Below is a letter by Chris a concerned colleague in Auckland who makes some good points, sent to Mr Brownlee MP in connection with the pending emission rule that will come into effect from 1 January 2012.

Hello Mr Brownlee,

Thank you for taking the time to address this email and congratulations on recognition for the work you have been carrying out in Christchurch.

The following is an urgent matter I need to draw your attention to;

In 2008 the Labour government passed legislation regarding the emission rule that your National Government is about to impose on the 1st January 2012, it appears without much thought as to the ripple effect it will have.

As I understand things, the implementation of the rule is Governments solution to clean up NZ's quality of air and reduce the amount of people harmed by pollution?

Minister, I can "prove" this new emission rule will not achieve it's intended goal and have started an online petition to have the rule suspended.

The consequences of letting this rule proceed as is, are going to be dire and will wind up costing lower and middle income New Zealander's hundreds of millions of dollars, many of whom are already hurting.

There will be a down turn in the Automotive industry resulting in many jobs lost.

The rule will increase the price of second hand cars, due to a lack of supply.

It will force people to keep older cars on the roads which will jeopardize safety of the NZ public. (As a result of the increase in price and lack of supply, older and damaged cars will be put back on the roads, some of those vehicles will not have been repaired properly, they will also be the same cars that produce current emission levels.)

As part of the petition, I produced video's explaining my opinions on why I believed this rule was flawed. Through my online work I came across ETNZ (Emission Testing NZ Ltd).

ETNZ seems on the face of it to have come up with a much better solution to the current emission rule and indeed one that could help solve the problem of what to do next after 2012

I learnt as much as I could about ETNZ in a short space of time and released a video with my findings. As a result Herbert Leigen (Director ETNZ) has been contacted by Craig Foss (Nationals Napier representative) and asked to set up a meeting to discuss his research as a direct result of the video I made.

I was very encouraged by this and it seemed my message was getting heard. However, the meeting has been scheduled for 22nd February 2012, after the Emission Rule has come into effect.

Minister, I am a National supporter, my voice was heard in the last election, but I fail to understand why this Government is set to go through with a rule that will not only cost jobs and increase the cost of living, but will "not" achieve what it is supposed to.

This new emission rule has "NO" benefit for NZ or the people who live here, it will not do what it is supposed to and that being the case, this rule should be suspended pending analyses of new information immediately.

I would love to be proven wrong about this, but I don't believe I am. This is why I have posted videos regarding the rule, so there may be a permanent record, to be built on, added to and referenced back to.

Please explain to me how you see this next emission rule working? If you choose not to suspend the rule, then will you be willing to explain why and take responsibility for the expected increase in the cost of cars, as well as the cost of living, lives of those killed on the roads in unsafe cars as well as the 750 people who die each year as a direct result of carbon emissions that this next rule will not change.

Mr Brownlee, this matter is of the utmost urgency as once the emission rule is in place, will be extremely difficult to overturn and by the time it has been or if it ever is overturned the hurt will already be showing, the damage already done.

The fate and safety of 4 million New Zealand people is in your hands. We need a courageous Minister who will do what is right, not what is easiest, and change what is wrong.

I look forward to your quick response.

Kind Regards,

Chris Jellie.

Panel Beater

North Shore

Auckland

Tagged as: emission rule 2012, NZ car emissions, used car info