Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Thank you Mr Speaker. I look forward to working with the member Scott Simpson at select committee on this bill. This emissions trading bill is admittedly a complex piece of legislation and what it really is doing is going back and revising the emissions trading scheme that's been left in disrepair. What is happening here is we are putting an effective market in place for carbon. It's well recognised that the most effective way in which to manage carbon emissions is to require people who are emitters to pay the true cost of those emissions and that hasn't happened to date for a number of reasons. There have been a plethora of free units there has been the use of corrupt offshore credits and there has been a weak market. So what this does is it seeks to set up a market which has those features of any good market one which has integrity—it is not flawed by dishonest practices as was the case in respect of some of those offshore credits—it has clarity certainty and predictability.That is exactly what's going on here. We want to put a clear set of rules in place so that farmers industry—across the board people will know what will be expected of them into the future. It has stability. It's not highly volatile being able to be gamed and with unpredictable prices and the bill itself sets out a number of techniques including the removal of the cap but also the ability to intervene in the market to make sure that it doesn't run amok in a very similar way to the powers of the Reserve Bank in respect of the currency and also wide applicability. The fact is that you cannot have a workable emissions trading scheme unless all key sectors of the economy are included in it. So we've got to wind back some of those free units over time. Industries have to come up to speed and over time transition to being zero carbon and bearing the cost because we know that if industries don't bear the cost if they're given a free ride they will quite rationally and reasonably take that free ride.So over time it's absolutely essential that the true cost of carbon emissions is borne by those who are creating those emissions and downstream ultimately consuming those goods and that is going to include farmers but a unique and innovative arrangement has been negotiated where farmers have been invited to self-manage. Here in the emissions trading scheme farm emissions are included as they must be but if down the track we see that farm practices and reporting are robust then farmers will be able to self-manage their own emissions because this kind of intervention won't be needed. But the onus lies very heavily on farmers and I'm sure here in New Zealand our farmers are up to the challenge—the best farmers in the world.So this really is about creating a market. It's lining it up with the zero carbon bill which we've just been debating making sure we're aiming for that Paris target of 1.5 degrees but also capping those emissions saying that if we're going to get there over time there has to be a cap and a thinking cap on emissions and that will drive the price of carbon units up but that cap is absolutely essential and also real caution about the use of any overseas emissions because we've seen already that a laissez-faire approach an entirely open market led to an absolute corruption of the market and it became pretty much a meaningless exercise.It's also important that we have a transparent market that people can see what goes on. So there's going to be clearer reporting and greater transparency so that people will be able to understand exactly what the carbon budgets are like and who's adhering to it and who's breaking the rules and also just in closing better rules around compliance which really fall into two categories: an infringement category minor infringements but then one where there's a failure to trade and hand in emissions units. There will be real penalties which are linked to the price of carbon and that sends again a financial incentive to businesses that work in this world.So it's absolutely appropriate that we have a framework we create a market which has integrity is transparent has clarity is stable and is universally applicable. That will lead us to a zero-carbon future on the back of this excellent emissions trading scheme. I look forward to examining this before select committee. Thank you Mr Speaker.