Woolerton R Doug: Resource Management (Climate Protection) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Resource Management (Climate Protection) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:630;Page:2313] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 Unfortunately New Zealand First members will not be able to support this member’s bill and it is not because we are unaware of the concerns relating to climate change or any of those sorts of things. We are looking at bill after bill waiting for a solution to come to the fore. New Zealand First members have said on a number of occasions that we favour a regime within this country. We do not favour a carbon tax or carbon credits going to other countries. We do not think those measures would be good for our country. We share the view held by America and Australia which is that not joining an international regime does not mean we cannot do something about climate change or carbon emissions in our own country. So unfortunately we will not be able to support the bill. 
We have always said that New Zealand should not have signed the Kyoto Protocol ahead of its trading partners because that puts New Zealanders at a disadvantage in the international markets—and that is unfortunate and sad. Jeanette Fitzsimons a lady whom I admire immensely has said that even Simon Upton was in favour of a carbon tax. I was Simon Upton’s electorate chairman for a number of years and know the man rather well. I admire his brain and his ideas but I do not—and even Simon would know this—admire his practical application of those ideas. I think this is the problem surrounding climate change; we have not as yet come to a workable solution. 
I for one am not alarmed by the number of tries Governments have had. I think there will be many more experiments shall we say—I just hope they are not expensive—before we actually come to a solution that will make a difference internationally and that New Zealanders can latch on to and say: “Yes that is a sensible solution. We will sign up to that. We will obey the laws that are put in place surrounding that and we will put our hearts and souls behind it.” That has not become apparent at this point and as I said we are looking forward to the day when that happens. 
Unfortunately Mr Deputy Speaker you and I both know that humanity has a habit of going to the edge of the cliff before it looks at other solutions. So it is with fossil fuels and all those sorts of things. I believe that the technology is out there now but that it will not be implemented until the cheaper options of fossil fuels have either run out or the day they become too expensive in the market naturally arrives. I do not believe that we should be making them falsely expensive by putting on taxes—in this case carbon taxes—or whatever else. 
 I cannot sit down without mentioning that we do not think it is a good idea to palm off tricky situations from central government into the hands of local government and we see an element of that in this bill. We do not think that is fair or right and if a solution is to be found let it be found here in Parliament where everybody is represented. Let us not palm it off to local bodies so that they have to pick up the responsibility for something we have shied away from.