Wagner Nicky: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
Wagner Nicky: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:18155] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I should be feeling really excited about and very supportive of this emissions trading scheme bill because National has always believed that an emissions trading scheme is the best way to deal with climate change. I still believe that New Zealand should pass an emissions trading scheme bill but not this one. 
It is a tragedy that members are sitting in the Chamber today arguing bitterly over probably the most important legislation that the New Zealand Government will pass in the next few years. This legislation is of such importance that plenty of time should have been taken over it and the issues should have been dealt with thoroughly at the select committee. This bill is so significant that time should have been taken to iron out all the issues and to get all the parties onside. This bill should have been reconsidered and reworked until all the parties could agree on it. Instead the whole process has been rushed. The process has been thoroughly flawed and totally inadequate. 
There is no doubt that the New Zealand Government must do something about climate change. But as a small agricultural country at the bottom of the world we have much to lose if we do not handle this issue intelligently and effectively. We must get it right. The complexity and importance of this bill underpin the need for extensive consultation creative thinking and practical ideas. Indeed numerous groups outside Parliament have put a great deal of time effort and resource into research and analysis of the issue but the Government has turned a deaf ear to their ideas and has totally disregarded all their work. They are bitterly disappointed that their points of view and their ideas have been ignored. The 700 to 800 Supplementary Order Paper amendments to the bill tell their own story. A well-considered well-thought-out and fully discussed document would not require nearly 800 amendments. 
The bill has the potential to turn our economy upside down. We need to be very sure that we have teased out all possible economic outcomes. Economists have already estimated that an emissions trading scheme could cost anywhere between 22000 and 50000 jobs. I repeat: it is expected that anywhere between 22000 and 50000 jobs could be lost over this scheme. That would certainly turn the world upside down for a huge number of families. Furthermore there have been estimates of billions of dollars in GDP being lost. Over the last few weeks I have heard from many constituents in Christchurch whose households are already feeling the pinch of the increased cost of living. I am talking about the cost of food—the absolute basics. I am not sure how these people will manage if we have wholesale job losses in this country. I understand that the Government is talking about subsidising low-income families but a Government subsidy of say $2.50 a week will do nothing for families if there are no jobs available. 
I said at the beginning of this speech that National members support having an emissions trading scheme and we do. We support having an emissions trading scheme that balances the economic issues and the environmental issues. But we are also aware that New Zealand accounts for only 0.2 percent of global emissions and that the emissions profile to which agriculture contributes about 50 percent is a difficult one to change. We need to take effective action on climate change but to do it in such a way that we do not destroy our economy. After listening to many of the submissions at the select committee it became clear to me that unless we were very careful about how we designed our scheme we could easily export many of our businesses and with them New Zealanders’ jobs to other countries that do not have such a scheme.