Boscawen John: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Boscawen John: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:661;Page:10069] 
JOHN BOSCAWEN (ACT) 
: 
 We are debating the name of this bill the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill. The Hon Shane Jones said that we are talking about water and about how valuable water is. He went on to say that the people of Canterbury will not be aware of just how valuable this resource is. I will suggest some alternative names for this bill that might reinforce to the people of Canterbury and indeed reinforce to the people of New Zealand just how valuable water is. We know that water is absolutely valuable for our agricultural industries. It is absolutely valuable for creating wealth for New Zealand. If we are to improve living conditions in New Zealand we need to take every opportunity to allow our industry to grow and develop. 
So let us look at alternative names for this bill. Rather than the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill let us call it the “Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Valuable Valuable Water Management) Bill.” Why not call it the “Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Windfall Profits from Water Management) Bill”? The reason I ask that is that water is a very integral part of electricity generation. We have water passing through the Waitaki River scheme through a number of dams generating renewable energy. 
From 1 July this year the emissions trading scheme comes into force. That will create windfall profits for Meridian Energy and a number of other generators. It will create windfall profits and the value of the water that flows through the Waitaki River scheme will be so much more. It will be very valuable. We saw evidence of that today when Meridian Energy announced that it was paying a $98.5 million dividend to the Government. That is right just this very day Meridian Energy announced a $98.5 million dividend substantially from the water that flows through the Waitaki River scheme. From 1 July both sides of this House are very happy for all New Zealanders to have to pay an extra 5 percent for their electricity. 
Brendon Burns 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I am struggling to connect the relevance of the issues of the Waitaki and Meridian Energy’s power price rise or profit announcement to the short title of this bill. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: I am going to uphold the point of order. The member should return to the subject material: clauses 1 and 2. 
JOHN BOSCAWEN 
: I would be very happy to do that but I thought I was speaking on the subject of this bill because this bill is called the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill. We heard earlier from Mr Shane Jones that it did not highlight to the people just how valuable this resource was. I was suggesting an alternative name for this bill: the “Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Windfall Profits from Water Management) Bill”. I say that simply because from 1 July companies such as Genesis will add a 5 percent increase to their power prices because they produce power from coal and gas. They will have to pay an emissions trading scheme tax. As a consequence of that Meridian Energy will also get the benefit of that extra 5 percent increase without paying the tax and it will have windfall profits. We saw evidence of that in the dividend announcement today. Those dividends will no doubt grow even greater as years go on. 
So I suggest that this bill should be renamed the “Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Windfall Profits from Water Management) Bill”.