Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the Government making urgent changes to the Clean Vehicle Standard

The Government's pointing to market changes and consumer costs as motivation for changing 2023's Clean Vehicle Standard. 

It gave importers credits for meeting carbon targets, and charged them if they missed.  

But Transport Minister Chris Bishop says charges are falling on the consumer, which will now be slashed nearly 80 percent.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the Government's wasted no time getting this through. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Sober here, very good afternoon, good afternoon, right, good
to see. So the clean car standard thing is getting
the boot or getting drastically reduced.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
What it's getting drastically reduced in the short term over
the next two years, and then they're having a review
in that time. But in the meantime it'll be reduced dramatically,
so it means that a lot of money will be
saved in credits and importers of cars. And this is
what it's all about really. The law was introduced in

(00:30):
twenty three with the aim of encouraging New Zealanders to
buy more fuel efficient cars and reduce emissions. Well, the
transportment is to Chris Bishop. He says the charges aren't
working other than driving the price up, so he's wasting
no time, I've got to say, and making the changes.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
It has estimated these changes will avoid two hundred and
sixty four million dollars in neat charges that could have
been passed on to New Zealand consumers through high vehicle prices.
And if there's one number to remember, that is the
number that if we dine act there will be two
hundred and sixty four million dollars in net charges that
could have and likely will be passed on to New

(01:08):
Zealanders through high vehicle prices. So the changes we are
announcing today will be law by the end of the
week and that will provide certainty to importers and ultimately
to New Zealand consumers.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I'm making round.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
They all, right, well, we'll ask Chris Boshop about that.
He's on the show Barry, so we'll ask him more
about that then. Now, IPSOS, the latest poll is not
great for Nationalism.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
No, it's terrible actually when you consider that the same
sort of poll was the cost of living remains the
most serious issue facing the public. But when they did
a similar poll when National came to power last time,
in fact, the figures were reversed. That of the twenty
top issues, the National claim the fifteen top, whereas Labor

(01:55):
claimed could claim not even five with the coalition partners.
Now the figures have been reversed, so the coalition government
has only claimed fifteen, well, in fact, five of the
top places that they can be relied on. So I
think Chris, certainly Chris Luxen was was you know, he'll

(02:17):
be very worried about this law and order and foreign affairs.
They are the only two that National score above one
of the Labor is Winston Wellygeous and the climate change.
Of course the Greens claim on that issues facing Mali,
the Marketing Party the other fifteen Barry, what does this mean?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Because you've been doing this a lot longer than I have.
But from my perspective, I was thinking, well, the polls
don't with the polls that we're putting Labor ahead, it's
a protest vote. The economy's crap, but Labor didn't have
any policies, so that therefore it was a protest vote.
Now that Labor has some policies and there's still the
poles aren't changing, what does it tell us?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I think, you know, my view has always been
in all of this that you know, it takes so
long to turn an economy around the way it was left,
and when National and the coalition partners took over that
it's you know, next year, I think we'll see you
a better year and maybe these figures will right themselves
in terms of what National wants. But I've got to
say the polls should worry National, but the Prime Minister,

(03:18):
he's playing it tough.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
I'm focused on making sure We're trying to fix this economy.
There's no doubt about it. We inherited a pretty tough situation,
thirty five year recession, big COVID hangover, a difficult trading environment.
But my job is to fix it and so you
know that is what we and our team are doing.
There's so many poles each and every week, I'll spend
more time commenting on poles and now you're trying to
fix this country.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
And there's a lot of truth in that. They're very ambitious.
Chris Bishop was standing alongside and on the stage this afternoon.
I've got to say though he wasn't looking too worried.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
The thing is like if you ask people about Labour's
record on costs, on inflation, yep, you know, or their
record on education, well, how can you?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I don't know, no sense, I can't myself. I mean,
people have short memories, it seems, you know when you
look at Chippy and congratulations Chippy for becoming engaged today,
not necessarily in politics but to his partner. But you
know he he was the minister at the center of

(04:18):
the durn government.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And right the Greens are going to provoke mining contracts
and they're just letting us all know now before the
actual contracts are signed and done and dusted.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, I won't go into this too much, but the
thing is that it makes it more difficult for Labor
again if this is going to be their bottom line,
and Madame Davidson that sounds as though she's pretty determined
on it that it was. Of course the government the
Labor Party changed the orl and gas exploration thing as
soon as they came into power Whenston Peters was part

(04:52):
of that government. So too was Shane Jones, the mining
minister who you remember still on stage with his hand
over his face, not liking what happening. But what they're
seeing is a message to the international community, and there
are a couple of big internationals involved off the Taranaki
coast at the moment, saying that if you enter into
a contract with this government, we're not going on it.

(05:15):
But that's only the Greens. But it just makes it
that bit harder for the Labor Party when you consider
the Greens will be a coalition partners, so will the Malordi.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Party, Yes, they will need them or New Zealand first.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, well, well I do.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Not count that discount until he says he won't do it,
and he's only said he won't do it with Chippy. Yeah,
well that's now very quickly, our Dona is going to
appear on the Graham Norton Show.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, it's sort of like a public service announcement, isn't
it really that she gets on all the shows? And
because when she was on the Stephen Colbeer Show, I
think you might have been in New York at that
time traveling as a journalist. No, I wasn't there then,
Well I was there. But look, it comes as no
surprise that she's on the grave and showed that it's
promoting her autobiographical documentary or film they've made of her.

(06:08):
I mean, this woman is a legend in her own lifetime,
but overseas, overseas in this country she's not seeing in is.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Playing her documentary live this afternoon. International.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, it's unbelievable, you know, but she's living overseas. She's
a good international citizen and they love her.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Barry Soper with Politics. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
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