edithatogo/nz-hansard-corpus huggingface dataset:
Peke-Mason SorayaSORAYA PEKE-MASON (Labour): I'm pleased to take a call on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) Amendment Bill. This bill gives power back to the community concerning alcohol licensing. I love that this bill considers the aspirations of the people and not those of corporate and power positions who clearly care about the bottom lines. So I welcome the bill. It's important communities have a say in what happens in their backyard.Alcohol consumed sensibly is a lot of fun. Alcohol consumed excessively is dangerous and a scourge on society. I just want to share some research by Rose Crossin et al: the aim of the study is to evaluate and rank drug harms … using a [multi-critical] decision analysis (MCDA) framework and … separately consider harm within the total population and among youth." The results: "When considering overall harm … results indicated … alcohol methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoids were the most harmful to both … overall population and … youth followed by tobacco in … total population. Alcohol remained the most harmful drug for the total population when separately considering harm to those who use it and harm to others."I want to support this bill wholeheartedly. The current law clearly does not work in the best interests and as was intended so this bill gives mana motuhake back to the communities. I commend this to the House."
White HelenSALE AND SUPPLY OF ALCOHOL (COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 3 August.HELEN WHITE (Labour): Thank you. It's a pleasure to take a call on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) Amendment Bill. It's something that I noticed in my own community—that these local alcohol plans were actually just not being adhered to because you had a real disparity of power and you had big supermarkets and big lobby groups with lots of power up against the community. That really was causing issues and it has undermined the purpose of having a local alcohol plan. So it's a pleasure to see this bill come through and streamline that process and give power back to those communities.I can say that I know of a case in Auckland where people spent over a million dollars just trying to do what they needed to in their community and that's just in legal fees. That case remains before our Supreme Court. It's just not a sustainable position and I'm proud of the Labour Party for noticing that—for making sure that it really takes account of the realities of economic power—and has amended the law accordingly. I'm pleased to support this bill.
Voting — Taxation Principles Reporting Bill—National and ACT Party Votes
Mooney Joseph; Dean JacquiVOTINGTaxation Principles Reporting Bill—National and ACT Party VotesJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Point of order Madam Speaker. I seek leave for it to be recorded in the Journals of the House of Representatives that National and ACT would have cast a party vote against the second reading of the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill if such a vote had been held.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Leave is being sought for it to be recorded in the Journals of the House of Representatives that National and ACT would have cast a party vote against the second reading of the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill if such a vote had been heard. Is there any objection? There is none.
Omer IbrahimIBRAHIM OMER (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak on the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill. I am a proud Wellingtonian who takes pride in taking public transport every day as much as I can from home to work and vice versa and so do thousands of Wellingtonians who take public transport every day. A bill that's discussing good environmental outcomes and also the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders is all of a sudden taking us back to the past and the cynicism and the negativity from members of the Opposition is just mind blowing.Climate change is getting worse. It's serious; it needs to be dealt with. Some of the ways to do that is by decarbonising our public transport. Having efficient reliable public transport is a good way to do that as well because we have to make sure that we're giving people an option to actually get out of their cars and get on to public transport. This bill is part of the Government's commitment to improve public transport in Aotearoa New Zealand to strengthen employee welfare and to improve environmental and health outcomes. This is the core aim of this bill. It does this by establishing new governing principles creating greater flexibility around asset ownership and service provision models.To me this bill is another milestone in the Government's emissions reduction plan: the establishment of the new sustainable public transport framework that is going to replace the Public Transport Operating Model. This is a good bill. I commend it to the House.
