Labour plans to Philibuster on ETS
The House goes into urgency today to debate the emissions trading scheme legislation.
In reality that means there won't be any urgency at all. Labour is planning hundreds of amendments to try to flood the debate and slow down progress as it tries to Philibuster (sorry, couldn't resist that).
The best Labour can do is frustrate, however, since the Government now has the numbers to pass the bill with the help of the Maori Party.
There has been much criticism of the Maori Party's decision to support the ETS despite the fact that it clobbers low-income households by increasing their energy costs in particular.
But I reckon the party has actually done pretty well. It's extracted some major concessions from the Government, the biggest of which is essentially a relitigation of Ngai Tahu's Treaty settlement.
Don't underestimate the importance of this. All the official advice was for the Crown to tell Ngai Tahu to take a running jump over its claim that the value of its Treaty forests had been slashed because of the ETS.
Somehow, the Maori Party managed to drag a completely extraneous issue into the debate and have it agreed to as part of the price of its support. So I don't think the Maori Party has sold its constituents down the river, as Labour claims, at all.
Labour's Phil Goff has his lines all worked out - the bill is bad for the environment, bad for Maori, and bad for taxpayers in general, leaving them with a $110 billion bill by 2050 (man, is the Government annoyed with Treasury for coming up with that figure).
However, it's also extremely ironic to hear Labour wringing its hands about the impact of the ETS when...HELLO...Labour passed the Emissions Trading Scheme!!!
We tend to forget sometimes that we already have an ETS, and all National is doing as amending it. Now, as I've previously stated, I have some issues with passing more of the costs of emissions on to taxpayers (and I've heard Nick Smith's arguments about why this isn't actually a cost, it's just forgone revenue, but, I'm sorry, in my book that's a cost) - but the basic tenets of the scheme remain the same.
Maori were already going to be clobbered by the ETS that Labour passed, and I can't see how it's made too much worse for them by National's amendments. On the contrary, what the Maori Party has extracted from the deal will be beneficial to some, although certainly not all, Maori.
Whether or not this deal should have been done, or whether it's in the interests of democracy at a wider level, is another matter. I don't like side-issues being tacked on to support legislation. It's something that happens a lot in the US, where you get bills before Congress on, say, taxpayer bailouts for corporates that includes sections on getting a fence painted in New Orleans in order to get the support of the local Congressman. It's not generally good lawmaking.
You could argue the whole ETS hasn't been good lawmaking, of course, and there have been so many contrary figures bandied back and forth about the costs and benefits of the scheme that I honestly don't think anyone knows what its impact will be.
ACT's answer to this is for us all to have one of David Lange's cups of tea, but in reality I don't think this is possible any more. The rest of the world is taking action on climate change, and we have to do so as well.
That still leaves plenty of questions about the assumptions being made about the entry of various sectors into the ETS, of course, and who is being advantaged and disadvantaged. There's also the possibility of significant changes being made on the floor of the House, which isn't a great way to make law either.
Don't expect this bill to be the last word on the subject. This is still very much a work in progress.
Follow NZStuffBlogs on Twitter and get fast updates on all Stuff's blogs.
Sponsored links
Newest First
Oldest First
I'm appalled at the corruption of this government, offering junkets and huge sums of money to Maori in order to get controversial legislation passed. Absolutely shocking.
I'm also absolutely appalled at the lack of mainstream media reporting on the hacked CRU emails, emails that show pro-warming scientists clearly manipulating raw data in their favour and black-balling those sceptical to the idea of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Scandalous.
The taxpayer always pays, or the consumer, as costs will always be passed on. The ETS is such a daft scheme I am not surprised every government in the world is dragging its feet. It's very wise of our Govt to pander to the greenie scaremongeres, push out everything as far as possible, work hard here on good practice in agriculture etc and let the big polluters in the industrial nations clean up their act. Because whatever we do in NZ it means diddleysquat in the greater scheme of things.
yes this shows labour up to be the hypocrites that they and their labourite supporters are.
i of course would support ACT's position ie the cup of tea being the best idea - the danger there is that we would get clobbered by the Europeans and other trading partners and jeopardise the 100% pure brand...
Another irony is that at the same time as we are rushing to amend labours disastrous ETS the entire facade that is man made climate change is beginning to unwind.....the email scam by the 'worlds leading scientists’ has proved how corrupt they are and how fictitious their entire findings are.....
