Smith Nick: Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill — Procedure Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill — Procedure Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:7951. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Climate Change Issues) 
: 
 The member who has just spoken Jacinda Ardern ended her speech by saying the word “cynical”. Let me tell her what cynical is and talk about the sorts of double standards that she exhibited in her speech. The first thing she said was that this scheme is awful because it has no cap. Well that is very interesting. I have searched all the way through Labour’s emissions trading scheme and did it have a cap? 
Hon David Parker 
: Yes it did. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: No it did not. It did not. I can quote Jeanette Fitzsimons’ repeated criticisms of the previous Government’s scheme for not having a cap. 
The second double standard is really interesting. It again illustrates the double standards and cynicism of Labour. Labour members say that this scheme provides big subsidies for industry right? In this bill they are termed allocations and all the way through the debate Labour has been calling them a subsidy. I am pleased that Mr Parker is to contribute to the debate because when Jeanette Fitzsimons challenged him on the amount of allocations in his bill she referred to them as a subsidy. She said that Mr Parker’s bill—the previous Government’s bill—which provided 654 million tonnes of allocations had a subsidy. The Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues at the time Mr David Parker said that it was not a subsidy; it was an allocation. My question for Mr Parker is why when he is in Government and he makes an allocation it is not a subsidy but when National makes an allocation it is a subsidy? That sounds a tad cynical to me to quote Jacinda Ardern. 
Then Jacinda Ardern said that this Government had done nothing practical about climate change. Let me give her a couple of examples. Over the course of the previous Labour Government which was 9 long years let us look at how many homes it managed to insulate during that period. Do members know that in one brief year we have insulated more homes—10 times as many homes in 1 year—as did Labour in 9 years? Is that not an extraordinary positive practical achievement by this Government? 
I can give another example of a practical area in respect of solar water heating. I think that it is a good thing; I have a solar water heater in my home. Do members know how many solar water heaters have been installed during the first 12 months of this Government compared with the number installed during the 9 years of the previous Government? It is eight times the number. Hang on eight times the number of solar water heaters have been installed in 12 months under National compared with what Labour achieved in 9 years yet Labour members come down to the Chamber and say that the Government is not making any practical effort on climate change. I challenge Jacinda Ardern to a debate anywhere in New Zealand to talk about the positive things that this Government has done. 
Let me take another area of cynicism. She said that the National Government as per its commitments removed the thermal ban and that that would put up emissions. 
Chris Hipkins 
: That’s right. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: That is right. So I went to the officials and asked them for an estimate of the consequences of removing the thermal ban and I asked how much that would change New Zealand’s emissions profile. Do members know what the officials said? 
Aaron Gilmore 
: What did they say? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: They said that it would not make any difference at all because it was so ineffective so conditionalised. Again we see that sort of cynicism from members opposite. 
The last point I will make is about biofuels. Again it shows the cynicism of Jacinda Ardern because on most things Labour members tell only half the truth. They tell only half the truth. The bit she got right is that this Government removed the compulsion for fuel companies to provide biofuels. However we replaced it with an excise advantage so that we could encourage biofuels. But Jacinda Ardern refused to pick that up and right at this very moment a new biofuel plant is being built in Auckland because of that scheme. 
Chris Hipkins 
: How much is being paid out? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member asked how much. Well let us ask this question: how many litres of biofuel were provided for in Labour’s 9 years?