Gilmore Aaron: Electricity Industry Bill — In Committee 
Gilmore Aaron: Electricity Industry Bill — In Committee 
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AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I think it is not time to talk about blondes and  
Kill Bill  
or anything like that particularly coming from that member who has just resumed his seat Shane Jones but to answer some of the questions that have been raised. We are talking about Part 2 of the Electricity Industry Bill. A review was set up and it found that there were problems with the electricity governance arrangements. We found that the dual regulation of Transpower was not working. We found that there was a lack of independence that Ministers were meddling in governance arrangements in the electricity sector and that there was very slow progress on rule-making. So what have we got? Part 2 is about replacing the Electricity Commission with an independent authority as an independent Crown entity. It is about the establishment of a Security and Reliability Council. That is what Part 2 is all about. 
I will touch on two particular things. Firstly I will touch on the issue of smart meters which we heard about from the Opposition and the worrying fear that this bill should do more with smart meters. Well I tell members that in Christchurch where I live there are 140000 smart meters in homes as we speak with the ability to do all the swinging singing things that those members want them to do in the future when the technology is ready which I think is appropriate. We have had this debate in the House before and we decided that the best thing to do was set up the governance arrangements to allow that to occur in the future not now. The technology is not yet ready. It is an idea whose time has not yet come. 
The other good things in Part 2 are some of the changes and governance arrangements on lines companies particularly the standardisation of tariffs and the ability for less bureaucracy and how that will work. I think that is a good thing. We heard from Nanaia Mahuta the issues about bureaucracy. I understand that at its last count the Electricity Commission had about 300 staff in relation to its management. I do not think that is a good use of taxpayers’ money in terms of the spend that was occurring. That was all funded by a levy on electricity users. So electricity users were paying more money in order to set up a bureaucracy to oversee the governance of the electricity industry but effectively all it did was shuffle paper back and forth from the left hand to the right hand. We do not think that was a good idea and that is one of the reasons why Part 2 has been put into place: to tidy up the governance arrangements and make the sector work a bit smarter and more efficiently. 
I want to also quickly touch on another aspect that the previous speaker spoke about which is the issue of the appointments to the authority and the skills and expertise required. One of the issues we have is that the current governance arrangements are not independent. Effectively the Electricity Commission is not an independent Crown entity. The new Electricity Authority will be an independent Crown entity— 
Chris Hipkins 
: Where’s your proof of that? 
AARON GILMORE 
: It is in the bill I say to Mr Hipkins. The bill states that it will be an independent Crown entity. Mr Hipkins should actually read the bill and maybe get his head around what the bill says. It says that the Electricity Authority will be an independent Crown entity. It will be independent of Ministers and independent of some of the meddling that has occurred. That was one of the reasons why electricity prices went up 72 percent under 9 years of Labour. That is one of the major reasons why we have put in this thing. 
Briefly I want to touch on some of the price changes that have occurred in the marketplace to date that this bill will help enhance. Where I live in Christchurch Genesis Power is going around actively campaigning for people to sign up with it giving people $200 or $300 price discounts on the expectation of this bill coming into effect. The governance arrangements that are in this bill are more efficient and will allow more competition so that the likes of Genesis in Christchurch can compete for customers. Genesis told the select committee during the select committee process when these issues came up that it could not do a competitive continuation of those price discounts if this bill did not go ahead. That is the proof in the pudding that this bill will bring in lower price path increases and that is what this Government is all about—reducing bureaucracy reducing the price path for consumers and putting in place less bureaucracy and more certainty for those companies out there that want to invest in new generation whether it be renewable which is what we have seen in many cases in terms of geothermal and wind generation or whether it be in terms of other thermal support situations. I think that is a good thing.