Of course its a 'work in progress' and will be ad infinitum. The ETS was always going to happen either with Labour or National. Its about how it is designed and implemented. With Labour it was about making the polluters pay, with National its about making the ordinary taxpayer pay with side deals for big corporates and some tinsel for the natives to keep them happy. Whats new?
Meanwhile Goff will make mileage out of the ensuing 'filibustering'
Colin, you should be ashamed of yourelf, you are perfectly aware that labour supporters and indeed the Labour MP's have selective memory syndrome.. :)
"However, it's also extremely ironic to hear Labour wringing its hands about the impact of the ETS when...HELLO...Labour passed the Emissions Trading Scheme!!!"
Nice!
Sam #2 "emails that show pro-warming scientists clearly manipulating raw data"
The emails show nothing of the sort: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/ has a comprehensive and well informed debate among people who actually understand the science involved.
The MSM aren't commenting because it's a non-story. Oh, that's evidence of a cover-up conspiracy, isn't it?
Its a sad day indeed when common sense is replaced by political dogma. When we introduce a tax for an imaginary product on the back of poor science and even poorer understanding we have truely gained a new level of ignorance. Its obvious to everyone that Copenhagen will arrive at a concensus to do nothing, which is the correct thing to do,(nothing), so why the rush to burden NZers with even more costs? Climate change is being revealed as the greatest lie of a generation and still we plough on. Wtf? We have 120+ MP's and they are all dumb? And wheres the media in al this, how about some actual research before spouting out your continuous, toe the line crap you read of a teleprompter. What do they teach in journalism school nowadays? The correct way to say Koatanga? So stupid, the whole thing reeks of fraud and back handers. And dont even get me started on Maori stating that there full and final settlements need to be revisited because carbon credits will affect the dollar value of their trees. Last time I looked, you did a deal on information you had on the day, made a decision and lived with it. Apparently Maori will never have to "live with it" again. They have a save, rewind and replay option for life. Gamers will be jealous beyond belief. Empty out your pockets taxpayers, your arse raping has only just begun.
I totally agree with Kat #5. It's pretty weak that National is giving the industry plenty of time to INCREASE emissions, while the taxpayer is covering for them.
Labour's ideas were bad enough with this, but National has taken them to new lows. The sooner big industry starts trying to reduce emissions the cheaper it will be for them long term. But long-term thinking seems to be in the too-hard basket. The most serious problems aren't going to happen in their lifetimes, so leave it to the younger generation to fix their mistakes, eh?
Colin. you write some silly things but this takes the cake:
"However, it's also extremely ironic to hear Labour wringing its hands about the impact of the ETS when...HELLO...Labour passed the Emissions Trading Scheme!!!"
They're completely different ETS's Coliin, that is the issue.
All rise - On the House stands adjourned
Dumb and dumber: Axing Heather Roy
Carter commits political suicide
Green leader out of line with protest
Get Carter, but not because he's gay
Party's over for Labour's Hooray Henrys
Whinegate unlikely to sozzle the PM
English sprinkles the fairy dust
Pop music star Whitney Houston dies
Ethnic rights advice stuns communities
Daily trivia quiz: February 12
Dotcom accused van der Kolk 'flabbergasted'
Roll on 2050 - New Zealand economy to rise
Prison officers 'turned into mules'
Pop music star Whitney Houston dies
Ethnic rights advice stuns communities
Dotcom accused van der Kolk 'flabbergasted'
Teens mimic depression to get prescription drugs
Roll on 2050 - New Zealand economy to rise
Pop music star Whitney Houston dies
Quake city assets set to be popular
Welly whiz-kid sees hi-tech future for education
CERA report prompts mall evacuation
Prime Minister John Key wins hearts if not minds
"The rest of the world is taking action on climate change, and we have to do so as well."
If by "taking action" you mean "trying to look as though they're doing something" you're spot on. The more I follow the "debate" the more I agree with the cynical pessimists: in 30 years or so, when they are no longer able to live with the effects of global warming, a country will make the unilateral decision to pump pollutants into the mesosphere to filter out some of the sun's light. We know it will work, because Pinatubo did it. If they can solve the chemistry to slow the fallout they won't do it quite so often. Ocean acidification is another issue, but I guess the solution probably involves dumping alkalis in the sea. In other words the best thing we can hope for is that there's an international agreement on who gets to do it.