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The new Government is sitting on a potentially damning review of its decision to get rid of subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs), despite saying yesterday it would be released.

The Government has suspended the requirement to publish Regulatory Impact Statements (RIS) of policies, if those policies are in its 100-day plan and they are straight repeals of the former government’s policies.

This means a repeal of the former government’s Clean Car Discount - often known as the “ute tax” will escape the requirement for a RIS, despite the fact getting rid of the policy could have a large impact on New Zealand’s pathway to net-zero emissions - and the fact that a RIS already exists for repealing the policy.

Industry group Drive Electric said the policy, combined with a plan to weaken emissions standards “could mean between 100,000 and 350,000 fewer electric cars on New Zealand roads by 2030″, and increase emissions by between 900 and 3000 kilotonnes.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said repealing the scheme would not have an impact on New Zealand’s emissions because transport is in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The temporary suspension of RIS reports was to help officials faced with “extreme time pressures”. However, transport officials, anticipating the new Government would make good on campaign promises to get rid of the scheme, drew up a draft regulatory impact statement early - meaning the RIS already exists. Brown has confirmed he has seen it.

Green Transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter believed the Government was sitting on the RIS because it did not like what it said.

“What possible other reason would the minister have for withholding the RIS analysis? If it supported his case, surely he would release it.

“The Cabinet decision was supposedly about progressing things quickly, in the case of the analysis already being completed, it doesn’t make sense to withhold it,” she said.

Brown said on Tuesday he was aware of a draft RIS and it was his expectation it would be released.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said repealing the scheme would not have an impact on New Zealand’s emissions. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

On Wednesday he said the draft RIS would not be released with the bill to get rid of the policy. According to Treasury, in normal times, a full RIS is required to be released when the “relevant bill is introduced to Parliament or the regulation is gazetted, or at the time of Ministerial release”.

Instead of releasing the RIS proactively, Brown said anyone who wanted to read it would need to request the draft under the Official Information Act, meaning it is unlikely it would be released before the policy is repealed. The Government has promised to get rid of the subsidies by the end of the year.

“There was a draft RIS, there was not a finalised RIS following Cabinet decisions,” Brown said.

“You are most welcome to put an OIA in - I am sure you will receive a draft in due course under that process.

“The issue here is there was a draft created prior to the Government being formed, [it] didn’t reflect final Cabinet decisions and as you know by that stage Cabinet had made decisions not to go forward with RISs during the 100-day plan,” he said.

On Tuesday, when asked about the RIS on the clean car policy, Brown said: “I believe one has been drafted”.

When asked whether it would be published, he said: “I believe it would be published”.

Genter called on the Government to publish the RIS.

“It’s one thing to decide not to complete a RIS before rushing ahead with a law change, it’s quite another to suppress analysis that has been completed.

Genter is a strong supporter of the clean car policies, having announced an early version of the scheme as a minister in the first term of the Ardern Government.

The policy works by charging a fee on polluting vehicles, which pays for the subsidy on clean vehicles.

Genter said the scheme was “extremely effective”.

“Since its introduction, average tailpipe CO2 emissions of vehicles brought into New Zealand dropped by 35 per cent from 186g/hm to 121 g/gm,” she said.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.