Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you Madam Speaker. Now that contribution was from Glen Bennett—Mr Glen Bennett—he's the MP for New Plymouth. Glen Bennett: You know my name.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: And I know his name because we've been on select committee together but I'll never have to know his name after 14 October because he won't be with us I'm sorry to say that. Well I actually am not sorry at all really because he won't be but he'll have a really good MP there—the National candidate will be there: David McClean. He'll be excellent. And I'm sure that he will understand—and David I know that he will—Hon Member: I don't know who David McClean is—never heard of the guy.Hon Kieran McAnulty: David MacLeod but anyway carry on.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Thank you for correcting me. They know his name because he will be here. Ha ha! And you fell for it—and they fell for it.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): If the member can just come back to the bill.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Coming back to the bill—and they fell for it well done.Energy Resources Levy Amendment Bill—what a bill. All this talk today about the bill; nothing from Labour about the cost of living crisis apart from the fact that now more people should pay more. If we look at this bill—coming back to this bill—it is supposed to be responsible. What is it supposed to do? It's about fairness. Well what we've learnt from this Labour Government is that every time they say fairness they mean unfairness. When they say up they mean down when they say down they mean up when they say there's a crisis it's only when National's in Government and when there's actually a housing crisis as there is now that's actually under them and when there's actually a crisis of cost of living it is again under them. And what is their answer to that? There answer is that we're going to put up levies for those people who are licensed to take natural gas—because these people already pay various royalties and levies and things anyway—they're going to put them up now for people who signed up under an old regime. So they're going to put it up for new stuff.But that's forgetting the fact that when the deals were done when the decisions were made—when the decision was made to go out and prospect and look for that oil and gas the decisions were based on what was the law at that time. So what we've got now is this Government yet again coming along and just changing the rules and that's without proper consultation. We know there's no consultation because it basically says that. I've heard from the Minister today who said This is what the industry wants." Well Stuart Smith and I have both heard from the industry this afternoon and they are not actually at all happy with what is being said by the Government. And we know from the departmental report that they couldn't be bothered doing a regulatory impact statement. We know from it that they know that this is an extra tax because even the departmental report written by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment tells us that yes they do know that that is a tax. The Hon Gerry Brownlee pointed this out and I haven't heard that properly answered. So it's yet another tax. And who pays for those taxes? Ultimately it's the consumer.So when people are looking at the cost of gas for their barbecues or their hot water or for their stoves they know that the cost of gas is going up. Gas is seriously one of those gases that helps New Zealand particularly in times when we don't have enough hydro or other renewable energy available. Gas is a wonderful opportunity for us not to have to build yet another dam somewhere. This is what gets me on these energy issues. And coming back to the bill—this is the same party over there and their friends who support them who opposed all those hydro dams that were built. I heard the Hon Dr Megan Woods talking about Rob Muldoon in 1976. Well she may well have known him well but I didn't. Secondly might I point out that she wants to tar the National Party of today with everything that Rob Muldoon might have said or done. Well I'd like to tar her then with Roger Douglas and all the excellent work that he did. So I suggest that she understands that two can play at that game. And by the way Roger Douglas did some very good work. It was pretty hard on farmers of course but at the same time what we're seeing is that if she wants to play that game we can both do that.I think too that we might want to consider in this bill why it is so urgent. What is the urgency? So we're going to be sitting in Parliament for the next day-and-a-half or two days for this supposedly urgent bill that's of absolutely no importance because the Minister couldn't be bothered sending it around or even discussing it with other members of Parliament. So why wouldn't she have done that? Why wouldn't she have allowed this to go to at least a select committee if it's not particularly important—or of no particular relevance? Why wouldn't she have done that? And the answer is because they don't want to answer the question about what happened to that promise of no new taxes when their own departmental report is really clear: this is a new tax—really clear. And who ends up paying it? It's always the consumer.So when they talk about how they're worrying about the cost of living they're not worrying about the cost of living they're worrying about the fact that they're not going to be in Government after 14 October. That's the only thing they're worrying about. They're trying to get every single little cent so that they can waste it. We saw some astonishing waste today. We've seen some astonishing waste in the last six years. We've seen time and time again. And I know that Glen Bennett MP in New Plymouth at the moment who I noted was very keen to talk about the fact that I had been a previous Leader of the Opposition—and I'm looking forward to Glen possibly wanting to be the Leader of the Opposition one day but of course it's pretty hard to do that when you're not in Parliament. So I suggest that that would probably be something that he could still put on his wish list but it's going to be a cold day in Hades when that bloke comes back in and when he ever gets a chance to the Leader of the Opposition.This bill though coming back to it—Ha ha!—is all about tax. It's all these guys understand isn't it? It's only ever "Someone else might be getting something more so we'll take it. Somebody else might be getting something more so we'll stick a tax on that." How about growing the economy? There is nothing in this bill about growing the economy. There is nothing in here about giving people confidence to come and invest in New Zealand. There's nothing in here in this bill about giving New Zealanders confidence to invest in New Zealand—nothing at all. It's all about tax. It's all about trying to take something that wasn't there before for them—it's always about that. Instead of coming honestly and with full disclosure to other members of Parliament to discuss it what do they do? They come in here sneak it into urgency. Never give anyone any heads up about it. Never involve the industry because I don't believe a word about that consultation because the disclosure statement makes it really clear: no consultation. They've just decided it's not that important because it's not them paying the bills; it's other people.Stuart Smith: It never is.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: It never is as Stuart Smith says.Another example of a Government that has lost the will to live. It should go. It should get out now and they should just let some people who know how to run things get things done. And before I see Steph—Steph Steph from—Stuart Smith: Steph Lewis Hon JUDITH COLLINS: —Steph Lewis about to rise and speak—I should know Ms Lewis because she's on my select committee which I so ably chair but with such humility don't we know! She's going to say something and it'll tell us all about climate change. And wasn't that a shocking contribution from that Ingrid Leary claiming when we're discussing this bill that we were climate deniers—what absolute tosh. Honestly the cheek of it. I understand that she is a former journalist but I expect better."