Leavasa Anae NeruDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Fa'afetai lava Madam Speaker. It is a great honour to take an opportunity to take a brief call on the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill's second reading.I just want to first of all thank the Ministers former and present for their work on this bill bringing it to the House and also the awesome Transport and Infrastructure Committee that I got to be a part of this morning as well led by Shanan Halbert and the team. Also to the 54 organisations and individuals that presented their submissions during this process I thank them for their contributions as well.As part of the Government's commitment to improve public transport in Aotearoa like we have heard from my colleagues this is all strengthening employee welfare and improving environmental and health outcomes. When it comes to public transport in Takānini we currently have two consultations happening at the moment. That is the Takānini level crossings in terms of improving the railway links and the buses that go through the network there and helping improve the efficiency for our passengers. The other one is the southern Frequent Transport Network Routes plan in order to provide the bus networks to get to those vital points in Takānini to improve the service as well.This bill does several things and I just want to comment on one of them: enabling innovation in the types of services that can be provided and that's part of supporting the provision of on-demand public transport services. So in 2021 and 2022 we had Auckland Transport piloting a programme for on-demand services to our people. That was a success with a couple of our local board chairs commenting on the efficiency that provided to our community members and that has now been put in place permanently for our community. On-demand services—in innovative ways and providing those services for our community is the way to go. So I can commend this bill to the House.
Chen NaisiNAISI CHEN (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I just can't believe that in 2023 we have to explain to the other side why promoting our public transport in our country helps with our environmental and health outcomes. The absolute siloed thinking that we've heard from the other side in terms of not recognising that some of the most successful economies in this world have great public transport. And the fact that we are having to look climate change straight in the face and having to face all of the challenges that we will—and we already have started to at the beginning of this year.We need a good public transport system that will sustain us into the future that will help us with emission reduction and that will make sure the wellbeing of all our people in Aotearoa New Zealand gets looked after. This bill enables it that's why I commend this bill to the House.
Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): I love public transport. I think people who know me well know that it's pretty much all I talk about at the moment. Growing up before I moved to Auckland I used to ride my bike to school. Then I moved to Auckland and managed to live there for a few years without owning a car and the same in Wellington. It wasn't until I moved to wonderful sunny Nelson that I actually started driving.At that point 15 years ago I identified that we needed better public transport in Nelson and so I'm delighted that recently we've just introduced 17 lovely electric buses and I just want to acknowledge my predecessor Nick Smith who's seen the light. Nick actually has his bus licence and I risked my life getting in the bus while he drove it. Apart from a quick little brake—where he possibly stepped on the brake a bit too heavily—we made it home in one piece I'm pleased to share.This is an excellent bill because it corrects a wrong with the Public Transport Operating Model that really led to the driving down of wages and conditions for bus drivers and the driving down of investment in public transport. The biggest thing that this bill does is it gives that flexibility around ownership and delivery and allows councils to actually be far more embedded in the delivery of public transport services.I'm really pleased that we have put this bill in place because in Nelson we do have two councils that have oversight of public transport and they're delivered by a fantastic local company called SBL; I acknowledge Tim Cumming and his team.What this bill does is it doesn't take away the opportunity to run our public transport system that way but it allows for a lot more flexibility and really focuses on ensuring we're investing rather than driving down costs and wages. It's a fantastic bill and I commend it to the House.
Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Thank you Mr Speaker. There it goes again: when it comes to getting on top of our transport challenges in this country in particular in our largest city the National Party is going backwards. They offer no help no forward-thinking; no solutions about actually how we're going to tackle congestion and reduce emissions. They think by doing the same old thing it's going to get a better result—it's simply not. When we look at the workforce shortages absolutely the pandemic has contributed to the challenges that are in front of us—but naively the National Party thinks that if we just let everyone in that would solve our problems. It fails to actually acknowledge that not only was it the pandemic that impacted on our workforce shortages but actually the drive to the bottom of how we pay bus drivers and ferry drivers is the number one reason why people leave the profession. And so it's this Government actually—and can I acknowledge the Hon Michael Wood who did the particular work on changing and putting up actual solutions that are going to change our public transport system. This bill amends the Land Transport Management Act 2003. It will replace the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) with the Sustainable Public Transport Framework. This framework will place workers and public transport users at the heart of our public transport system—and procurement in planning and provision while retaining successful components of PTOM. It will support workforce recruitment and workforce retention and prioritise fair and equitable treatment of employees that work in the sector mode shift that we desperately need in a growing Tāmakimakaurau and environmental and health outcomes.It's my privilege always to be the chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee. It's the role in this House that I value the most next to being the MP for Northcote because people in our city in Northcote and as we know—yes an announcement this week: 100 percent of our bus shortage issues are back in order we've got our buses working and our drivers in place and being paid fairly because of this Government. We've got some more work to do around ferries: I want to put it on the record that I'm very very disappointed that our ferry services at Birkenhead Wharf and Northcote Point have been cancelled recently; I've raised my concerns about that. But this particular bill of course is one part of the issues that are in front of us. This Government is about change. It's about being bold and brave and actually putting good solutions in place to reduce congestion and to increase our public transport uptake in our largest city. I commend this bill to the House.
