Scrap Net Zero, cut the carbon tax

“There is no point shutting down a clean and efficient New Zealand business if the same products are then made overseas with higher emissions. Climate policy should cut emissions, not export jobs,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“New Zealand’s climate policy is broken and sending the country broke as a result. A small trading nation can’t ignore climate policy, but overdoing it backfires and puts unnecessary costs on Kiwi businesses and households.

“ACT will scrap the arbitrary Net Zero target and replace it with a climate policy grounded in economic reality. We will reduce emissions without deliberately imposing costs on New Zealanders that the countries we trade and compete with are unwilling to bear.

“Kiwis already pay the price of carbon through higher petrol, power, freight and grocery prices. ACT says that the money the Government makes from selling carbon credits should be given back to households.

“ACT is the OG No New Taxes party, so we’ll return carbon auction revenue to taxpayers rather than giving politicians another pot of money to spend.

ACT’s climate policy will:

• Introduce a Carbon Tax Refund, returning 100 per cent of net carbon auction revenue to New Zealanders.

• Discourage productive farms being converted into carbon forests and require permanent forest owners to carry the long-term costs and risks of their forests.

• Scrap Net Zero and repeal the Zero Carbon Act, instead benchmarking New Zealand’s emissions cap against our major trading partners.

• Protect Kiwi jobs where New Zealand businesses face overseas competitors with lower or no carbon costs by restoring carbon assistance where businesses can demonstrate a genuine competitive disadvantage against overseas producers.

• Back technology, not taxes, cutting barriers to cleaner technology and opposing new climate taxes, including a tax on agricultural emissions.

• Cut the Carbon Tax by removing the Government’s artificial minimum price for ETS auctions and allowing the carbon market to operate properly.

ACT Climate Change spokesperson Simon Court says New Zealand’s climate policy should reward efficient Kiwi businesses rather than push production offshore.

“If a New Zealand business can produce steel, cement, aluminium or food more efficiently than its overseas competitors, closing that business is an economic own goal and an environmental one too.

“Families are already paying too much at the supermarket and the last thing we should be doing is weakening our ability to grow food by turning productive farms into pine forests. We will rebalance the playing field by fixing the carbon market and reducing the distortions that favour carbon forestry over productive farming.

“ACT would also seek a better deal for New Zealand under the Paris Agreement.

“New Zealand produces a tiny share of global emissions. We should play our part, but there is no virtue in sacrificing jobs, household incomes and productive land so politicians can boast about being more ambitious than everyone else.

“ACT will cut unnecessary costs, protect Kiwi jobs, give carbon revenue back to households and let innovation deliver cleaner solutions.

“Cut emissions, not export Kiwi jobs. That is how we unlock New Zealand’s potential.”

Note to editors: The policy document is linked here.