Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. There are a number of problems to solve with the electricity industry that would deliver better outcomes for consumers and business and the environment. The problems to solve for electricity are security of supply affordability and of course the environmental impacts so that decisions we make about how we generate electricity and how we deliver that electricity to consumers and businesses have the smallest environmental footprint. Now that's not just addressing climate change; it's also considering the impact of say building wind farms in the sea in coastal areas which is not something New Zealand has done before. It's the environmental impacts of hydropower on sensitive freshwater ecosystems.But the Government has created a whole lot of problems for the electricity sector and consumers of energy that it didn't need to create through its targets: 100 percent renewable electricity which the industry has pointed out is going to be a very very expensive outcome to achieve. It's that 80:20 rule: the first 80 percent of your goal is usually readily achievable in the time frame but that last 20 percent is really difficult. Well New Zealand is often at 95 percent renewable on a good day when the wind is blowing the turbines are spinning and the turbines in the dams are spinning full noise. That last 5 percent could cost billions or tens of billions to become a 100 percent renewable electricity nation and it's not necessary because there are other ways to solve that issue of environmental impact from these activities.Then we have interventions that the Government has signalled like the Lake Onslow dam project a project that will flood a unique wetland in the South Island high country that could take decades to build. I mean as an example the Clyde Dam announced in 1979 was completed in 1992 at a cost roughly three times initial estimates. There have been no estimates for Onslow but it wouldn't be unreasonable to say tens of billions of dollars and decades. If this Government remained in charge for any longer than October 2023 you could probably add a decade to that by their history of failing to deliver.Other signals: the green investment and decarbonisation initiative—I'm getting giddy and dizzy thinking about it Minister. It's spinning me out how much money this Government has wasted on buying new expensive electrical boilers for brewers for multinational companies that make beer and sell it to consumers who pay them money. Now who knew that those international brewers need a subsidy from the New Zealand taxpayer? Kids who work at The Warehouse and pay tax through their part-time earnings are subsidising multinational brewers to replace a gas boiler or some other boiler with a brand new electric boiler courtesy of this Labour Government.Then we've got the Resource Management Act barriers to develop renewables. Now it's been decades since New Zealanders and businesses identified the problems with the Resource Management Act in trying to get consents to build stuff but it's not just getting consents to build new stuff. If you run a hydroelectric dam on say the Waikato River—and there's many many dams like that built in the 1950s and 1960s—which underpins New Zealand's current renewable profile of nearly 95 percent renewables on a good day and if you need to re-consent that dam every 25 or 30 years—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! Does the member have questions of the Minister in relation to this particular bill? SIMON COURT: Thank you Madam Chair I do relating—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): I invite the member to come back to this bill.SIMON COURT: Thank you Madam Chair. So just to close off there are many problems to solve not helped by the Governments proposals interventions and targets. Then we come to this bill which proposes amongst other things widening the objectives of the Electricity Authority to include the additional objective to protect the interests of domestic consumers and small-business consumers in relation to the supply of electricity and in relation to the dealings of industry participants with domestic consumers and small businesses the authority is to protect the interests of domestic and small-business consumers. Well Minister there a number of ways that the Government could protect their interests. Firstly—firstly—it could leave the market participants to solve—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! Order! The member's time has run out.