Voting — Correction to Taxation Principles Reporting Bill—Leave Declined
Woodhouse Michael; Halbert Shanan; McKee Nicole; Belich CamillaVOTINGTaxation Principles Reporting Bill—Correction Leave DeclinedHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Point of order Mr Speaker. Thank you Mr Speaker. I've been made aware of an error in the vote on the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill second reading where the National Party opposed the amendments recommended by the Finance and Expenditure Committee but the motion that the bill be read a second time was passed on the voices. I seek leave for the vote to be recorded for National as 30 votes opposed on the substantive motion.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is sought to hold a party vote on the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill. Is there any objection?SHANAN HALBERT (Junior Whip—Labour): Just objection—speaking to that point of order. My understanding is that we would need—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I take it there is objection.SHANAN HALBERT: Yes.DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is objection.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Point of order. I think the member Mr Halbert was going to inform the House that a correction of the record in this way is not possible. But actually the House is the architect of its own destiny and I think the way in which you put the leave was much better than I had sought it which was to simply hold a party vote. That's still within the prerogative of the House and I just want to make sure that Mr Halbert is aware of that before declining leave.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well what I'll allow you to do is to ask for leave. Leave is sought. Is there any objection? There is.NICOLE McKEE (ACT): Point of order Mr Speaker. Thank you Mr Speaker. The ACT Party seeks leave to also amend their vote in the final vote for the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill as well if we may please Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is objection.CAMILLA BELICH (Junior Whip—Labour): Point of order. Unfortunately I wasn't in the House when the points of order around this first occurred but my understanding is that my colleague was clarifying to you Mr Speaker that because the bill has been decided a vote can't be taken but an option might be to record the other parties' opposition within the journals. I'm advised that that's the appropriate way—because the vote has been decided—that this should be dealt with.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'll just take some advice on that. Just in relation to the point of order I'm advised that that is not an option because there was no party vote. However since there seems to be a desire to see a way through this what I'll do is ask the Hon Michael Woodhouse to put that request again.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I seek leave for a party vote to be held on the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill second reading.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is there any objection? There is objection.
Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Thank you Mr Speaker. Just a few comments to make on this piece of legislation as it passes through the House today. Primarily it is about Governments doing what all Governments do and that is put backstops in where they are needed. This is about ensuring resiliency in an area where everyone in this country is impacted if we are unable to ensure not only supply of fuel but appropriate quality of fuel—it does have huge impacts for our industry for mums and dads around the country. So this is about doing what Governments should do which is building resiliency into the system.Obviously as there's broad support across the House no one is disputing that. Also no one is disputing that we are in uncertain times and unless we are able to do what we need to do to provide resiliency in this part of our economy and in this part of the sector in our industry we would throw ourselves as a nation into huge disruption if there were disruptions to fuel and to the quality of fuel. So in that vein and not wanting to hold the passage of this bill up any further I commend the bill to the House.
Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr. Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill. As has been mentioned the National Party of course supports this bill which will help to secure our resilience for fuel stocks in the case of global events which risk the fuel supply in New Zealand. I have been really enjoying listening to members on the other side of the House talking about how important fuel is to our economy and how important it is that we can fuel our cars and our trucks and our planes so that we can keep the engine room of our economy moving. What we often hear from the other side of this House is that we need to stop driving stop flying and stop using trucks.Of course the irony of it is that this is a Government which when they first came to office banned oil and gas exploration here in New Zealand. How things have changed and the Government has changed its approach and here we are now finally talking about how we can actually secure resilience in the supply of oil and gas and petrol diesel and jet fuel here in New Zealand which is of course critically important to our country. So whilst we have raised concerns about the rushed process that this Government has put to this piece of legislation—there are of course regulatory impacts which should have been given more time and consideration by the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee allowing for the industry who are impacted to be able to work that through—we do of course commend this bill to the House. Thank you very much.
Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Not only has there been the experience in New Zealand of the aviation fuel mini-crisis if you like that has been alluded to this morning but recently I was at an event I hosted where the EU spoke about lessons learned from the war in Ukraine and a really really big factor in that was about access to fuel the absolute importance to be able to have access to keep the economy running.I sat on the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee at the time when submissions were being made and there was a question about whether fuel could be held in ships that kind of went around the coast of New Zealand. We heard very clearly that the nature of fuel is such that even if it tests OK out on those ships by the time it gets to shore it can be contaminated with catastrophic consequences so that wasn't an option.Simon Court mentioned the fact that ports and roads and other elements also play a part in fuel resilience and while that is true if there is no fuel to start with then that point becomes moot so I'm not sure where his argument was going. He also said that he listens to the industry. Well that's great but on this side of the House we listen to New Zealanders and one thing that's really clear to us is New Zealanders value our self-determination. The last thing we want to do as the Hon Michael Wood said is be totally dependent on Australia and naively so being at the mercy of what the free market ideology that Simon Court is proposing might throw up whether it is outrageous fuel prices or if that was not possible in a regulated market some kind of beholdenness to Australia—absolutely outrageous. I hope there are no Australian media watching who are going to suggest that we would try and pull this on them.This is a rational and pragmatic bill. There's also a sense of urgency to it because COVID has taught us that we do need to be prepared and that's why we need to get this done. I commend the bill to the House.
Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's my privilege to speak on the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill and acknowledging the contributions of the House this morning. This bill the fuel industry amendment bill boosts New Zealand's fuel supply resilience and economic security by ensuring there is sufficient fuel supply to weather any major disruptions.There were 11 submissions that were made on this particular bill—eight additional submissions that were made orally—and just acknowledging I guess the discussion in the House this morning that some members did feel that there was a bit of pressure and also acknowledgment of the chair Naisi Chen in her well-managed facilitation and timekeeping of those submissions throughout the process albeit it was condensed and well managed quickly.This is an important bill that we do want to proceed with and of course there is acknowledgment that there are a number of proposed changes to this bill that have been recommended by the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee one of which is to amend the proposed clause 2(1) to bring the information disclosure and minimum fuel stockholding obligation (MSO) provisions into force on specific dates. The information disclosure provisions would come into force on 1 July 2024 and MSO provisions on 1 January 2025.There are a number of proposed changes albeit the well-managed time facilitation getting things done" approach of this Government and I commend the bill to the House."
Wood MichaelHon MICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): I'm very pleased to stand and commend the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill on this reading in the House. I also did enjoy the clarity of thought and intent in the ACT Party's presentation on this bill and the commendable level of honesty—that effectively their policy in this important strategic area is to freeload off Australia.Now there are two points of interest that the House might like to be aware of here. Firstly Australia has a minimum stockholding obligation and in fact that minimum stockholding obligation is shortly to increase—24 days is going to 27 days for petrol going from 20 to 32 days for diesel and going from 24 days to 27 days for jet fuel in 2024.The member who spoke for the ACT Party also displays an astonishing degree of naivety. His argument appeared to be that if New Zealand ever gets in shtook because of global supply chain factors restricting our access to critical fuel which is important for our economy for our society for jobs and all of the rest of it the Australians will just step in and help out. These are the blokes who bowled an underarm to the New Zealand cricket team whose NRL refs every week try and do over the Warriors to little effect at the moment. And in the event of global supply chain shocks the Australian Government and the Australian people quite rightly will focus on making sure that they have security of supply in their own country.It is incumbent on this Government and this House to make sure that we look after New Zealand by having prudent measures in place. That is what this bill does. This is a very standard and orthodox approach to making sure that we have sufficient stockholdings in place. Most developed countries have it around the world. COVID-19 and the supply-chain shocks that occurred during that period really did relay and bring home the importance of prudence in this area. Supply chains are under stress in what is a challenging international and global environment. There are many things that could create those stresses again and it is critical that we have these sorts of economic cushions in place to make sure that our supply chains do keep supplied with fuel. Most of the House recognises this and the ACT member's speech was a good reminder of the dangers of having an extremist and highly ideological ACT party anywhere near the Treasury benches. I commend this bill to the House.
Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Tēnā koe e te Whare. The Green Party is supporting this bill the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill. It is prudent to have measures in place to ensure that we have that resilience given the dependence of our transport system and economy on petrol and diesel for the time being. Of course the singlebiggest action we could take to improve resilience—and the single-biggest threat that we are facing is dangerous climate change from greenhouse gas emissions. And people who don't acknowledge that—you have to wonder what they're paying attention to because we've had the highest temperatures in recorded history in over 10000 years in the last summer in the Northern Hemisphere. We've had horrific severe rainfall events and cyclones hitting New Zealand already. The longer we take to stop fossil-fuel use stop adding to that dangerous greenhouse pollution to the atmosphere the worse it's going to be. And there's no adaptation after a certain point. So while there are a bunch of vested interests who seem to want to make a few more dollars in the interim before the Earth becomes uninhabitable we have to stop listening to them and organise to support life on Earth and the future for our kids and their grandkids.And we can do that because shifting to electrification of transport and our entire economy is nothing but upside for New Zealand. It's cleaner air. It's more resilience. It's cheaper cost to move people and goods. You know we've got abundant sun and wind energy that could be fuelling everything we do and it's just all upside: creates jobs better health. It's kind of astonishing to me that everyone in New Zealand isn't in agreement about the need to rapidly electrify as quickly as possible—other than people have been very confused by the amount of money that was put into lobbying by the fossil fuel industry to delay this sort of action because they make more money from the status quo while the planet gets trashed and people's lives are worse. So yeah we support this bill—it's fine—but let's see some real action on the real imminent clear and present danger and seize the opportunity of electrification and energy efficiency here in Aotearoa. That will give us energy independence make our people healthier and happier and reduce costs. The most effective thing we could do to reduce inflation is to shift away from petrol and diesel and shift to clean renewable electricity generated right here in our country. People need to vote Green I guess if they want that.
Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): I'm really glad that the National Party is supporting this legislation and as has been spoken about already there has been a good debate within our select committee and I was happily able to chair part of it as the deputy chair. Often it's around quality not quantity and so the 11 submissions and then eight oral submissions that were presented in a timely fashion were good robust conversation. As has been mentioned by Minister Henare there was some good debate and some good changes made during that process to ensure that this has come back to Parliament all the better and for the future. That was around the commencement date the calculation method which had been debated and many in the industry talked about that and the pecuniary penalties and the enforceable undertakings and exemptions.It's always nice when you have a piece of legislation when it's really clear in the title of the bill and the fact that it is improving fuel resilience which is in the title; this is what this is about and it's important. Last night I was at an event and met one of the executives from Air New Zealand and the first question they asked me was: have we passed this bill yet? And they are really really interested to ensure—and they submitted on it—to make sure we get this through. Because obviously for them it's business for them as a key stakeholder in New Zealand as a key stakeholder in the regions like Taranaki. We need to ensure that resilience is there for our jet fuel for our petrol for our diesel to make sure that we have resilience into the future no matter what happens and what moves forward.So it is really simple. I'm encouraged that across the floor we have support this morning for this and it means that we can continue to move on and make sure that the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill is able to take force and I commend it to the House.
