Smith Nick: General Debate 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Volume:636;Page:6934] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 The amusing thing about Phil Goff is the way in which he praises so heavily former National leaders then has the audacity to attack the existing one. The big attack on John Key today was that he does not live in his electorate. That attack came from Phil Goff who lives 100 kilometres away from his own Mt Roskill electorate. 
What National wants to say today is that on the real policy issues this Government is rotten to the core. We started the year with Taito Phillip Field. Do members remember that man? This is the guy whom Labour and Helen Clark rely on to cling to the Treasury benches. Taito Phillip Field a man who abused Thai migrants is still supported by members of the Labour Party. The middle part of the year was dominated by Helen Clark’s rort of the electoral laws that saw her break both the Electoral Act and the Public Finance Act as a result of that pledge card. Labour also passed retrospective law to make legal its illegal activities. 
I point out this afternoon that a similar fraud has occurred in respect of the issue of climate change. I know that Government members do not want to talk about policy and real issues; well we do. I am quite sure that Helen Clark’s spin doctors worked out that the Government was on the ropes in respect of Taito Phillip Field and in respect of the pledge card. So they asked for some big bold vision that would get those issues off the headlines and here it was—carbon neutrality. That was going to be Labour’s big answer. Well did it get some advice beforehand about carbon neutrality? No it did not. Has it been given advice since about how to achieve carbon neutrality? No it has not. In this House Helen Clark has dodged and dived on the issue of when we might get carbon neutrality. As my colleague Maurice Williamson said she was dateless and desperate on trying to provide that information. 
Then we received the figures—the real numbers—from Statistics New Zealand. Since Labour has been in Government far from it meeting its promise of increasing the amount of renewable energy we are down to an all-time low of just 57 percent of our power being produced from renewable sources. The Government has since rolled out all the same strategies it used in respect of the pledge card. The first strategy was denial. The Minister of Energy said the figure was not 57 percent as Statistics New Zealand said but 70 percent. Whom are we to believe? Then the next strategy comes out and that is to blame others. Labour members say it is not their fault; it is the damn weather— 
Anne Tolley 
: It’s the rain! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: So that is why the figures drop! Well hang on a moment. In every year that Labour has been in Government the proportion of renewables has been coming down so how can the weather be blamed? Now the economy is to blame for the appalling figures. Well the economy has been growing but the real reason we have an increase in the amount of thermal generation is quite simple. It is because Labour built it. Labour agreed to build a dirty great oil-fired power station in Whirinaki. If a new power station is built surprise surprise emissions go up. Labour has approved the E3P which is a huge new gas generating station that will start next year. 
The Prime Minister misled the House yesterday. She said that all the power to come on stream in future will be renewable. I ask Mr Hughes whether the E3P is renewable. Of course it is not. 
Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member for Nelson got carried away with himself and made an unparliamentary comment about the Prime Minister. I ask him to withdraw and apologise before he continues his speech. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Speaking to the point of order Mr Deputy Speaker I point out that it is offensive to say that somebody deliberately misled the House. I was very careful in my choice of words. I said she misled the House and I will produce the facts that very clearly show she did so. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I know. That is why I did not intervene. But I take on board what you said Mr Hughes. Thank you for raising it. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The Prime Minister told the House that all new energy coming on stream would be renewable. But she sat in the Cabinet room that provided the Government guarantee for the 320 megawatt thermal power station that is due to come into effect next year so that those figures will continue to decline. 
The reality is that this Government’s Kyoto policies are an absolute mess. We heard on the radio this morning that we do not have a bolter’s hope of achieving those goals. We have record low renewable energy record high deforestation greenhouse gas emissions growing at the fastest rate of any developed country in the world and the Prime Minister said carbon neutrality is the answer. I say to members opposite that they have lost the moral courage to govern they are on death row and they should put themselves out of their misery and let us have a new Government.