O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): The most important thing I can and will say is this: New Zealand First is completely committed to a cross-party approach to identifying the best pathways for New Zealand to follow to reach our Paris Agreement commitments. Further we want to see the whole country work together so that shared goals can be worked out and then implemented and that will require a lot of give and take not just on behalf of political parties and the Government but also by local government by business by communities and of course by individuals.The second thing I want to say by way of introduction is that yes the Paris commitments are very challenging and require significant change even some disruptive change but the rewards of early action and significant and meaningful action are very high while the damage to New Zealand's economic environmental and social well-being of not taking early and significant actions is likely to be severe if not very severe. If that is true for New Zealand then of course it is true for all nations. The good news is that New Zealand is particularly well placed to make the necessary changes—much better placed than most nations are—and actually Kiwis are good at innovation and they are good at doing the changes at the magnitude needed. We have shown that in our past history and I am sure we can show it again on this subject. So we must see all of this much more as a great opportunity for economic and social progress than as just another set of problems to solve. If we believe in that and strive to achieve the targets that we are to set as from today—or as soon as we can—by working together then we could not leave a greater legacy to our children and our grandchildren and future generations. I believe firmly that we can not only avoid adverse economic effects from policies and actions to achieve those targets including the need to change our vital agricultural industries but we can use them to enhance our economic performance through the consistent and sensible use of policies and actions to achieve emissions neutrality sooner rather than later. The overall goal in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change is global transition to emissions neutrality—or in other words net zero greenhouse gas emissions—by the end of the century. But New Zealand can do that by 2050 and I believe that is the target we should set. GLOBE-NZ's report by Vivid Economics is a very good start for us—in fact you could see it as a starter motor—in choosing transformational low-emission pathways for this country by identifying the scenarios possible to achieve domestic emissions neutrality by the second half of the century. The essence of the report is that the transition to emissions neutrality will require more than just efficiency gains in current practice. Clearly it also requires significant changes in land use and in energy generation and use. No doubt the pathway relying heavily on breakthrough technologies will take us part of the way or in fact probably most of the way—and increasingly so as time goes on—and we must optimise the opportunities that that pathway offers. However pathways relying less on those technologies will require much more afforestation and a start on those opportunities must be made as soon as possible whichever pathway is chosen not only as a means of offsetting emissions through carbon sequestration but also as a way of enhancing regional economies and job creation which we in New Zealand First think are important co-objectives. The report shows that it is possible for New Zealand to reach net zero emissions by mid-century by combining the best elements of all pathways identified including a high uptake of technological innovation to reduce emissions the optimisation of afforestation progressively switching to less emissions-intensive agricultural production and the closure of energy-intensive industries although it is also possible to enhance this through the enhancement of internationally energy-competitive industries such as the Bluff aluminium smelter for example. The options for future efforts as discussed in the report are therefore a great template we feel for the discussions we need to have as a Parliament and as a nation. Of the many scenarios discussed it is already clear that the potential for an innovative transition—not decimation—in New Zealand's agricultural production is available for us to grasp and the time to start of course is now if we are actually going to succeed with that. The farming industry and its supporting industries I firmly believe are both able and willing to do this. So the responsibility on us as a Parliament and as a nation is to stop pointing fingers especially at the agricultural industry and to work with our farming communities to ensure that the changes needed are actually made and in ways that enhance economic and social outcomes rather than damage them. Parties and others will of course have differences in the degree of strategic emphasis on technological innovation versus diversification of economic activity as well as in the speed of the transition and in the means or tools that we use. But that will only mean that we need to listen to each other with the objective of finding a way in which we can work together to achieve the outcomes we need.New Zealand First's climate change policy is clear about obvious actions—to pick the low-hanging fruit—and first amongst those is to progressively phase out the burning of fossil fuels especially coal and oil and instead to use renewable energy including wind power photovoltaic electricity and we think also some additional hydroelectric capacity too. Second we should be increasing the share of renewable electricity generation to achieve New Zealand's 90 percent target by 2025. In fact I think we can do better than that. Third we think that we should make transport an early target for emissions reductions requiring more use of rail for freight and urban passenger travel reducing the number and use of polluting vehicles by encouraging fully electric vehicles and providing better public transport.On the emissions trading scheme New Zealand First has many reservations. While an increase in forestry will create a huge carbon bank that we can use as an offset to emissions those emissions must also be reduced strongly. So some form of internal carbon pricing to allow that to happen will be inevitable but that does not mean that we need to maintain an emissions trading scheme for foreign purchasers of carbon credits. Instead responsible action by the farming community must go hand-in-hand with Government regulation. We in New Zealand First would therefore repeal the emissions trading scheme and replace it with a scheme to operate internally. We would also legislate for a new parliamentary commission for climate change to be established as an Office of Parliament led by a commissioner for climate change and supported by independent expert assistant commissioners. They would be legally responsible for reporting against our climate change targets working with the Government to set a 3-year carbon budget designed to reach those commitments and assisting in developing the strategies the plans the legislation and the regulation to achieve the emissions performance we seek.Finally I want to repeat that New Zealand First is committed to working with other parties and everyone in the community—business individuals; everybody—to achieve those targets. We know it is a discussion. We want to take part in it and we have as I have said something to add to that discussion too.