Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to take a call on this bill. This is my first speech in the House for four weeks and it seems like since I was here nothing's changed in terms of the National Party seeming to be completely out of touch with the average New Zealander. I am very surprised the National Party are not supporting this bill to the select committee. I understand that they have some issues with this bill and they have highlighted those issues but when I talk to people on the street when I talk to people in my electorate about electric vehicles about climate change the overwhelming majority would like to purchase an electric vehicle but there are some barriers. This bill starts to address that issue.The previous Government signed us up to the Paris accord and that was very good that they did that. I think everyone in this House would agree that that was the right thing to do. But the previous Government then did not follow up with any action. However on this side of the House we are seeing action on our climate change commitments and this is one example of that action.The former Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key said that we will be a—Hon Members: Sir John.JAMIE STRANGE: —Sir John Key—that we will be a fast follower. Well what does that mean? A fast follower on climate change? Well that's obviously in the past and that was a position the National Party took. But this Government we don't have the approach of being a fast follower; we want to lead the world in climate change. Yes we are a small country compared to some of the larger countries the likes of the US and China and India. However we can be a leader and we are committed to being a leader in the area of climate change. This bill that the Minister the Hon Michael Wood has brought to this House certainly fits in with that philosophy on this side of the House.I am surprised the National Party aren't supporting it at least to select committee where we can have a debate about it. Maybe they want to do a quick caucus and maybe change their vote but that's up to them. I won't try and tell them what to do.So as we've heard from a previous speaker 20 percent of New Zealand's emissions come from the transport area. This is a challenge. This is certainly a challenge for us as a country because the reality is that transport personally affects all of us. We've seen some good work by councils supported by Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency around moving towards public transport and cycling. But the aspect around electric vehicles is going to play a key role in us achieving our Paris targets. It's absolutely vital that we do achieve those Paris targets. That's something that we have made a commitment to as a country. So therefore we need to act.So what the bill does: it increases the supply and variety of zero- and low-emission vehicles available for purchase in New Zealand by applying the clean car import. The reality is there are rebates of up to $8600—that is a significant rebate $8600—and $3450 for used vehicles to make them more affordable for New Zealanders. As I said earlier I believe that the majority of New Zealanders those I talk to those conversations I've had with my very own family want to purchase electric vehicles; they've wanted to for quite a while but the cost has been a barrier.You know they understand that there are benefits to the climate around electric vehicles. They also understand that they are cheaper to run. Linking to that point I'd like to talk about power generation in New Zealand. If there's ever a country that is well positioned to move more into the electric vehicle fleet in terms of the power generation it is our country with over 80 percent of our power coming from clean-energy sources. Now vehicles can be charged overnight during the off-peak hours when the water is still flowing through the turbines and that power is unable to be stored. So there's an obvious solution here around battery storage because—now we do have a shortage of battery storage here in New Zealand—we can have electric vehicles in people's garages they can be supporting our grid to store energy which can then be fed back to the grid at a later point.Now I'd just like to finish with the one point and as we drive around as a family my children tend to really notice the electric vehicles; it's almost like a little sort of competition to spot the electric vehicles. Our children are very engaged in this issue and as politicians it's important that we are. I would like to see support from the National Party through to select committee but we'll have to wait and see when the vote takes place. Thank you Mr Speaker.