Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): I reiterate that we are all in this together. We have to tackle the climate crisis together and that requires us to look at the system. It's very easy in politics to frame everything in an individual way and talk about individuals but we have to look at the system and how we can tweak the system to get better outcomes for all New Zealanders in a way that is fair.That's why I would ask members in the Government benches to listen carefully to my speech. Because I'm going to lay out the rationale for the Clean Car Discount and the evidence that it actually was reducing emissions in a fair way; that it is popular and supported by New Zealanders despite the misinformation attack ads perpetuated by the National Party and the ACT Party over two years mischaracterising the policy so that New Zealanders didn't get the full opportunity to understand just how beneficial this policy was to our country.But no matter what despite the repeal today we've saved 2 megatonnes of carbon we've saved 70 million litres of petrol a year there is $100 million a year that New Zealand is spending less on imported oil and it would have been more if they'd carried on the policy. So this is a policy that not only reduces emissions it saves New Zealand money as a country it reduces our reliance on imported fossil fuel and it did something that was considered impossible before it was brought in: our average carbon emissions per kilometre of the new vehicles coming into our fleet—this is not the existing fleet. We have a massive existing fleet of over 4 million vehicles that was not affected by this policy; over 400000 to 500000 utes probably that were not affected by the policy. But the new vehicles coming into New Zealand emitted 186 grams per kilometre on average before this policy and within two years the average was down to 121 grams per kilometre. That's on par with European countries that had been far more advanced than we were at having fuel economy standards at having price incentives like the Clean Car Discount and that was a 35 percent reduction. So not only did we reduce carbon emissions and pollution but we reduced the amount of money we were paying to power our vehicles collectively as a country. That's a direct productivity and economic benefit to New Zealand Inc".So that's why it's a really good policy. The numbers don't lie and I know that this graph isn't as big as I would like but what you can see is the impact of the policy; that we're importing fewer fossil fuel vehicles than we were importing low-emissions vehicles—not just electric but low-emission. So one of the problems that New Zealand was facing—and this is a problem for business and for households in New Zealand—was that we had no fuel economy standards. We're one of only three countries in the OECD to not have fuel economy standards—along with Australia and Russia—and we had no price incentive at the point of purchase. So the vehicle industry was not prioritising low-emissions vehicles to our market so New Zealanders didn't even have the choice. There was for example more fuel-efficient utes on the market in the UK that were not available in New Zealand before this policy.So this isn't just about influencing the choice that New Zealanders make when they go to purchase a vehicle—and by the way over 50 percent of all brand new vehicles purchased in New Zealand are purchased by businesses not by households. The vast majority of households and I would tell you: there is not a single low-income household in New Zealand buying a brand new vehicle in New Zealand. So the entire market for new to New Zealand vehicles is wealthier than average as individual households or as businesses.So what the price incentive did is it let the vehicle manufacturers and vendors prioritise low-emissions vehicles to our market and I have an anecdote about this. So my friends in 2021 wanted to buy an EV. They were talking to Hyundai. They said "We want the new Ioniq." and they were told they were going to have to wait at least six months to get one. The day after the Clean Car Discount was announced they said "We can have it within four weeks." So this policy the Clean Car Discount changed the market of vehicles that were available to New Zealanders.The highest-emitting vehicles are the most profitable for the vehicle manufacturers—that's why they like to prioritise high-emitting vehicles and that's why they spend most of their money advertising SUVs and utes as lifestyle vehicles not work vehicles. They advertise them as lifestyle vehicles and they try to sell as many as possible because they make more profit off that. But that's why you need fuel economy standards and you need the price incentive at the point of purchase.So this number doesn't lie OK? This number doesn't lie. If the new National-ACT Government actually has any way of achieving the carbon budgets that they've signed up to they are now going to have to rely on increasing the price of fuel. Now that affects not just the vehicles coming into New Zealand—it really doesn't affect the vehicles coming into New Zealand—but it affects every single person using a fossil fuel - powered vehicle in the country. So now you're saying "Oh we need to reduce emissions we have to put up the carbon price in the ETS." People have no choice but to pay more or drive less. So that's why trying to do it through the ETS isn't a good idea: because now the farmers are going to have to pay more for fuel because we haven't imported more zero-emissions vehicles to reduce emissions.So I know maths is hard for the National Party—that is obvious—but the maths says that you are going to make it easier for farmers and easier for those tradies who need to drive utes to do their job and not be affected by the high price of fuel if you have a policy like the Clean Car Discount which results in more zero- and low-emissions vehicles being brought into the country. That is the truth and the policy is fair. We have polling that shows despite the misinformation attack ads that have been out there waging a culture war instead of trying to constructively solve a problem that affects everyone that will affect our farmers probably more than anyone else—the climate crisis is going to affect our farmers. It has already affected our farmers. It has already affected our rural areas: billions of dollars in damage because of storms that are directly caused by human-caused climate change and those are going to keep flowing in. The world is looking to us New Zealand just like every other country to pull our weight and do our bit and we are capable of doing that.When I presented this policy to the imported vehicle association the VIA I talked to them about how my grandfather went to World War II—and I'm sure many of your family members did as well and they made a huge sacrifice to do the right thing. When it comes to the climate crisis—something that is affecting the whole world—we will all have to make changes. The question is: are we willing to do our bit? And from the National and ACT parties the New Zealand First Party the answer is "No we're not going to do our bit. We're going to wage a culture war rather than constructively looking at practical solutions that will actually achieve the outcomes we want that will improve productivity that will reduce cost."The reality is they're either not going to make any attempt whatsoever to meet our carbon budgets and therefore we're not going to play our part on the world stage and we're going to be penalised in our free-trade agreements where we've committed to those targets; or they're going to have to put up the carbon price so much that everyday New Zealanders when they go out to try and drive around because they don't have more fuel-efficient vehicles because we've imported hundreds of thousands fewer electric vehicles as a result of repealing this bill—Simon Court: I haven't had enough coffee to understand this.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: —they're going to have to pay more to drive around the country. Because you're relying only on the ETS.Simon Court very accurately says he can't understand and I can see members opposite are having a difficult time following me because it is a little bit complex. But that's why it's so important for New Zealanders. It's our responsibility—it's the responsibility of Government—to do the work to look at the practical solutions to look at the system and say "What is going to reduce the average emissions coming from new vehicles imported to New Zealand?" The answer is a combination of fuel economy standards and a price incentive at the point of purchase—exactly what this Clean Car Discount was. The Clean Car Discount was a huge success and this Government will never take that away from the Greens or from New Zealand: that we saved 2 megatonnes of carbon through this policy; that we kicked off a massive increase in the market for zero-emissions vehicles for electric vehicles.But the truth is that they are going to slow down progress now. They're going to slow down progress and that means it's going to be more expensive later it's going to be harder for New Zealanders to access second-hand electric vehicles because without the price incentive we're going to import fewer electric vehicles which means there's less vehicles in the second-hand fleet for New Zealanders to access. It will be worse for farmers because they're going to have to spend more money on their utes when the carbon price goes up and they're going to be hit again and again by storms and our fair-trade—sorry free-trade agreements; I wish we had fair-trade agreements. In our free-trade agreement with the EU we're going to be penalised. Our farmers are going to be penalised because we're going to be seen to be pariahs on the world stage and not doing our bit when we could have done something that was good for the economy that was good for the climate and that was fair. That is the reality of this National - ACT - New Zealand First dinosaur Government taking us back into the dark ages with their culture wars."