Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. Two stories from the past couple of days show how the energy shortage is starting to bite. Together they paint a picture of a colder darker poorer future for New Zealand unless we take urgent steps to restore confidence in the exploration and development of our natural gas resources. Winstone Pulp has responded to the unsustainable high prices—they claim that they pay potentially five or six times more for electricity compared to their competitors overseas—by shutting down mills and putting hundreds of workers on notice this week. That is an outcome that if they proceed would devastate another regional community in New Zealand because of high energy prices. Jude Sinai a worker at Karioi Pulpmill and a FIRST Union delegate said that mill workers were already talking about emigrating to Australia given the lack of comparable manufacturing jobs in the region. Jude said This is horrendous not just for us but for all Ruapehu locals—the teachers schools doctors supermarkets and everyone else in the region who has relied on these mill jobs to support our local economy." Labour and the Greens should listen to Jude. Down south Tīwai Point has extended the shutdown in production in a deal to give energy back to the gen-tailers so that they can supply New Zealand homes. It mirrors a similar deal Methanex struck recently to free up natural gas to allow electricity generators to run at higher loads. In a First World country we shouldn't have to shut down productive industries just to keep the lights on in our towns and cities but that's where we're at right now. We can't go on this way. We're in an energy crisis. If it becomes an annual event then we will see the hollowing out the de-industrialisation and the loss of wealth in our regional communities and provinces. On cold mornings we're coming close to blackouts—New Zealand is coming close to blackouts. We can't rely on hydro alone although it's a great great renewable. Usually in an energy crunch we'd dip into our vast supply of natural gas but the previous Government quashed that by insisting on a poorly thought-out ban on gas and oil exploration. They've wrecked investor confidence to explore and develop new resources and to invest in businesses including electricity generation which requires gas. But New Zealand has been here before. This should not be a surprise to us. In the 1990s a succession of dry years combined with increased demand for electricity and energy led to an energy shortage and blackouts but do you know what? New Zealand responded in a sensible and logical way. There was opposition then to using natural gas because of the effect of greenhouse gases on the climate but two combined-cycle gas turbines were built: one at Stratford in Taranaki of about 400 megawatts and another in Auckland at Southdown of about 200 megawatts. Well the Southdown plant has just been demolished—it had reached the end of its 30-year life—and the 1996 Taranaki plant can't have too many more years left in it. That's around 600 megawatts of electricity firming or baseload that even our renewable development is absolutely dependent on. Natural gas must be a part of New Zealand's energy future. This Government has committed to reversing the ban on oil and gas exploration but the sector still looks at New Zealand—both here domestically and internationally—and thinks that the New Zealand Government is a risk to future development. A future Government could shut them down just on a whim—maybe in an announcement at a university like the former Prime Minister Ardern and the energy Minister Megan Woods did. I've written to party leaders from across the House asking for a cross-party agreement on the future of natural gas. If the likes of Chris Hipkins and Chlöe Swarbrick can meet in the middle and agree that natural gas companies will be allowed to operate and that we can develop our natural gas resources then we'll see more investment and ultimately restoration of affordability and resilience. The ACT Party looks forward to their reply. Thank you Mr Speaker."