Guy Nathan: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
Guy Nathan: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:18148] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 I appreciate having the opportunity to speak in the Committee stage of this very controversial legislation going through Parliament today. I need to acknowledge Dr Nick Smith because I thought that his motion which he sought leave for before we went into Committee was right on the button. Dr Nick Smith stood up in the Chamber moved the motion and said that this bill and its 1000-odd amendments should be referred back to the Finance and Expenditure Committee in order for the public to have their say. Here is the Government and its support parties including New Zealand First and what a deal has been done to get this legislation through! This legislation should be back before the select committee and opened up for the public to have a say on. What a shonky deal these 785 amendments amount to! And the Minister in the chair the Hon David Parker stood up here in the Chamber this afternoon and said that they were of a very technical nature. Well why does he not let them be seen by the public in order for them to have their say? I do not think it is very transparent for the Minister to sit there and say that these amendments are of a technical nature. 
I will make some contributions this afternoon on Part 1 and in particular on clause 5 “Purpose”. Then I will also make some comments on Subpart 4 in the new Part 5 to be inserted in the Climate Change Response Act by clause 43 which is to do with agriculture. The whole purpose of this legislation when one thinks about it is to be Helen Clark’s flagship exit strategy for her CV is it not? When she leaves Parliament she wants to be able to say that Labour got this legislation through Parliament and that she was a big part of it—in other words the Prime Minister wants to be a big part of this legislation. We on this side of the Chamber say to the Minister that we should slow this thing down. Let us try to line up with Australia and let the public have some buy-in to this process. 
We saw what happened with the Electoral Finance Act when the blade on the bulldozer just dropped down on the select committee process and Labour rammed that legislation through. As a result of the bulldozing that went on—and it is happening again today—we just have these huge massive wide loopholes that we can drive the bulldozer back through. Jim Anderton will find that out because he has been hauled in front of the police. He is a person who supported the Electoral Finance Act. The Government seems hell-bent on wanting to push this legislation through and National has some real concerns about that. 
Our concern in particular is that we want to get this process right. We want to ensure that we get it right for the backbone of this economy—that is agriculture our pastoral sector. We still have not heard from either the officials or the Government about where the point of obligation actually lies with agriculture. We still have not heard about how one would measure the amount of carbon absorbed through the pasture. That detail is nowhere to be seen. If this is not going to change behaviour in terms of where the point of obligation sits—whether it is at the farm gate or at the processing end—it will be seen as just another tax. I admit that we need to change behaviour at the farm-gate level and that will occur through getting the right mechanisms in place not by dropping the blade on the bulldozer and ramming this legislation through. The answer lies in research and development; and through time and some decent leadership that research and development will actually occur. 
Sue Moroney 
: Ha! 
NATHAN GUY 
: Sue Moroney scoffs. She is from a university town in the Waikato surrounded by farmers. I am looking forward to seeing her—and David Bennett is really excited about it—standing up and defending this policy platform when she is on the hustings in Hamilton. She scoffs but she knows she does not have a hope of winning that because she cannot defend this policy when she gets out on the hustings. The answer lies in research and development. 
This legislation in its current form will need to be tidied up. If National is lucky enough to win the election we will make sure we make the changes to ensure we get the process right. [ 
Interruption 
] Doug Woolerton scoffs down the end there. We know the deal has been done with New Zealand First to support the legislation and I look forward to hearing that member’s contribution.