Curran ClareCLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): I think that this side of the House right across the Opposition has provided logical and reasoned arguments as to why this bill is quite frankly pathetic. It pains me to say it but it is true. We are supporting it because I think—as somebody said earlier—it does no harm. I think it was you Tracey Martin who said that it does no harm and it is slight steps in a direction. But in terms of a vision there is absolutely none. In terms of whether or not it will make any real substantive difference to New Zealand's emissions—probably not or certainly not in the short term. It shows no ideas—no sense of a bigger picture.I want to get a sense of a bigger picture by reading out to the House part of an article that appeared in Newsroom—that new media quite interesting entity—Michael Wood: Great stories.CLARE CURRAN: —that does quite great stories. This was written yesterday by Rod Oram and is basically saying that New Zealand is missing a chance to transform its economy by not speeding up the move to electric vehicles according to the head of one of the country's big electricity generators. That is Mercury Energy chief executive officer Fraser Whineray who says quite rightly that New Zealand has secure food water and electricity supplies but not energy freedom because we still depend on imported fossil fuels. In order for us to transition to that electric vehicles (EVs) are an imperative." Mercury Energy—and I will also give a big tick to Air New Zealand—is spearheading a programme to increase the number of companies switching their fleets to electric vehicles. Thirty companies have signed up to a pledge to convert 30 percent of their fleet to electric vehicles in the next 3 years. Those are companies actually showing some oomph in this area. What this Government could be and should be doing is showing leadership. Instead of this piecemeal bitsy piece of legislation why has it not made a commitment to the public sector to the Government fleet to transition to electric vehicles within a certain time period? It is because it has got no vision. That is basically the point.Let me tell you about another country that does have vision and that is Norway. The fleet of its plug-in electric vehicles is the largest per capita in the world with Oslo recognised as the electric vehicle capital. In July 2016—so almost a year ago—the market concentration was 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1000 people which is 14 times higher than the US which was then the country with the largest market. So I think by earlier this year Norway has ended up with 5 percent of all passenger cars on Norwegian roads being a plug-in. The highest ever monthly market share for electric vehicles was achieved in January this year with 37.5 percent of new car sales.Electric vehicles are now overtaking those monthly sales of regular cars. That is something and that is because that Government is showing leadership. Let me read to you what the energy and resources Minister said last week in a select committee. When I put it to her "Why isn't the Government making a policy to convert its Government fleet?" she said "Well good golly. That's probably a good idea but I don't make the policy and you know I don't really know." And she is the energy and resources Minister.What that tells us is that this Government has no vision—no vision no idea no plan. It pays lip-service. This is a lip-service bill—an absolute lip-service bill. It is pathetic. The Government has had 9 years to do something and this is what it can come up with—9 years to do something in this area to actually show that it means business to show that it is committed to truly reducing emissions. We are a country that is based on hydro. We have got the resource to use for electricity. Where is the plan? Just like in so many other areas—housing education health you name it—the Government has got no plan in this area where it could be visionary. It pays lip-service. I think Sue Moroney said it was a photo opportunity. It is even worse than that. This is a pathetic piece of legislation. We are supporting it. I feel a bit embarrassed really to even be talking about it. So I think the Government should be truly embarrassed to be putting this before the House.Bill read a third time."