Genter Julie AnneJULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): I am keen to speak on this bill because it does represent an area that I am greatly passionate about. In my whole career I have been interested in finding positive solutions to climate change because I care deeply about the future of our people and our planet. I know that most New Zealanders share that concern and share those values. They care about the long term and they want to see the Government implementing smart solutions that are going to look after our precious natural environment and our people. Unfortunately this National Government is letting New Zealanders down. I think it means well. Certainly it does demonstrate that the Greens have shown enormous leadership over the past decade or two that now every party in Parliament is talking seriously about the need to respond to climate change and is in support of clean green transport. That is a huge win for the Green Party which has been talking about climate change and clean electric vehicle policy the longest I think of any party in Parliament. But the truth is that this National Government although it means well and has changed its rhetoric is far more focused on the short term and on getting those PR wins that make it look like it is taking action when fundamentally its policy is not going to create the changes that New Zealanders really need. This policy in particular falls well short of one that would actually make it easier for more New Zealand families and businesses to afford electric vehicles.The Green Party will support the bill because these changes that it is proposing to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) levies and transport levies are quite good. That is pretty straightforward. Basically it is allowing the levy collected from the electricity industry to be spent on other areas like transport—so energy efficiency not just electricity efficiency—and allowing the existing petrol and diesel levies to be used to fund EECA. I think that makes a lot of sense because obviously energy conservation and efficiency are more than just electricity particularly with New Zealand's profile where about half of our climate pollution from energy comes from transport not from electricity.Of course we need a strategy to ensure that we have a greater percentage of renewable electricity in New Zealand—that is something National is failing to deliver unfortunately—and we need a smarter approach to transport. If the Government were really serious and really enthusiastic about electric vehicles then it would implement policy that would actually accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles in New Zealand. But we know that its strategy is not going to do that. The very targets that it has adopted are actually lower than what Ministry of Transport officials forecast would happen without any policy assistance.So although Simon Bridges the Minister of Transport is quite keen to be seen in every photo op with a new piece of electric vehicle charging infrastructure the reality is that this Government has done nothing to incentivise or financially support the installation of that charging infrastructure. That is something that one could have reasonably expected it to do if it wanted to have more electric vehicles in New Zealand. That is what countries like Norway which has succeeded in massively increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road have done: they had Government support for electric charging infrastructure across the country. That would be the Green Party's policy.The next part of the policy that is incredibly short-sighted and was actually very much discouraged by the officials is the policy of allowing electric vehicles to use bus lanes and public transport lanes. If you want really efficient transport—transport that not only is energy efficient but also is going to move more people and goods in crowded urban areas—the smartest way to do that is to build a fast modern public transport network and use rail to get goods to and from the port not to put more trucks on Auckland's already overcrowded roads.Amazingly that type of infrastructure is far more cost effective and entirely affordable and yet the National Government has not been properly investing in it even though it is going to give us the greatest bang for buck in terms of our next dollar spent in transport. In terms not just of reducing pollution but of actually making it easier for people to get to work and get to school and for those goods to get to and from the port the best way to do that is to put more of our capital investment into our rail network and to protect those busways that we have already built. The Northern Busway is now moving as many people as all of the lanes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge at peak time. Why would we make that less efficient by allowing a few people in electric vehicles to use it?I guarantee that that is not going to be the incentive that makes it easier for households to afford an electric vehicle. Ultimately it is going to be the well-off people who have the money—who are able to spend $60000 on a new electric vehicle—who are going to benefit from being able to use the bus lane and it is actually going to make it harder for 50 people on the bus to get to work. Does that seem fair? Does that seem efficient? No. It is a terrible idea and that is why Norway which actually had this policy is phasing it out. It disrupts the provision of efficient public transport services which can move many times more people. A busway can move 10000 people an hour. A railway can move 20000 people an hour. This is why electric vehicles cannot compete with public transport for moving people in busy crowded urban areas like Auckland.I have news for the National Government. I have been campaigning on the North Shore rail project on the North Shore. We have been surveying people of the North Shore. There is virtually 100 percent support for that project. That is what people want—and I would say half or more of the people whom we talked to voted for the National Party. So it is time to get with the programme and deliver what people actually want what is actually going to work and be more cost effective.Finally the road-user charge exemptions for electric vehicles are not the most effective way of delivering affordable electric vehicles for businesses or households. Even Treasury said that in its advice to the Minister. We have under the Official Information Act advice from Treasury saying it does not make sense to spend this money exempting the road-user charges. We need those road-user charges to pay for the transport network. I mean if you are going to have many more people using electric vehicles then it is going to create a whole lot of congestion. How are we going to invest in the capital infrastructure that is going to deal with that if we are not charging for the use of the road? That does not really make much sense. What would make sense is using the money to reduce the purchase price of electric vehicles and actually making it more affordable for people to buy the electric vehicle in the first place.That is why the Green Party has a comprehensive electric vehicle policy which will work. Unsurprisingly since we were the first party that was really campaigning seriously on climate change and coming up with the solutions we have the most practical policy. It is very simple: (1) Government invests in infrastructure that is going to move more people and goods; (2) Government invests in infrastructure like electric charge infrastructure and supports private business to do that but coordinates both the public and private installation of that infrastructure to ensure that there is a network that people can use; and (3) Government procurement—I know my colleagues in the Labour Party have been talking about this and it is incredibly important from a leadership perspective.The Government is spending huge sums of money on vehicles both for Cabinet Ministers and across the whole of Government whether it is for district health boards or whether it is for Corrections there are all sorts of Government vehicles. Where possible we should be prioritising the purchase of electric vehicles and clean vehicles. It is better for New Zealand. It is better for the long term. It makes sense and if we are going to spend the money we might as well do it in a way that is going to look after the environment.Finally the Green Party looked at the policies that have been effective around the world at increasing the uptake of electric vehicles. In Norway they had a huge tax on vehicles—all of their new cars were subject to this big tax. They exempted electric vehicles from the tax and now one out of four new vehicles being sold in Norway is electric. By 2025 one will not be allowed to purchase a diesel or petrol vehicle; it will only be electric. It has been incredibly effective and it was that—reducing the purchase price of electric vehicles—that worked.We do not have a big tax on vehicles here in New Zealand but we do have the fringe benefit tax. In fact 80 percent of the new vehicles that are brought into this country are company cars. So we said: Why don't we have an exemption for fringe benefit tax on electric vehicles for 7 years?". It would really give that incentive to businesses to buy electric vehicles. They would save money on the operating costs as well. Giving that possibility of dropping the cost will make it much more attractive to buy an electric vehicle and within 3 to 5 years we will have developed a second-hand electric vehicle market so ordinary households in New Zealand can buy an electric vehicle."