Barry Maggie: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Barry Maggie: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1681. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I rise to talk about the Sustainable Biofuel Bill and to debate it. Pain and embarrassment should be no strangers to my colleagues across the House; you should be well used to it by now. In doing some research on this bill I had a look at the history of it. Others have gone into it in many ways. Labour passed the Biofuel Bill in 2008. We repealed it because it would bring uncertainty to consumers and push up the price of fuel. As members on the other side of the House do not like us bringing up environmental arguments maybe they would look at the environmental arguments brought up by Dr Jan Wright in July 2010. The independent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended that the bill should not proceed because it was unworkable. That was fair. I read through the bill today. I agree with her entirely and I think that some of the concerns that she raised about the unworkability of the bill will remain the reason why it will not get much further than this. 
It has had a very patchy history and has been passed through many hands the latest of which is in the name of its sponsor Dr Kennedy Graham. He pointed out that there is a very low uptake of biofuels at the moment 0.1 percent and that single-minded goals do not always succeed. This bill will not succeed because it just does not cut the mustard. It does not work and it is not useful.  
National is a party that does promote sustainable clean technologies like biofuels and electric cars. I have driven one myself for example—once we took off the road-user charges that is. Our commitment to biofuel is part of a wider commitment because we have a broader vision than the very narrow confines of the people who speak in favour of this bill. Biofuels must be sustainable through the existing provisions but we do believe that this bill is unworkable and unnecessary which is why we are speaking against it. 
I think that using an unsustainable biofuel would ultimately harm a company’s environmental reputation. It is available in this country it can be used and it will be used but it is not exactly something that needs to be done in the form that this bill provides. It is a flawed piece of legislation which is why it has been batted about backwards and forwards for so long. There is not a whole lot more to be said really. I take you back to what Dr Jan Wright said in her very well-researched piece of work that came through to the Local Government and Environment Committee which apparently the people across the way were part of at that time and remind them that biofuels are our oldest fuels. Since we have been burning wood and lighting tallow candles we have been using biofuels. Henry Ford’s original cars ran on ethanol made out of plants. These are not new and unusual things but what must occur if it is to be put through in a sustainable way is a far better piece of well-thought legislation than this. It is poorly crafted and will not get us anywhere in a hurry. 
I look at the dominance of petroleum and I do not see that anything much in this bill is going to encourage anybody to sway away from that. So again as I speak to this the Sustainable Biofuel Bill I hear what the others on the other side of the House have said and I remain as usual and often unconvinced by their uncompelling arguments. Thank you.