Tisch Lindsay: Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tisch Lindsay: Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18563. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 We have supported the Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill right through all its stages and it is with pleasure that I take the last call on—[ 
Interruption 
] No I think we will have other colleagues who want to have a say so I will not be taking the last call— 
Hon Members 
: Oh! 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: There is a window of opportunity and I know that my colleagues with their esteemed knowledge and expertise will want to articulate and crystallise the arguments that will be forthcoming. 
We have supported this bill mainly because of the construction of renewable energy generation capacity and that is vital for New Zealand if we are to reduce our carbon emissions. There is a strong view that if we are to be serious about carbon emissions then the whole area of renewable energy generation should factor that in. So that is one of the reasons behind what we have done here. We believe that this bill will move in that direction and help that although we have heard from my colleagues who have spoken that in fact renewable generation has gone down. That is a sad indictment on this Government—renewable generation has actually gone down. In fact the point that I made which I have made twice but I will make for the third time is that generation—the number of megawatts—in the 9 years of a National Government was 1600 yet in the last 8 years of this Government less than 700 megawatts of new energy has gone into the grid. That is an indictment on this Government. 
What this bill does and which we support of course is allow lines companies to enter into generation. That is important; it will facilitate a lot of those companies that would like to move into generation. The Commerce Committee did not make many changes because the original bill had support and with the help of the advisers—and I mentioned their contribution earlier—we were able to move this one along. The bill is beneficial to the smaller lines companies and I mentioned my colleague Chris Auchinvole from the West Coast because it is on the West Coast and in the Buller region that this bill will be beneficial. Those people will be able to capitalise on the changes that this bill envisages. The bill frees up these companies to become engaged in electricity generation thereby improving income and security of supply and limiting their dependence on the increased costs imposed costs from other generators. Without this bill if Westpower were to build a hydro scheme for example it would have to seek a special exemption from the Commerce Commission. Making an application for an exemption is not a cheap exercise and the associated costs are very restrictive. 
My final point is that the Resource Management Act is still a major impediment a major shackle that we have to get over if we are to have speedy construction of renewable energy generation. The Act needs reforming and National has a plan to do that. National will be releasing its policy on the Resource Management Act in a timely fashion but I can say that over the last few years over half of all the net generation that this Government has put in place—and that is not very much from the figures I mentioned before—has come from thermal sources and not from the renewables that we have considered. 
With those few points I will leave the final words to my colleagues who will be finalising the debate in support of this bill.