From the press room
Dunne To Chair Emissions Trading Review – 2008-12-10 20:26:54.834
Dunne To Chair Emissions Trading Review
By Political Correspondent Marie McNicholas at 4:09 pm, 08 Dec 2008
The Government is taking the rare move of nominating a minister to chair the select committee that will review the emissions trading scheme.
United Future leader and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne will chair the special committee to be set up as a condition of National’s confidence and supply deal with ACT.
Mr Dunne is considered a safe pair of hands, and with select committees able to set their own agenda, his leadership is designed to ensure the Government does not lose control of the process and it does not drag on.
ACT wants the science of climate change to be part of the review but National is resisting that course.
However, Labour is unhappy that National plans to put a member of the executive in charge of a select committee when there has been a longstanding convention to try to keep parliamentary committees and the executive separate.
Prime Minister John Key said Mr Dunne was a senior MP and neutral so there was no particular disagreement that he could do the job.
The makeup of the committee was still being discussed with other parties, he said after Cabinet met today.
He repeated that he would like to see the whole issue resolved by the end of September, along the lines of National’s preference for an amended scheme based on the existing framework.
National campaigned on amending Labour’s scheme, which started coming into force this year when forestry started accounting for its emissions, but ACT wants it scrapped altogether.
Mr Key denied the review process would be rushed to meet a September 30 timetable. Legislating for an amended ETS would not mean starting from “ground zero” and the core framework was largely in place, he said, although he conceded the committee could recommend the issue go back to scratch.
If that was the case, energy’s 2010 entry to the scheme would be delayed, he said.
He expected the committee to report back to Parliament reasonably early in the New Year.
Labour’s climate change spokesman Charles Chauvel said he believed it was unprecedented for a minister to chair a select committee, and he questioned how a member of the Government executive could be independent.
He also took issue with the chairmanship being announced by the prime minister when it was a decision for the committee.
“If we have to have this inquiry, and Labour would prefer that we didn’t, it’s not got off to a great start having broken with convention by having a member of the executive as the chair,” Mr Chauvel said.
The new Parliament sits for the first time since the election this week and the makeup of select committees is thrashed out by a business committee of MPs from all parties.
Parliament will be sitting under urgency for most of the next two weeks, which usually prevents select committees from meeting.
© Newsroom 2008