Parker David: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — First Reading 
Parker David: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5270] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 This debate would be laughable were it not so serious. I cannot believe the contribution we heard from the previous speaker Nikki Kaye. She stood there and defended the fact—as if it was a good thing—that National is now voting for the same legislation it refused to support 8 months ago and then 6 months ago repealed. The Sustainable Biofuel Bill is the very same legislation. There is no difference. It is an illustration of how absolutely incompetent Gerry Brownlee is as the Minister of Energy and Resources. All of these issues were pointed out to him and his Government when they repealed these very same provisions 6 months ago. These provisions are not different in some sort of minor but principled way; they are the same provisions. 
During the last election Gerry Brownlee ran campaigns based on the nanny State. Somehow it was nanny State to tell oil companies that they had to incorporate sustainable biofuels in their fuel. Somehow it was better to subsidise it to the tune of $36 million and not necessarily get the same outcome! Today in the House we heard Gerry Brownlee say that BioDiesel Oils (NZ) Ltd is one of the recipients of the new subsidy scheme. I tell members that I ran into Sue Wood on Monday of this very week as I flew into Wellington. Sue Wood who is a former president of the National Party was deeply ashamed that the National Party had ruined the business and effectively put at risk the life-savings of some very decent New Zealanders involved in these fledgling biofuels companies. One company was producing the world’s most sustainable biofuels as measured by the UN according to sustainability of fuel stock non-competition with food production and low greenhouse gas emissions on a life-cycle basis. That company was brought to its knees by the Government’s decision to remove the mandatory obligation on oil companies. 
I asked whether the subsidy fixed the problem and she said that they did not know. The reality is that it does not make the oil companies purchase biofuel. It is still a hassle for oil companies to blend biofuels in with their traditional fuel stocks and they do not want to do it. So even with a $36 million subsidy we may not be bringing forward the most sustainable biofuels that the world has and that New Zealand has in a higher proportion to population than any other country in the world. Gerry Brownlee comes to the House and says that this is good policy. He says that wasting $36 million of Government money on this programme is good spending. It is ludicrous. We heard the prior speaker say that it would have cost between 2c and 8c per litre under the mandatory obligation. National members know that that is wrong. The advice from the officials and from biofuels producers is that the cost would have been about 1c per litre. They are making an eightfold exaggeration as to cost. 
I return to the reasons that we need sustainability provisions. It is clear that not all biofuels are good and it is clear that not all biofuels are bad. It is clear that biofuels are part of the solution to greenhouse gas emissions from transport and that we should be bringing forward sustainable biofuels. Because the Government repealed the sustainability provisions in the law we can currently import unsustainable biofuels. This legislation fixes that and I thank Jeanette Fitzsimons for bringing it through. She has more patience with Gerry Brownlee than I have; they are the same arguments and it is the same legislation. I am somewhat surprised that we are seeing such a complete turn-round from Gerry Brownlee. It is a bit like saying we cannot have energy-efficient light bulbs because that is the nanny State. It is interesting that in the last month or so  
Consumer 
 magazine has come out and said that we were exactly right and National was wrong. 
New Zealand’s transport emissions are now on the way down. They went down 4 percent last year and they were static in the prior year partly because of public transport. We need biofuels to do even better. Electricity emissions are going down and deforestation emissions are down yet National is saying that it is the be-all and end-all when it comes to climate change policy. This is another example of National’s incompetence. I am pleased though that this legislation is about to pass its first reading today.