Estimates Debate — Vote Climate Change

The global challenge of climate change is one of the issues of our time, and this afternoon I will take the time to challenge the Government’s pretty poor record over the last 9 years in respect of climate change. If we look at the issue of greenhouse gas emissions from New Zealand, we see that Labour came into Government in 1999 promising to reduce those emissions by 20 percent by the year 2005. But we know from the official record that has been reported to the UN that far from emissions being reduced, they have continued to increase and, most worryingly, to increase at an ever-faster rate. In the estimates that we are considering before the Committee, we note that in fact the Government is seeking $12 million this year for the monitoring and measurement of those emissions.

My first question to the Minister is about the fact that in 2007 the Government said sustainability was the issue of the year. The Prime Minister actually mentioned that word 38 times in her first speech to the House. Of course, there was also the New Zealand Government’s claimed goal of moving towards carbon neutrality in 2007. So my question to the Minister is simply this: where is the data for New Zealand’s 2007 emissions? We know that emissions were pretty bad in 2006, and there is speculation that they were even worse in 2007. I want to know why the Government does not come clean and tell New Zealanders what the emissions from New Zealand were in 2007. We know that the Government spent $6 million—$6 million—last year on a carbon monitoring programme. I tell the Minister that if he has spent $6 million, we expect to know what the data for those emissions were. We know the energy data from the Ministry of Economic Development and we know the agricultural and forestry data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, so why do the people of New Zealand not know the data for those emissions in 2007?

I have lodged a whole series of questions to the Minister, but he has ducked and he has dived—he is almost trying to avoid accountability. We have a fiscal responsibility Act, I tell the Minister, but I ask whether it will take a requirement prior to the election to get transparency into that data and for the Minister to come clean.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: Probably—probably.

Well, maybe it should, but I want to know why a Government that says climate change is the greatest issue of our time will not tell us what the net emissions were for 2007. It is a very simple, straightforward question—

💬 Chris Auchinvole: Does he know?

—and if the Minister does not know that, I ask how he can have the cheek to come to Parliament and ask for another $12 million to monitor those carbon emissions when he cannot answer with a very simple, easily calculable decision on what the emissions were for 2007.

I will tell members what I think. I think the Government is too embarrassed to tell us what the figures were for 2007. I can tell the Committee what Government members will say. They will say that after 8 years of a Labour Government, emissions in 2007 grew by a greater rate than they did in any previous year since records began. We know the Government’s climate change policy drove record amounts of deforestation last year, with the loss of 19,000 hectares of forest, and that will make the figures we have to finally report to the United Nations next April awful—just awful. I say to the Minister that the electorate has a right to know. Before people go to the polls this year, they need to know this Government’s record, so I simply challenge the Minister to tell us the emission figures for last year.

Before I call anybody else who may wish to speak, I just remind people that when using phones in the Chamber they need to keep their voices down. I do not really want to hear entire conversations being relayed across the Chamber. Thank you.

I find it extraordinary that here is the Government that has made climate change its great issue—in fact, the Prime Minister has said that climate change is the issue on which she wants to campaign in this election—yet the Minister in the chair, the Hon David Parker, has not been able to answer a very simple question: what were the greenhouse gas emissions for New Zealand in 2007? We know that for every year from 2000-01 all the way through to 2006, the greenhouse gas emissions for New Zealand grew by nine million tonnes. But why is it that the Government is trying to hide the figures for last year? If this were a Government of open transparency, if this Government really believed in its programme of policies around climate change, it would be pleased to get the figures out for last year.

Why is it that this Labour Government will not be open and transparent about New Zealand’s emissions in 2007? It is extraordinary that the Minister will not take a call and answer that very basic question. I think I know why; it is that this Government’s record, despite all the rhetoric on climate change, has been just awful. We know that every one of its policy measures has turned to custard. We could talk about the failure of the projects to reduce emissions, where the Government tendered out projects and then had to buy them back in again. We could talk about what has happened with electricity, whereby 75 percent of new electricity generation that has been commissioned since Labour has been the Government has been thermal. Can you believe it?

💬 Hon David Carter: No!

Three-quarters of the new generating capacity that has been commissioned by this Government has been thermal.

💬 Hon David Parker: Not so.

The Minister in the chair says “Not so.” Those are the figures from his very own ministry; it accepts that 75 percent of new generation has been thermal. Then we have the worst forestry figures since records began in 1951—that is, trees play a really important role in absorbing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but with this Government’s policies we have seen record levels of deforestation.

💬 Hon Shane Jones: It’s due to the Siberian forests.

Well, Shane Jones! Is it not interesting—crime is due to the moon, deforestation is due to the Siberian forests! We know that the Government’s solar water heating policy has resulted in a drop in the number of Siberian forests! That is a new line. I have to say the reason that so many trees were cut down last year in New Zealand, the reason there was a chainsaw massacre, is that this Government’s stupid policies around forestry encouraged foresters to get out there and to chainsaw down their forests. I just ask Mr Jones whether he can name a single climate change policy that this Government has succeeded on. The project to reduce emissions has failed. I am not sure what happened to the billion-dollar surplus of solar water heaters being installed. We know that the policy—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: “Treelords”.

He says that “Treelords” is the answer. Does he know that the biggest loss of forests has occurred in the central North Island area under his Government’s watch? On every front, there has been failure on climate change. We have an emissions—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Stop these unfounded allegations.

I challenge Shane Jones to take a call to explain why emissions have gone up every single year under this Government and tell us the data for 2007. I simply conclude that the Government has become so embarrassed—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: A passing blip.

It is a passing blip! I say to Mr Jones that the problem is that the “passing blip” has been going on for 9 years—every single year. Perhaps the Labour Government will go down in history as a passing blip. New Zealand deserves better. I say to Mr Jones that the Government has had 9 years to deal with the issue of climate change. Emissions have continued to grow. Every one of the Government’s policies has failed, and I simply challenge the Government to come clean with the 2007 figures.

The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Marian Hobbs): I just make the comment that although the previous speaker was calling for members of the Government to speak, it has limited calls left in this debate, unfortunately.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Energy