Chen NaisiNAISI CHEN (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I just never thought that I would start a Government bill speech saying I congratulate the Opposition for seeing the light—their own journey on the road to Damascus and coming back and supporting this bill. It's an absolute joy to have heard that today; just a pity we couldn't have passed the select committee report in unanimous agreement but I'm still extremely pleased. And I just want to start on that note and thank my select committee the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and especially my deputy chairperson Glen Bennett for chairing most of the submissions. A lot of the timekeeping falls on Glen's head as well with the submissions because I had been actually with the tourism Minister in China at that time. So yeah it's been a really great process for us to come into conversations with lots of the industries including the airlines including different airports. I had been able to catch up with them at different occasions and they had all thoroughly enjoyed the process of the select committee submissions but also some really important conversations about a critical infrastructure and critical supply to our fuel industry. This is setting a floor to how much we need to reserve in our country. Can I just put on record that the Marsden Point refinery was closed down because of commercial reasons and it was by a private company and if the Opposition is willing to commit to use taxpayers' money to go fund a public oil refinery I think that would set some sort of historical record as well. But it's also great to be able to talk and agree on saying that our country definitely needs to have that reassurance especially as the last speaker Stuart Smith has just talked about in cases of emergency such as in Christchurch and talking about the diesel. We have lifted the floor—well we will be through this legislation—on all types of fuel whether it's petrol jet fuel or diesel. So saying that just because diesel is comparatively lower to the other types of fuel doesn't actually mean that it's not enough or doesn't set the required standards for diesel; it's just the comparative standard. So during Christchurch and the situation that happened that was because there was no floor—it was lower than the standard we had already set at. So it's always being able to look across the whole entire economy—all of our communities and needs—to set that floor for different types of fuels. I just wanted to also touch on the fact that there has been discretion given—when we talk about situations of emergency—to the Minister to consider when people are not able to comply with their obligations what types of concessions can the Minister give and that is to be able to give flexibility to the situations that we've been in. But overall like I said once again it is a balance across all different competing criterias we have to weigh up. Finally I just wanted to say that as the world is changing as different types of energy are changing this is a bill that will protect the interests of New Zealand putting the needs of New Zealand at the forefront. So that is why I commend this bill to the House.
Rosewarne DanDAN ROSEWARNE (Labour): It's my pleasure to take a call on the Taxation Principles Reporting Bill. As has been discussed in the House today it establishes a statutory framework requiring the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to report annually about this country's tax settings against a set of core principles which have been widely traversed this morning. The purpose of this bill is to improve the public's understanding of the tax system and to encourage informed debate about tax going forward. This bill came to the committee—it was actually my first day on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and it was a bit of a schoolhouse for me to hear a lot of clever people discuss this bill and then also to learn about the principles that underpin this bill. Adam Smith has come up on a number of occasions and so initially I thought who was this Adam Smith dude? What I like about the Finance and Expenditure Committee is you get to do a lot of deep thinking and so I got to read about a couple of his books and learn a bit more about the tax system. Interestingly Sir Michael Cullen when he first became the finance Minister was unsatisfied with the information that he was getting from Treasury at the time so he wrote to Treasury and told them not just to read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations but also to read up on The Theory of Moral Sentiments because it was the social aspect that he really wanted our officials to drill into. That was really good reading about that and it's great that that theory of moral sentiments and that social aspect have found their way into this bill. It's a good bill and I commend it to the House.
White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour): It's an absolute pleasure to take a call on this bill because this is one of the things I am truly most proud of in terms of what the Labour Government is achieving for this country. I am going to take my copy of this bill and I'm going to get David Parker to sign it and I'm going to auction it off because it speaks to our voters and our backbone. This is the situation: before the high-wealth report New Zealanders didn't know that the high-wealth individuals who have $20 to $30 million worth of income—that's what the target was—are paying 8.9 percent tax on average. Middle-income New Zealanders are paying 20.2 percent tax and that is so unfair. That is so unfair. We have a problem in this country with a gap between rich and poor and it shows itself. It shows itself in things like poverty. It shows itself in crime. It shows itself in all sorts of ways that are costly to this country and we must must understand what we are doing. What we had was we had a tax department that did not understand that 35 percent of assets were held by 1 percent. We must understand those things; they must inform us and they must inform our public. In a time like now we need to know those things and make decisions based on real information. I am shamed by the ACT Party which is supposed to be all about transparency. I am ashamed that they are actually fighting transparency. They are fighting people knowing what is going on in this country. We have to know what's going on in order to make policy and nobody should be afraid of us examining the tax policy in terms that have been thought about for generations: fairness certainty convenience efficiency thinking about wellbeing and thinking about economic income. That's an empowering thing and I urge the New Zealand voter to think about this because this debate is the stark contrast between parties. If you vote in a right-wing Government you will lose transparency and more money will go to the 1 percent. That is the reality and there we are. That is why I am commending this bill to the House.
Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Well it's very easy to stand up and speak after the previous National Party speaker Stuart Smith but it's actually very hard to speak after the Hon David Parker giving his synopsis and reflection on this. He makes it very very clear what this piece of legislation is about and that is around establishing that framework that will require officials to provide data on and assess the performance of our tax system—clear simple legislation.I want to thank the Hon David Parker and specifically the Hon Dr Deborah Russell for bringing this piece of legislation to the House. This is part of our Government's revenue strategy. It's focusing on a fairer tax system and because of that I commend this bill to the House.
