Robertson Grant: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Robertson Grant: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:946] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I just want to build on the comments of my colleague David Parker about the powers of the Electricity Commission which are covered under Part 2 of the bill because as was kindly pointed out to us by members opposite we are debating the investigation powers of the commission which are being removed as a consequence of what we have already done with Part 1. Really we have to ask what the commission would be investigating. We have already heard from David Parker that some of that is around the question of exemptions; and in listening to the debate it seems to me that a number of members opposite do not seem to realise that there was an exemption part of the Act. It does not even seem as though they want to know that. The very reason it was there was to allow as we know the Electricity Commission to investigate situations where there was a more efficient thermal option that could be brought on board. That was an important part of the Act because although we wanted to ensure that renewable generation was preferenced and we wanted to make sure that New Zealand goes forward into the future with renewable energy we also wanted to make sure that we continued to develop efficient options where they are. So that is what the commission would have been investigating but it will not be able to do that now as we go to repeal that legislation. 
What else would the commission be investigating? It would potentially be investigating other areas where people perhaps were going to breach the moratorium. We do not know that there was a lot of that going on because what we do know is that there was a large amount of renewable generation coming on stream—1400 megawatts. So it would have been unlikely that the Electricity Commission would have been investigating this kind of breach of the moratorium but it is possible. Once again we will not be going down that path because we are here trying to repeal that under Part 2. 
Another part of what the Electricity Commission would have been looking into around the grounds terms and conditions of exemption was under section 62H of the Act. The Minister of Energy would have had to specify in the exemption the ground or the purpose under which the exemption was going to be granted. It then went on to state what conditions would be imposed upon that and if the person was granted an exemption he or she then had to specify the kind of generation plant that would be operated and how it fitted with the rest of the Act. So that is the kind of work that the Electricity Commission would have been investigating. It was an important thing. But a really critical part that we have not discussed yet is section 62I which is actually the public consultation process. 
Moana Mackey 
: National doesn’t believe in that. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: I know that National would find that a difficult subject to discuss because we have seen throughout this week that public consultation is not something it is interested in but that was the role that the Electricity Commission was going to do—to make sure the voice of the public would be heard if there was a case for an exemption or indeed if there was a case for someone being prosecuted. 
Section 62I of the Electricity Act states: “Before making a recommendation to the Minister of Energy to grant an exemption the Commission must—(a) publish its intention to do so … and (b) give a reasonable opportunity to those persons to give those views; and (c) have regard to those views.” So that is what the commission was going to be doing. It was going to be operating a public forum in which people could put forward their views. That is a very very good thing and it is not something we have had an opportunity to do under this bill. 
This bill makes a significant change to the way we look at our sustainability challenge going forward and there is no opportunity for public consultation. Obviously the Electricity Commission had that role and that is now gone. The select committee would have been a great venue at which to have a debate about the mixture of New Zealand’s energy generation that we want going forward. But no National has come to this Parliament for the past 2 weeks to show us that it does not really want to listen to the public’s concerns. It does not want a body like the Electricity Commission to have the opportunity to hear public concerns. 
It simply wants to ride roughshod over New Zealand’s global and local interests. It is sort of like a perverse version of the “think global act local” approach that the National Government is taking. On a global level it wants to take us backwards by ensuring that we will not only be made a laughing stock on the world stage but also be told here in New Zealand that we will not look forward and we will not try to protect our environment. What we see in Part 2 is the enabling of the repeal of an important part of the make-up of our sustainability going forward. We want renewable energy because it is good for the environment. That is also good for jobs and employment and we can see that right around the world—in the European Union and in Germany in particular where a lot of jobs have been created in the renewable energy industry. That is not what the National Government wants. It does not want to see any jobs created in this area; it wants to take us backwards to a time that realistically is not where we want to go.