Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): Thank you Madam Chair and I will address a couple of the points as well as the question that the previous speaker Stuart Smith raised. I think it is really important that we do stick to the facts when we're discussing our electricity industry.So first of all there was a claim by the member who's just spoken that electricity costs have gone up in New Zealand. I think if the member consults the electricity in New Zealand the data that's coming out is very clear about what is happening to electricity costs both at residential and commercial level in real terms. So if we have a look what's happened: actually for residential we've seen a minus 2.3 percent cost in electricity costs for residential consumers. For commercial we've seen minus 1.2 percent. So I think it's really important we do look at that.None the less there are issues with the wholesale market and this is a stream of work that the Electricity Authority has been doing a large amount of work on. They've done some report backs and if the member wants to follow that work closely he will know that actually there will be a further report back and that's been well signalled by the Electricity Authority and the depth of the work that they're doing in that area.I'd also just like to address some of the scaremongering about the notices that Transpower puts out which are an absolutely standard part of the way that Transpower operates. What they have signalled is that in the coming weeks next month there will be some days when there is tightness in the electricity market. This is standard and this is something that happens all the time; it is how our market works. That works as a signal to generators to up generation and to bring more on stream.I'd also like to address the somewhat absurd claim that the member made that New Zealand is in danger of following down the path of Europe and Germany. I can assure that member after having just returned from a trip to Europe and Germany and talking with those in the energy sector that the main concern there is actually the situation with gas due to the war in Ukraine. The fact that 40 percent of Europe's gas comes from a pipeline from Russia which is now curtailed is what is upsetting that energy market. If anything if you speak to any of the participants in that market they're talking about what they can do to stimulate the building of more renewable energy at pace.But I think it is really important that we look at this bill because this bill looks to do some very specific things. Many of them are the result of the Electricity Price Review's recommendations.The first question that the member has asked is around the role of the Small Electricity Consumers Agency and why we would do it. This has been well traversed. What we do know from evidence in other jurisdictions where consumer legislative councils have legislated authority like we're putting in place with this bill is that you do see resulted lowered consumer utility bills compared to jurisdictions that do not have them.This advocacy council will be funded through any levy regulations being made. That would result in probably a less than $2 per year cost. As to the reason why it was done the Electricity Price Review panel spelt that out very clearly. Our large participants in the energy market have very clear very well-funded advocacy services and their voices can be heard. Residential consumers and indeed small businesses were a group that the Electricity Price Review pointed to whose voice is not heard and who don't have that advocacy in the same way so there was a strong and persistent need for New Zealand to fill the gap in its network of who it is that has the input into how we make policy in our electricity sector.This brings us into line with how most countries would seek to protect both residential consumers but also those small-business consumers who are subject to the same pressures as many households and certainly do not have the power of our major electricity users or their industry bodies to lobby on their behalf. Thank you Madam Chair.