MARCH 7 2020 LISTENER 3
EDITORIAL
Time for a jolt
P
rime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s apparent inability
to stand up to New Zealand First leader Winston
Peters is looking not just embarrassing for her but
perhaps costly for the country. Effective action
on housing, child poverty and the environment
were the standout promises of Labour’s campaign
in the last election. The pledge to be “transforma-
tional” is now not only a broken promise but an
increasingly deep disappointment.
On top of the Government’s well-
known failure with KiwiBuild, new
figures show family poverty to be
grudgingly intransigent. Sadly, the
Government’s struggle to make
headway is now not only in hous-
ing and poverty, but also in the
environment.
With scientists warning the
world has just 10 years to avert
catastrophic global warming, the
urgency for political parties to agree
on workable measures is greater
than ever. Yet for each step forward,
such as the net-zero carbon legisla-
tion, there is another going back.
The latest backward step is the indefi-
nite delay of the proposed feebate scheme
designed to hasten and encourage take-up
of electric and hybrid vehicles.
New Zealand is one of only two OECD
countries to do nothing to regulate vehi-
cle pollution and, thanks to petty political
wrangling, we’ll be staying with Australia
in the slow lane a while longer.
The scheme is not yet in ideal shape, but agreements were in
place to neutralise the potential unfairness – and therefore the
political risk – of making petrol and diesel cars pricier. The techni-
cal fishhooks could well have been straightened out through the
select-committee process. In response to criticism from National
and others, the Government had early on agreed to exempt farm-
ers and those who depend on powerful, load-towing vehicles not
yet available other than in diesel or petrol form. However, NZ
First has now stalled the policy.
The Greens’ response has been to make their frustration public,
thus depleting any remaining goodwill between them and NZ
First. Labour has once again been left looking ineffectual in the
face of coalition rivalry, and Ardern ineffective in preventing
Peters from running the show.
As for the National Party, whose leader and transport spokes-
person both drive EVs and which has an increasingly influential
blue-green wing, it has yet to propose an alternative way toGE
TTY (^) I
M
AG
ES
Our most effective
response to the emissions
problem is a widespread
conversion to EVs as
soon as practicable.
encourage New Zealanders to make the switch to electric vehicles.
I
t’s fair to say both National and NZ First still have valid
concerns about the proposed scheme’s effect on rural and
provincial New Zealand, but it’s also true they could be “grand-
fathered” until suitable green vehicles emerge.
The Treasury argues the Emissions Trading Scheme would
be a better way to drive our fleet conversion. But the scheme is
complex, controversial and largely
incomprehensible to most. The fee-
bate’s transfer mechanism has the
virtues of simplicity and compara-
tive ease of implementation.
One can also argue that a
compulsion to switch to electric
vehicles – which are by no means
free from environmental prob-
lems – will hasten the research and
development required to improve
them.
The limited, and often over-
stated, range of EVs, the paucity
of charging facilities and slug-
gish supply of vehicles into New
Zealand’s small market are all prob-
lems, with or without a feebate. Questions
also abound over the sustainability of the
EV batteries’ mineral-dependent manu-
facture and short life. And how do we
greenly repurpose the redundant global
fossil-fuel car fleet?
These issues need, and are receiving,
urgent global attention.
Meanwhile, our most effective response to the greenhouse-
emissions problem is a widespread conversion to EVs as soon as
practicable.
Sure, the scheme was never perfect, yet perfect is not always
the aim. Many people want to make the switch from petrol- and
diesel-driven engines, and this scheme may perhaps have been
less politically untenable than NZ First and National seem to
presume.
In the face of the changes New Zealand must make to reduce
environmental degradation, the feebate scheme is minor. How-
ever, as a signal of political commitment to move in the right
direction, it is vital.
Those who can afford to switch to electric or hybrid vehicles,
and who can see the value to New Zealand, should do so, know-
ing that environmental protection is too important to leave to
political vagaries. They should be applauded, along with all Kiwis
who consciously keep their transport emissions down. Leadership
on this will have to come from the people. l