Upston Louise: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Upston Louise: Sustainable Biofuel Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1690. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 I was proud to be a member of the Local Government and Environment Committee which considered this Sustainable Biofuel Bill so I find quite offensive some of the comments that have been made from that side of the House suggesting that the select committee members from this side of the House were not interested in exploring the concepts of the bill. It is fair to say that this Government very clearly supports clean energy clean technology and renewable energy focusing on electric cars. In my own electorate of Taupo last year in the Clean Energy Centre we saw an expo that was showing really exciting opportunities for development both in terms of biofuels and in terms of electric cars. So I am more interested in examples from my own electorate than in words that that side are spouting without anything to back them up.  
If you actually look at the submissions—and one of the submissions clearly was from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment—there was in general support for the intent but the difficulty was that the intent was not going to be delivered by what was being described in this bill. I want to give a couple of specific examples including one of the submitters the Bioenergy Association of New Zealand. This is a group that you would assume would support the bill. Right? You would think it would have an interest in it. Right? [ 
Interruption 
] Listen to what I have got to say. Its main objection was that it did not want to create barriers to new biofuels industries that were competing with long-term industry. It did not want to see barriers for entry for new biofuels to be developed. Those are not my words; those are the words of one of the submitters. It is concerned about the fact that it cannot see new technologies. It wanted to see new technologies being developed. I am directly quoting. I am directly quoting.  
It is quite interesting. If you look at other examples you will see that Air New Zealand has a significant interest in showing that it is sustainable that it is changing the way it practises and that it is using new technologies in its business. This is what it said. It agrees with the principles but it does not believe in the need to legislate and it said that the way the bill is drafted is too prescriptive. So this is not necessarily about the intent and it is not about sustainable biofuels; it is about the actual bill and whether or not it was going to be able to deliver the intended outcome.  
I am very proud to be a Bluegreen. It is an incredibly important part of where this Government is going in terms of the balance between the environment and the economy. There are jobs being created in my electorate through clean energy but we have to make sure that if we pass legislation it is good legislation. So the reason we are not able to support this is because it is actually not going to deliver the intent. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment whom I hold in very high regard does not believe that this piece of legislation as it was drafted will deliver the intent. We took quite a lot of detail and time through the select committee deliberations even to the extent of setting up a subcommittee to work on it further. We cannot support it. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.