Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:631;Page:3630] 
7.  
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
 to the  
Minister of Energy 
: Did the report to the Cabinet Policy Committee yesterday identify why power to 700000 people could be disrupted for hours by the failure of a single earth wire and when will this vulnerability be fixed? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Acting Minister of Energy) 
: 
 Yes and the report we will receive next week may be able to give a time-scale on reducing the vulnerability. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why did Helen Clark tell Parliament yesterday that “Transpower has been investing on average around $300 million per annum in its system.” when the annual report for Transpower shows capital expenditure of $61 million in 2000 $65 million in 2001 $89 million in 2002 $104 million in 2003 $93 million in 2004 and $106 million in 2005—making the Prime Minister’s statement grossly incorrect? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am not sure which years the Prime Minister was averaging but I can give the member an assurance that current levels of capital investment are about 500 percent more than the level approved during the time he was a Minister. 
Maryan Street 
: Has the Minister seen any evidence that previous Government policy may have led to under-investment in the national grid? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Yes. Under the previous approach in which the market was supposed to sort everything out investment in the national grid fell as low as $52 million a year. By contrast this Government is spending about $300 million per year on improvements to the national grid. This year it is spending about $300 million a year on capital expenditure and I expect Transpower to spend substantially more in the future because of the need to do more catch-up work as a result of gross underexpenditure following the negligent approach Nick Smith and his colleagues led. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why has the Government stated that Transpower has no issues with the Resource Management Act because the Government addressed all of its issues in the amendment bill last year when Transpower in its submission to the select committee identified eight areas where the bill fell short of the changes that were needed to ensure it could provide a secure national grid; now having had Monday’s massive blackout will the Government reconsider those proposed amendments to the Resource Management Act from Transpower? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No amendment to the Resource Management Act will stop an attachment to a pole coming loose. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why did the Government today issue a press statement saying that Transpower had no issue with the Resource Management Act now when it was specifically mentioned by its chief executive officer Ralph Craven in a presentation to the Energy Law Association on 10 November last year where he said that the time and cost associated with resource consents was impacting on getting timely upgrades when in March this year at the Commerce Committee Transpower again raised the issue of the Resource Management Act and when on Monday after the blackout its spokesperson specifically raised the issue of the Resource Management Act; is the only reason Transpower is not saying the same today that the bully-boys in the Government who are squirming have sat on Transpower and told it that it should not tell the truth any more? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: We do not take that approach to State-owned enterprise chief executive officers. It may have been the approach that occurred previously. I can give an absolute assurance that I have made no such threat and in fact I have not spoken to Dr Craven since the events of Monday. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why in response to parliamentary written questions about a Transpower failure affecting 30000 Nelson households on 25 March in which I asked what caused the failure what investigation would be undertaken and what steps would be taken to fix the problems did he duck all those questions saying it was “just an operational matter” and can he today assure the House he will not use the same technique to deny the public and the Parliament the information on what went wrong on Monday? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: In fact it appears a wire did not break; it appears the thing the wire was attached to broke. That is clear; that is undeniable. We will have some more reports next week that the member can salivate over. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why in February last year when the chief executive of New Zealand’s largest electricity company Dr Keith Turner warned the Government very explicitly that the transmission system was in trouble—saying that the grid was overworked that lines could not be taken out for servicing and that this was unheard of in the developed world—did the Minister not seek an urgent report and action plan to address those shortcomings given that he was the Minister of Energy responsible for the sector at that time? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Because I was aware of a massive increase in the investment in the transmission system between that year and this year—in fact more than a doubling. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek the leave of the House to table the annual reports from 1995 to 2005 showing the capital investment programme of Transpower making a lie of both the Prime Minister’s claims and those of the Minister with regard to the changes in investment. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document but the member in seeking leave said that the Prime Minister and a Minister had lied— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I will say they were incorrect. I change it to “incorrect”. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The member will withdraw and apologise for his comment about a lie. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I withdraw and apologise. I seek simply to say that the statements made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy were incorrect with regard to the capital expenditure of Transpower. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought. Is there any objection? Yes there is objection. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek the leave of the House to table the news release today from the Government that states that Transpower had no difficulties with the Resource Management Act after it had been amended and Transpower’s own submission to the select committee which tells a very different story. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? Yes there is objection.