Fitzsimons Jeanette: Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Biofuel Obligation Repeal Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Biofuel Obligation Repeal Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:810] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I would like to celebrate that this Committee is having a huge debate around sustainability and that the key issue exercising people on both sides of the Chamber is how we can get the most sustainable biofuels in New Zealand and make sure that our fuel-purchasing policy does not contribute to world hunger does not destroy the rainforests of South-east Asia and does seriously reduce carbon emissions. But I am afraid that that is only the appearance of what is happening. What has actually happened is that very early on in the debate on biofuels the National Party found a line of attack because the bill as introduced did not say anything about sustainability and the information that was coming out internationally at that stage was about the serious effect that some biofuels were having on food supply and on biodiversity. Having latched on to this line of attack National members are determined to hold on to it regardless of the fact that the strongest sustainability clause in the world has been drafted by the Greens and the previous Minister and put in the legislation but National members are trying to pretend that it is not there. 
In fact what is happening here is that in order to ensure that we have sustainable biofuels the Government is proposing to remove the quite specific clause that indicates what sustainability standards have to achieve. There is nothing in the old Act the Government is planning to use to indicate what sustainability is or should be. The Minister’s press release that said there was going to be sustainability standards mentioned carbon reduction only; it did not even mention the problems with food security and biodiversity. So the Government is going to take away the quite clear direction that the regulations currently have to meet—that the sustainability standard will ensure that it does not compromise food security and biodiversity and does reduce carbon—and replace it with nothing but the word “sustainability”. Nobody who sees that could believe that National has any interest whatsoever in the sustainability of biofuels; it is simply a convenient line of attack on the previous Government. 
The Government is actually doing this because of the ideology that nothing that is mandatory can possibly be good and that the way to meet policy goals is to always give people choice and freedom but not compulsion. The previous National Government tried that with building standards with the building code and with the verification that houses were built to spec but what did we end up with? We ended up with leaky buildings precisely because it did not believe in having mandatory enforceable standards. So we got a whole lot of greedy developers poor design poor construction and poor local authority oversight which led to a massive headache that the previous Government never managed to solve and I suspect that this one will not either. It will be hanging around members’ necks for quite a while. 
The Government says that we cannot write sustainability regulations because the rest of the world has not quite done it yet. Well I want to know whether the Minister has called in the two very good officials who have been working on the regulations and whom David Parker and I talked to about just what could and could not be done. When we gave them a bit of a shove they agreed that yes of course they could do it by the middle of next year; it would not be 2011 but it would just have to come up their priority list a bit. They were quite enthusiastic and exercised about how to write those standards and I was really looking forward to them coming out. Has the Minister called them in and asked them whether they really can do this job whether they are worried they do not have a lot of international precedents to follow and how they are getting on with it? I do not believe he has. I think he is just saying that New Zealand bureaucrats are no good that New Zealand officials cannot do it and that we are not going to have standards in time. I think that shows a terrible lack of confidence in the people who are advising him. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: What rubbish! 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS 
: Well I really hope the Minister is going to take a call and say “Fitzsimons you are totally wrong. I did call those officials in and here is what they said.”