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Source: ONE News -
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Parliament faces a marathon debate under urgency this week as the government rams through its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) bill against fierce opposition from Labour.
Climate Change Minister Nick Smith on Monday struck a deal with the Maori Party giving the government a narrow majority to pass the bill through its second reading, committee and third reading stages.
Urgency will start on Tuesday and see parliament sitting from 9am to midnight until the legislation is enacted, and that will last at least until Thursday and possibly Friday.
Labour is going to put up hundreds of amendments, with the Greens expected to add theirs to the pile.
The deal with the Maori Party makes little difference to the design of the ETS which National drafted earlier this year, but it does soften the impact on sectors and groups with large Maori representation.
The ETS is a modified version of the one passed by the previous Labour government just before last year's election and which National put on hold.
Critics argue that it gives big polluters an easier ride while significantly reducing fuel and power price rises that would have kicked in under Labour's scheme.
In exchange for its five votes, the Maori Party gained concessions including:
- Another $24 million to be spent on insulating 8,000 low income
homes.
- A Treaty of Waitangi clause obliging the Government to consult
Maori on ETS regulations.
- Iwi who consider the ETS undermines their treaty settlements will
get the rights to plant 35,000 hectares of Crown land and claim
carbon credits worth an estimated $25 million to $50 million.
- A review of tree planting incentives.
Dirty deal
The Labour Party is claiming that wealthy iwi will gain from the Emissions Trading Scheme at the expense of ordinary Maori.
Labour Party leader Phil Goff said the 'dirty' deal that the Maori Party has done goes totally against the legal advice to the Crown and might be good for a few members of the elite of Maoridom, but it would hurt ordinary Maori.
"Bad for ordinary Maori, bad for Maori taxpayers, bad for Maori kids who are going to have to pick up that tab of $110 billion that will be a burden on their future," Goff said.
The deal gives Ngai Tahu and four other iwi rights to plant trees on Crown Land and gain up to $50 million in carbon credits.
Climate Change Minister Nick Smith has said that deal was done to meet a Treaty of Waitangi obligation.
But in a letter, he tells Ngai Tahu, the Crown does not accept
that it failed to disclose the value tree planting might have under
an Emissions Trading Scheme when it negotiated the iwi's settlement
in the mid-1990s.
National though maintains losing a court case was always a
risk.
"It's a common point to say 'no we don't agree with you, but we want to settle something' and that is exactly the legal advice and the way I've tried to manage this issue very carefully," says Smith.
Prime Minister John Key says no amount of careful management will avoid the government taking flak.
"Those who think we are doing far too much, those who think we are doing far too little, those who think someone is getting a better deal than someone else, that's just the nature of this particular scheme," says Key.
A scheme National has the numbers to pass into law despite bitter opposition from Labour.
The ETS will eventually bring all sectors of the economy under a regime designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a carbon trading scheme.
