Woods Megan; Brown SimeonHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Thank you Mr Speaker. The quarterly update from the gas industry company is in line with advice and information that has both been widely known and discussed for some time now and in fact was the body of knowledge and information that informed the previous Government's work programme. New Zealand has a finite supply of fossil gas. In fact the Gas Transition Plan—a plan released under our Government to address the challenges in front of us—noted that even with ongoing investment supply could decrease over time because our major gas producing fields are in a natural production decline phase in their operational lives. The reality is that according to official data—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Sorry to interrupt the member. This is a ministerial statement. It's clearly a very serious matter and the House should treat it as such.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Thank you Mr Speaker. The reality is that according to official data since 2012-13 New Zealand's gas production has been falling. This was even before our Government made the necessary and the correct decision to end new offshore oil and gas permitting. New Zealand must plan a transition away from gas. It is the Government's duty to ensure that this is an orderly and a planned transition. In order to do this and what our Government's plan was we must address how we store energy for generating electricity. At the moment New Zealand stores energy for when the hydro lakes are low in the form of fossil fuels in the form of coal and gas. This is not a viable option for the future and nothing exemplifies the backwards looking of this Government than the sentence in this press release that says less gas will mean more coal. On this side of the House less gas means more renewable energy and renewable storage.We also need to be accelerating our work on zero-carbon gases. It is why our Government put an emphasis on biomethane. It is why our Government put an emphasis on hydrogen. We also need to work to reduce the demand for gas. The Minister in his statement says we must keep the lights on in our schools and hospitals. He is right and that is why our Government had a State sector decarbonisation programme to move our schools and hospitals away from expensive gas and why we moved them to the much more affordable renewable energy. We also had a programme to move our industries and our businesses to either reduce or absolutely remove gas from their industrial projects.Under the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry scheme which this Government has scrapped 20 of our major industrial users moved away from using gas. This is how we will address it and the Government must also have a policy programme to bring together the electricity and the gas markets. This is absolutely critical for going forward. My intention now is to ask the Minister some questions.The first question for the Minister: what is the latest data by petajoule that he has on New Zealand's gas use?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister for Energy): Well thank you Mr Speaker. The answers I gave in terms of our gas production and the supply—as the Gas Industry made it very clear there is not enough gas being produced to meet existing demand. And the reality is that in the last few days I have had major gas users contact my office saying they're finding it harder to get the contracts they need. We have the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment all-of-Government contract out this year for schools for hospitals and for other Government entities and they will either have to pay a lot more or get much shorter contracts in order to get the gas that they need for the critical services. So the reality is that with less production we have to have less being produced in this country and higher prices and that is bad for New Zealanders.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Given the Minister didn't seem to have the information with him the latest data that I've been able to find publicly is that by petajoule New Zealand's gas use not production was 145 petajoules in 2022 which pretty much matches what is being produced but—Hon Judith Collins: Then why ask the question?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Because I thought there might be updated data but clearly the Minister doesn't have it. One of the things I'd like to know is: how many petajoules are currently in storage and how does this compare with the situation in 2021 when we had the last tightness in the gas supply situation?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister for Energy): Well I make the point because I made the comment in my statement that New Zealand does not import or export gas and so how much is produced is going to be very close to how much is used—and the reality in terms of storage is that we don't have significant storage in New Zealand. So the answer to your question is quite simply: as a closed market ultimately New Zealand needs to have the production in order to meet the demand that we have as a country.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Just to help the Minister maybe he could come back with some of these answers in written form if he doesn't have the information with him.My next question is to the Minister: is he aware that according to Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment data New Zealand's total coal consumption in 2022 decreased by 4 percent compared to 2021? This was the fourth year in a row that demand reduced resulting in the lowest level of consumption in 22 years. This decrease in consumption was led by the industrial sector the dominant user of coal in New Zealand. How does that square with what he said in his ministerial statement?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister for Energy): Well the reality is if you just look at the statement which was put out by Genesis this morning they cannot get access to the gas that they need which means they will be burning coal. And coal has twice the emissions of natural gas. So that member and that past Government have left New Zealand in a situation where in order to keep the lights on in our country the only answer is to burn coal with twice the carbon emissions of natural gas. That is a direct outcome of the last Government's policy decisions in 2018 and they should be standing up in this House today and saying they will back this Government's decision to overturn that ban on natural gas so we can get the production that we need so we can make sure we can incentivise that investment. That is what the other party should be doing. Instead they're still in denial.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Is the Minister pursuing a work programme looking at renewable storage options such as the portfolio approach that was put up or other pumped hydro options and does the Minister have any policies other than bringing back oil and gas exploration to address the crisis?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister for Energy): Well we have an entire suite of policies around electrifying New Zealand but when she asks about storing energy and Lake Onslow well—I tell you what—Lake Onslow isn't going to help us this year. It wasn't going to even be constructed till the end of next decade at all. So they had no plan on how the transition would go just a pipe dream costing billions and billions of dollars which by the way the energy sector said was having a chilling impact on the investment we need in renewables. So not only were they pro-coal; they were also anti-renewables. And so glad we got rid of that past Government last year. But they should be standing up in this House today and saying We are going to back this Government to repeal the ban on oil and gas so we can restore confidence and have the energy security our country needs."Scott Willis: Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: OK my mind has slipped again.Scott Willis: Scott Willis Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Yes I know Scott. We just spent a week away and I can't believe that after a week away overseas with you I forgot your name."