Sosene Lemauga LydiaLEMAUGA LYDIA SOSENE (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. As the last speaker for this side of the House I wish to support the Climate Change Response (Late Payment Penalties and Industrial Allocation) Amendment Bill at its third reading.There have been many contributions tonight on this bill. I want to acknowledge the Environment Committee members; I am a member of that committee. In particular I also want to acknowledge the chair who has done a stellar job in terms of collegiality in working across; thank the officials and especially submitters and in particular Dr Christina Hood.The Government policy wants to really look at climate change. There have been a number of proposals to the select committee. In my short contribution there were proposals made outside the scope of the bill. We want to move to a system that supports low-carbon transition. We traversed the bill in the committee stage and the ability to move forward—it is important that the system is tightened up and it is complex and we've heard those contributions in terms of the emissions trading scheme.We need to have accuracy and make it easier to meet the climate change goals. In particular just as I finish the small forestry participants require the repayment of units by the due date or those that fail to surrender that. It is a good bill and in its complexity has technical changes. I want to thank the Minister James Shaw. I commend this bill to the House.
Hipango HareteHARETE HIPANGO (National): Thank you. I rise to take the last call for the National Party this evening. The Climate Change Response (Late Payment Penalties and Industrial Allocation) Amendment Bill—I agree with my colleague Angie Warren-Clark it's a bit of a mouthful and it has been tonight. It's been interesting listening to this debate particularly the position that's been taken by the ACT Party and that Simon Court has been courting controversy again on behalf of the ACT Party acting up in relation to this.So the National Party supports this bill and that there seems to be recognition across the House that this climate change in this day and age and the responsiveness to late payment penalties and industrial allocation particularly around the industrial allocations and small forestry participants—that this bill in summary introduces a revised penalty for small forestry participants in the New Zealand emissions trading scheme (ETS) who failed to pay units on time mitigating their risk of facing serious financial hardship and that it's good to see the Government taking the concerns of small forestry participants seriously and that the bill also amends the New Zealand ETS industrial or free allocation provisions in the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to reduce the risk of over-allocation of units to emissions-intensive and trade-exposed industries which currently cost the Crown approximately $60 million a year.So it's positive to see the Government working to improve alignment with New Zealand's national and global climate change commitments. On that basis the National Party commends this bill to the House at its third reading.
Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Thank you Mr Speaker. This is a bill that recalibrates the system. It provides access and equity and—as the previous speaker said—most importantly I believe it updates the baseline use for measurement because when the baseline is accurate everything else follows from that but if it's not quite calibrated it can be a house of cards. Therefore it also reduces the risk going into the future for this sophisticated complicated yet also very worthwhile sector which is the carbon emissions sector. I commend the bill to the House.
McLellan TraceyDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula): Thank you Mr Speaker and I too will take a short call tonight on the Climate Change Response (Late Payment Penalties and Industrial Allocation) Amendment Bill.Hon Member: Just repeat this a couple of times and you'll—Dr TRACEY McLELLAN: Ha ha! I did feel like repeating it. I would like to start by acknowledging the Environment Committee and in particular the chair the Hon Eugenie Sage being a constituent of mine who also lives in Banks Peninsula and a very valued member of this House and someone who has made an enormous contribution across many different portfolios over a period of time. We will miss her greatly.This bill allows allocative baselines to be updated with new data it allows reassessment of the eligibility of current industries and it comprises four technical improvements to industrial allocation policy. So on the basis of that I commend this bill to the House.
McKelvie Ian; O'Connor GregIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Thank goodness for that Mr Speaker. I don't often agree with Rachel Boyack—I've never really wanted to disagree with her but I've got to disagree with her on one point: this is not a straightforward bill. Ha ha! Some bits of it are straightforward but some bits of it are immensely complicated. But while they're complicated and I did cover this in my second reading speech; I don't need to cover it again now. I think this bill will be back in the House—well not this bill but there will certainly be further amendments to this bill made in the near future as a result of the second half of this bill. The second speech I made in this House would have lasted about 30 seconds—this one's lasted about 50 and it's my second-last. Thank you Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: You'll be missed Mr McKelvie.
