Nash Stuart: Electricity Transparency Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Electricity Transparency Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8520. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): I do not actually believe that the member who has just spoken Sarah Dowie believed a word she spoke. The reason I say that is because she contradicted herself so many times to the point where I do not know whether she actually knew what she was saying. Let me give you a couple of points. Ms Dowie said that the electricity prices dropped by 1.4 percent in Southland in the last year. That is fantastic but what Ms Dowie cannot tell us is whether that was the electricity charge the generation charges or the line charges. I would have thought that an informed consumer would actually like to know where the savings were made. The thing is that she is right on one point though: this industry is fluid. There is great change going on and the thing that we do not know is what the sector will look like in 10 years’ time but one thing I can tell you is that the industry is innovating in a way that we have not seen for a long long time. We are not experts in this area.The reason I think it is really important that these things go to a select committee is that we get the experts in and they say to us: “If we implement this bill it may look like this. These are the advantages and these are disadvantages.” The industry experts from both sides of the argument can actually inform us and maybe Ms Dowie is right—maybe this will stifle innovation. But I cannot say that. I am our energy spokesperson. I have had good hard look at this and I do not believe it will stifle innovation. In fact I think it will promote innovation and that is just based on all the research I have read. Mr Shearer is the same. He believes it will promote innovation but we do not really know and as sure as eggs Ms Dowie does not know whether it will stifle innovation. But there is a group of experts who work and live and operate in our electricity sector and who will be able to inform us. The thing is that if the Electricity Transparency Bill goes to a select committee we will hear all the arguments about how it will benefit consumers or how it may stifle innovation and then when it comes back to the House for its second reading we can make an informed choice. But at this point in time we are MPs who are passionate about this country about doing right for good hard-working Kiwis and I think they would agree that they want to hear what the experts say so let us send the bill to a select committee.Let me give you an example of how innovation is changing the sector at this point in time. I moved to Flick recently. It is an online seller of electricity and it provides me with an account that shows me the exact breakdown of where my bill comes from. So when Ms Dowie says that this is creating cost Flick does not believe that. I know on Monday that my power costs varied between 12.6c per unit and 36.39c per unit. So I can make an informed choice. And this may sound a little anal but what I did on Monday night before I went to bed was I turned the dryer on at 11.30 p.m. because Flick told me that the rate was down to 13c. I made an informed choice. But what it told me in my last bill was that it was $51.66. That is what all of us get in our power bills—$51.66. But what it told me was that $22.86 was transmission and distribution $1.52 was for metering $14.35 was for generation $6.98 was for other and what it told me was $5.98 was for electricity charges—that is all in my whole bill that was for electricity charges.What this member’s bill does is it provides consumers with choice with options and with opportunities. This is consumer driven and in the 21st century I think that is what consumers want to the point where the Inland Revenue Department (IRD)—yes the IRD—has recognised that and it is going to consumer-driven apps based on breaking down information. In conclusion all I would like to say is that I believe that consumers deserve the right to understand what makes up their power bill. Whether they choose to exercise that or not that is up to them. But at least what this bill does is it gives them the right and the opportunity to understand it. And I think that is what all consumers deserve. Thank you.