Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): Well is it going to be Milton or Michael? It's going to be Milton I think and I'm talking about not Michael Wood but Michael Cullen—you know the author of the most extractive capital gains regime in the world. Thank goodness they came to their senses and dropped that one. This Government has got it wrong but why are we surprised? A 100 percent renewable electricity policy though technically feasible is economically untenable. But don't worry because molten salt is on its way just like lava lamp storage and what about flux capacitors? We should hear that coming from the Government as well.This week we learnt that New Zealand will have to pay dearly for the 100 percent renewable electricity goal that this Government has been talking about. Residential power prices—up 14 percent. Commercial power prices—up 29 percent. Industrial power prices—up 39 percent. For residences every household what that means is a $300 increase per year an increase which disproportionately impacts low-income households. You know the editorial in the Taranaki Daily News and in fact the Manawatu Standard the Marlborough Express The Press Nelson Mail Waikato Times Dominion Post Timaru Herald and Southland Times said the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) has advised that 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035 in a normal hydrological year could be technically feasible but getting there will be incredibly expensive and likely counterproductive to our aim to reduce carbon emissions. They went on to say in this editorial The ICCC report should be applauded for restoring sanity to the discussion". Isn't that amazing that an editorial right through most papers in the country said that this report is restoring sanity to the discussion? Yes the goal may have been aspirational may have been ambitious but it's untenable. In fact it's going to hurt New Zealand. It's going to slow us down from achieving the goals that this Government thinks that they want to achieve. In fact the goal has shifted from being an absolute goal to an aspirational goal. Hamish Rutherford from the Dominion Post said "Back in April Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern began referring to the 100 percent renewable target as 'aspirational' " which some in the industry are saying looks like she's clearing the ground to soften their position. Dan Bidois: Cop-out.JONATHAN YOUNG: Yeah it's a cop-out. I spent two weeks over the Easter recess visiting countries which are facing energy transition. I included a meeting with the UK climate change commission. I included a meeting with Ofgem which is the Government regulator for gas and electricity markets in Britain and I met with their counterparts in Japan and Norway. I came away highly impressed with one thing: their sanity—their sanity their pragmatic approach. It was science over religion. It was. It was rationality over ideology. They were facing the challenge of transition and they were understanding that it's going to be small interim incremental steps that need to be made rather than single leaps into the future to successfully achieve a low-emission future.I just want to read out some comments. Back in 2007 under Helen Clark's Government—and Megan Woods the Minister of energy has received this advice. This is the advice of Government agencies back in that time. The key finding of this work was that cumulative generation and transmission costs increased significantly with higher levels of renewables. For example they increase by $1.5 billion at a 95 percent target compared to the $7 billion currently spent on electricity. It's a 21 percent increase. This sounds so familiar to what the Interim Climate Change Committee has presented to the Government today: 14 percent up for residential power 29 percent for commercial power 39 percent for industrial power. What it means for those industries—the impacts on the viability of their businesses their ability to grow to compete to employ and to pay the Government taxes on their profits—is that all the numbers are going the wrong way. We need to be smarter. We need to think incrementally. We need to think about steps that will enable this economy to succeed to reach those goals. Thank you Madam Speaker."