Boyack Rachel; O'Connor GregRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a short call on this bill tonight. I just want to acknowledge that we do have near-unanimous support for the bill. It's an excellent bill. It's a straightforward bill. It basically sorts out the issue which is that the current industrial allocation settings in the emissions trading scheme haven't been updated in over a decade and that means that there are extra costs to Government in that some emitting firms are receiving more emission units than they should be.It's a pretty straightforward bill. We've got good support across the House for it. I thank the Minister and select committee and of course most importantly officials for their work. I commend it to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This a split call. Five minutes—Ian McKelvie.
Ngobi TerisaTERISA NGOBI (Labour—Ōtaki): Thank you Mr Speaker for allowing me to take just a short call on the Climate Change Response (Late Payment Penalties and Industrial Allocation) Amendment Bill. While I do not sit on the Environment Committee I do chair Labour's Infrastructure Environment and Transport caucus and I do receive updates from the Labour Environment Committee. I've also sat on just a couple of the Environment Committee hui while they were working through this bill. The work was immense; I see that and I want to acknowledge the Environment Committee but also add to those other accolades for the chair—the very knowledgeable and extremely capable Eugenie Sage.This bill modernises the decades-old industrial allocation settings. This bill ensures businesses will receive an appropriate amount of NZ Units. It addresses over-allocation reduces costs to Government and aligns Aotearoa New Zealand's climate respond targets. Again I mihi to the select committee but also to the Minister James Shaw to make sure that they're doing the mahi that protects Papatūānuku and Te Taiao. I commend this bill to the House.
Warren-Clark AngieANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker—final speech for me for the night speaking on the Climate Change Response (Late Payment Penalties and Industrial Allocation) Amendment Bill. I really think we probably could've done better with the name—I really do. Look this is a good bill. We've traversed the issues quite thoroughly I think. I'm going to make a very short contribution but I do want to acknowledge the Minister the Hon James Shaw. He has always worked really well with our Environment Committee and came and briefed us and spoke with us was open to changes and was absolutely useful in terms of the process of getting the legislation across. We had good conversations and I want to just acknowledge you sir for your work. I'm not going to call you a deity however but I do want to acknowledge the way that you worked with us.I also want to acknowledge the technical detail of this legislation and I want to just particularly acknowledge one of our clerks who did some extraordinary work getting this piece of legislation into a really readable format. So Jacob our clerk who did this work: I'd like to acknowledge you for the work that you did pulling this very technical piece of legislation together and helping us draft a report that's really readable and accessible.With that I commend this bill to the House.
Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki-King Country): Thank you Mr Speaker. Look I'm not going to take a long call this time because we've largely traversed what has been in this bill over the stage of the readings and the committee stage. But I think what I really would like to say is that it's good to see again the recalibration of something that is a constantly moving. We need to have the emissions trading scheme dynamic we need to have it constantly adjusting and changing and we need to have the ability to review things often as technology and research development and science move us forward.I think it's very important particularly as we don't have cross-border regimes and we are competing with other parts of the world and this gives our own businesses a chance to compete on a level playing field at this point in time. I mean at some point the world may catch up but we've always said that it's important that it's not up to us to lead the world but to actually move with the world and do our bit and these adjustments help us to do that with our businesses. So with that I would like to commend this bill to the House. Thank you.
Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): There were a number of proposals made and presented to the Environment Committee when we were scrutinising this bill including things like overall phase-out rates capping the overall allocation to make it consistent with the emissions trading scheme cap and the use of international benchmarks—all of which were outside the scope of the bill.But in a sort of post-script in the committee's report it noted that there is much to be done beyond the scope of the bill to tackle the broader design of industrial climate change policy—and I quote from the committee's report—so that we can move from a system that locks in [high]-emissions [industrial] activities to one that [supports a rapid low-carbon transition]." The committee noted that the second emissions reductions plan due to be developed next year is an ideal opportunity to "set a new direction for industry policy".I just want to finish this brief contribution by saying to the House that it is surely time that we get more serious about reducing carbon emissions that we try to find the policy settings that will genuinely incentivise rapid decarbonisation and not provide free allocations that subsidise carbon pollution in perpetuity.I commend this bill to the House."