the members of the select committee to allow it to report back to the House to get us to this stage. As I noted previously—it is right in the Committee stage to acknowledge all those who have helped get us to this point—we may well go through all stages of the bill tonight or perhaps this afternoon. 
The bill is a good model. The previous member was talking of various clauses about delaying dates changing dates and things like that. That is the whole point of the bill: to provide certainty. It is not providing uncertainty. As I noted earlier prior to the election National put out its expectations of the emissions trading scheme which were to provide certainty and not put New Zealand’s economy at risk. This is actually part of those expectations. When we look at the clauses in the bill we see that quite simply the rules are not changing. Yes dates are changing but the rules of afforestation and deforestation are not changing. The need to measure is not changing. The problem as identified by the Minister for Climate Change Issues in his second reading speech earlier—and he acknowledged that even some ministries and Government agencies actually had not done their job as well as they could have—is to let those that are directly impacted by the existing legislation know what their obligations are how they should be measured when they should report and how they should report. Of course from that would come any allocation decisions etc. But we have to do this bit first. The clauses in this bill that change dates far from providing uncertainty and delay actually provide a much more robust framework for not only forestry but also all of the other facets of the emissions trading scheme and the various climate change bills that have come through the House over the last year. 
The preparation I suppose is everything. I want to talk to that uncertainty that the other member was talking about. There is so much uncertainty in and around implementation in other countries where New Zealand is where our friends and competitors in Australia are going to be where the rest of the world is as we march towards the Copenhagen conference. Well this actually starts—with I fully acknowledge cross-party support so far—to get New Zealand as a country to be able to speak when we are at Copenhagen. We have been able to measure our smaller holdings. We have a facility in place and it is preparation for the emissions trading scheme however it is finally implemented in this country subject to the select committee review and where the Minister ends up with the various facets. This bill starts to put things through—not in a rush; it is pragmatic—and it takes a reality check. Right now not only is all the measurement not available quite yet but also those who are financially and economically impacted those who are doing the various measurements for many reasons are not quite up to speed. So quite simply the clauses in this bill—yes it is a small bill—simply change reporting dates subject to the amendments from Mr Charles Chauvel which I acknowledge were made at the select committee. Certainty is provided so that we can move on to at least put the larger discussions about how and when our climate change response and emissions trading scheme are implemented. This bill can sit with those discussions.