Hughes Gareth: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hughes Gareth: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6233. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Speaker. I rise to oppose the destructive Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. Climate change is the biggest global threat. It is happening faster than we expected and we are nearing those dangerous tipping points. We stand at the precipice of catastrophic climate change. But this is not a problem just for future generations any more; it is a problem now. Recently former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report that 300000 people are dying every year predominantly amongst those who have caused it the least. The fact is though we have a chance. The window is still ajar. We can still avoid the worst of climate change. 
But in this debate I do not want to talk about the Carteret Islanders the Bangladeshis or the Tuvaluans—the real face at the front line of climate change. I do not want to talk about the penguins or the polar bears on the cusp of extinction. I want to talk about why I am opposing this bill. It is because of my kids. It is because when my son Arlow is expected to enter intermediate school we will see the complete failing according to experts of the Arctic Sea ice in summer months. When my son is thinking about starting a family we could see tens of millions of climate refugees from those countries around the world I talked about. At the time of him thinking about retiring from work we could see the extinction and complete destruction of island countries around the world. 
This is not just a political a scientific or an economic issue; at its heart this is a moral issue and New Zealand has a responsibility to act. We have to act. We have got one of the highest per person emission rates in the world. Our emissions are going through the roof—25 percent above what we promised in 1990. Under our current system we are not standing out front. This is not a story about us marching out in front of the world; this is about us doing our fair share. Mr Goldsmith said the Greens were not looking at other countries around the world. The fact is we have got a huge document here which we have tried to table—which National members refused—showing all the countries that are making pledges. Countries are doing stuff. We are the ones being left behind. As we debated in this debate the emissions trading scheme is the Government’s main response to climate change. What this bill does is weaken an already weak ineffectual scheme. 
What are the experts saying about the National Party’s bill? My colleague Dr Kennedy Graham says it is weakening it to an irrelevancy. Brian Fallow says it is putting the emissions trading scheme into an induced coma. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment calls it toothless and a farce. Rod Oram says it most bluntly: “You’re killing it.” This bill will see more cheap offshore scam credits flood our carbon markets. This bill will see only some firms covering only 5 percent of their carbon costs. This bill maintains that one-for-two deal beyond 2012 indefinitely. This bill maintains the $25 price cap indefinitely meaning that those involved in the scheme will face no incentive to reduce their emissions. This bill defers agriculture indefinitely again meaning that the taxpayer will continue to subsidise for years to come this industry which is responsible for half of our emissions. This bill will see emissions rise deforestation accelerate and our country’s reputation erode even further. 
Many of these criticisms are valid of the Government’s existing emissions trading scheme and what it is doing here is making a bad situation even worse. The fact is there is a cost to our kids and the future generation but also it is a cost to the taxpayer. This bill is destructive. It is destructive for our climate future it is destructive for our carbon markets and it is destructive for a clean economy and green jobs. Under this ineffectual scheme the taxpayer has had to pick up the tab of $1 billion in the last financial year and now the Ministry for the Environment predicts that this amendment bill will increase it by another $330 million over the next 4 years. What is the point of a trading scheme if it is not sending a market signal to invest in clean energy when it is in fact sending the wrong signal—to keep investing in polluting technology and old-fashioned practices? What we have seen around this bill is a shocking rushed process. Only 2 weeks were given for submissions on one of the most technical controversial economy-wide policy debates. If only the Government would act with the haste with which it comes to passing bad legislation when tackling climate change. 
This bill is going to go down thanks to the vote of one man. That one man is Peter Dunne. He is going to go down—his legacy in this House—as the man who sold the assets and now he is also going to be the man who sold out our climate future. The fact is the environmental bandits in our Government are selling out all of our kids’ futures. When the world is crying out for clean energy we could be providing it. This is not a cost this is not a risk; this is a business opportunity. It is a moral imperative to act. Tackling climate change is about investing in clean energy it is about energy efficiency it is about public transport it is about smart farming and it is about building jobs. When the world is crying out for jobs and we have got tens of thousands of New Zealanders out of work and leaving the country let us invest in our kids’ futures. I want to look my son in the eye— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. His time has expired.