Lewis StephSTEPH LEWIS (Labour—Whanganui): Thank you. I rise today to take a call on the second reading of the Gas (Information Disclosure and Penalties) Amendment Bill which amends the Gas Act 1992. I'd like to begin my remarks today by acknowledging the Minister the Hon Dr Megan Woods for her work to ensure that we get our regulatory settings right for our energy market. I know this is just one small part in our Government's focus to make sure that we have a more sustainable and resilient energy sector.Now this bill was introduced to the House and had its first reading last term before I was privileged to be elected as a member to this House. However I understand this bill stems from work that started way back in 2018 when the Minister asked officials to determine if information disclosure arrangements in the gas market were sufficient and fit for purpose. It was off the back of concerns that were being raised about the prolonged gas outages at the Pohokura production stations and I think it's worth noting that that gas field provides 40 percent of our country's natural gas supply. Combine that with the planned outage at Kupe and the dry spring conditions leading to sustained high wholesale prices for electricity and historic prices on the gas spot market. This is all combined to highlight the need to ensure that disclosure of information is timely particularly when it may have significant downstream impacts or potentially cause security of supply risks as we've seen. A number of parties at the time voiced their concerns about the variation of the level of information that was being disclosed by gas market participants particularly if this information—as I said—was going to have a significant impact downstream including to businesses who may not be involved in the natural gas industry.Coming back to the present day this bill seeks to expand the scope of regulation-making powers and it does this by amending section 43F of the Gas Act. This section sets out the scope of regulation-making powers and the proposed changes will enable gas governance arrangements to be made that provide for a broad regime for sharing information which will have a significant impact and which may contribute to the risk of critical gas shortages. The bill also clarifies that the existing policy intent that regulations made under section 43F for arrangements relating to outages and other security of supply contingencies apply across all industry participants and consumers. This expanded ability to make regulations to enable governance arrangements that provide for the broad disclosure is important when you consider the context. That is as a country we're currently experiencing a drier than average hydrological condition so it's very important that necessary information can be easily disclosed and communicated in a timely way so that people have the ability to plan ahead accordingly. In addition to that the official statistics on gas supply show that we have about 11 years of gas supply remaining which hasn't changed much for the past two decades and that's with further exploration continuing with existing permits. That's why it's crucial that we continue to explore and invest in alternative forms of renewable energy.Now as you may recall I grew up in a small town in South Taranaki in my electorate called Waverley. It's a great place traditionally for dairy sheep and beef farming but recently we had a new farm spring up almost overnight. Between Waverley and Patea we now have the Waipipi Wind Farm which is a $277 million investment by Tilt Renewables into constructing a 31-turbine windfarm across 7 hectares of prime South Taranaki coastal farmland. These turbines are the biggest turbines ever built in Aotearoa being 4.3 megawatt machines standing at 160 metres tall with a 130 metre diameter rotor. It's the first wind farm to be constructed in New Zealand on flat land and this farm will produce enough clean energy each year to power about 65000 houses and save us the emission of roughly 250000 tonnes of carbon. I confess I quite enjoyed watching the construction progressing each time I drove up through the electorate last year and on more than one occasion I was required to pull over and wait as the blades were being transported past from New Plymouth on their way to the Waipipi Wind Farm—it was an impressive sight to see.I also note that this bill makes changes to the Gas Act penalty regime. The bill amends the penalty regime for industry participants by increasing the maximum civil penalty able to be imposed by the Gas Rulings Panel for breaches of gas governance regulations from $20000 to $200000. This addresses concerns about the low level of pecuniary penalty available to be currently issued by the Gas Rulings Panel particularly for situations where there are a wide range of consumers that may be affected by a potential breach. The bill also creates a penalty for consumers who are not industry participants who will now be subject to civil pecuniary penalty instead of criminal penalties if they breach gas governance arrangements. This will ensure equitable treatment between industry participants and consumers and non-industry participant consumers. It will be used to deter breaches of regulation by these consumers including some of the larger consumers of natural gas. This penalty will also have a maximum of $200000 and will not apply to residential consumers.I'd like to acknowledge as well the work of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee who reviewed this bill and listened to a number of submissions. Following that process I note that several important changes have been recommended by the committee to address some of the issues raised by those submitters including a change that will ensure that a failure of an industry participant to follow a Gas Rulings Panel order will continue to carry a criminal penalty. This will help ensure that appropriate incentives are in place for the industry to comply with orders from the panel. The bill represents a step forward in improving how information that may highlight the risk of critical gas shortages or the potential significant price impacts from gas shortages is released to the market.I'm sure that no one would disagree that energy security is critical for supporting a productive sustainable and inclusive New Zealand economy. That's why the Gas (Information Disclosure and Penalties) Amendment Bill is important. Because this bill ensures that appropriate regulatory requirements can be put in place for supporting security of supply and to improve outcomes for energy consumers. Therefore Mr Speaker I am happy to commend this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call I call Joseph Mooney.