Brown Peter: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:613;Page:9828] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 It is not very often that when I hear Mr Cunliffe speak I agree with just about everything he says. In fact this must be the first time ever. In a manner of speaking he even acknowledged that the Government has been dilly-dallying for something like 4 years that we have had enough of that and that he does not want there to be any more dilly-dallying. I agree with Mr Cunliffe that there needs to be a degree of regulation in the electricity industry. New Zealand First was saying that prior to the 1999 election. Indeed I had a phone call from the Rt Hon Helen Clark when she was Leader of the Opposition seeking our view on that and asking for support if and when Labour became the Government. We said prior to that election that we needed a bit more regulation in the electricity industry. The Minister has had one shot at it. He had one shot 2 years ago and did not get it right. To a large degree he ignored our recommendations and chose to go with the Greens just as the Minister of Transport has done earlier this afternoon with regard to roading—ignored common sense totally ignored New Zealand First and he will now have to come back for another bite of the apple. 
We have major concerns about the electricity industry and not-so-major concerns about the gas industry although we do have concerns there. Our first and foremost concern is about the security of supply. This country should never have had to go through what it went through during part of this year and the year before. In this country we should have sufficient power to be able to flick the light switch on and not worry about it. We should be able to say to New Zealanders that electricity is there for their use at a reasonable price. Leaving it to the market as Mr Cunliffe said will not work. There has to be a degree of social conscience and social responsibility in energy policy. 
In summary we advocate a bigger cake of electricity for want of a better term. In this country we need electricity to be produced by hydro wind and solar generation. There is a lot of know-how out there that is not being implemented in this country. With a little bit of incentive and assistance we could harness that technology a good deal better. We also need electricity to be produced from coal. We found to our cost that we have to import coal. Thousands of tonnes of coal now go through the Port of Tauranga to help to solve a problem that had there been a little more foresight would never had occurred. It does not make sense to New Zealand First to export so many millions of tonnes of coal a year to be burnt in power stations in countries that have not signed up to the Kyoto Protocol so that we can harness wind and solar power. We need electricity to be produced from all four methods. 
However there are other concerns with regard to electricity that worry New Zealand First. Some of that concern revolves around the lack of competition in the retail sector and to a degree there is also a lack of competition in the wholesale sector. It has all become very regionalised. We are concerned about some if not most of the lines charges that go particularly to elderly folk who scale back their use of electricity and in fact use it with a sense of guilt as if they are robbing the country of something when they put their light switch or television on. We are concerned about the prices that go through the roof from time to time and we have a particular concern for people on fixed incomes who live under that sort of scenario. A lack of transparency in the accounting system affects the bills that some people receive from their various suppliers. All those issues concern New Zealand First. I do not know whether this bill will address all those concerns but I hope that it will do so. 
I fail to understand why—and this is where I agree with the Hon Roger Sowry—we are pushing this bill through the House so hastily. Why does the select committee have to sit so frequently when we are coming up to a Christmas period? I do not believe there is any real intention to push this bill through the House before Christmas. I do not think that is possible or practical. We should be taking our time and getting it right. That is the advice I gave to the Minister of Transport this afternoon: do it once; do it right. This bill is this Minister’s second attempt at addressing the concerns in the electricity industry. It is his second bite at the same apple. I do not believe we should be doing it in such haste. I urge the Minister to take note of the old saying: less haste more speed. 
New Zealand First intends to play a positive role in the development of this bill. We will listen to the submitters with interest and take on board what they say. The Minister and I have worked together in the past. We do not always agree but I think he would confirm that he always gets a genuine response from New Zealand First. 
We are concerned about the gas industry. We are running out of gas so unless we can find more gas in the reasonably foreseeable future it will have a limited application to our lifestyles. That is of some concern. There is a possible need for some form of regulation that is not there at the moment in that industry. 
I do not intend to say a great deal more except to say that we welcome Parliament looking at these two industries with a view to tightening up on the regulations and taking a balanced approach. We hope this bill will address the major concerns—or all the concerns for that matter—that we have raised and that were raised earlier by the Minister. We will apply ourselves as diligently as possible to ensuring that when this legislation comes back to the House it is workable fair and produces energy for the average New Zealander in particular at a reasonable price.