6. Question No. 6—EnergyHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) to the Minister for EnergyQuestion No. 6—Energy6. Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) to the Minister for Energy: Does he stand by his statement in relation to fossil gas that the reality in terms of storage is we don't have significant storage in New Zealand"?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister for Energy): Yes. I'm advised that we don't have significant gas storage in New Zealand. There is one dedicated gas storage facility but only 6 petajoules of the 12 petajoules it can store can be used as the rest is needed to maintain reservoir pressure. Six petajoules is around 15 days of gas supply for the New Zealand market.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Is the detailed business case funded by the previous Government on a multi-technology or portfolio approach of flexible geothermal demand response grid-scale batteries and hydrogen biomass solutions to find an alternative to gas to address the dry-year problem still being progressed by his Government? Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well no because the last Government was very much focused on picking winners rather than letting the market actually build the energy that New Zealand needs. They banned oil and gas exploration and then they spent the last number of years on pumped hydro down the bottom of the South Island a project that wasn't even going to come on stream until 2040. We have a low residual notice for energy shortage tomorrow morning with New Zealanders being told they have to turn the heaters off tomorrow morning. How would a pumped hydro in 2040 help them?Hon Dr Megan Woods: Was the funding that was cut from exploring the portfolio approach not pumped hydro reprioritised into alternative dry-year risk or renewable work programmes or was it returned to centre?Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well the answer to that question is the Government is not taking the approach the last Government took which was to pick winners and to force technologies into the market but to make sure that the market settings are right to drive investment. And the market was telling that Minister that by putting all the eggs in one basket or focusing on picking winners there was a chilling effect on investment in our energy market. We now have a Transpower warning that there is going to be low energy available tomorrow morning—customers told not to charge their electric vehicles turn the heaters off—that is a direct result of that last Government's policies.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Point of order Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: A point of order the right honourable—sorry the Hon Dr Megan Woods.Hon Dr Megan Woods: I know who you meant Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Yes I know you do but perhaps the listeners would like to know; you're not that well known.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Ha ha! I asked—[Interruption] I was actually trying to be kind.SPEAKER: Hang on; it is a point of order.Hon Dr Megan Woods: I was trying to be kind Mr Speaker but I asked the Minister a very straight question. It was about whether the money that was reprioritised from the money that was already allocated to examining dry-year risk had been reprioritised into other dry-year risk programmes or renewable programmes or had it been returned to centre. I didn't get an answer to that question nor was it addressed.SPEAKER: Well that's your opinion. It may not necessarily be mine but I think the Hon Simeon Brown would probably relish the opportunity to say some more on this matter.Hon SIMEON BROWN: Oh I'd love to.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Well where's the money?Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well the member's asked the question and I made it very clear that we have put an end to that particular project and what we are focusing now on is making sure the market settings are correct. So yes the money was returned because we're not going to waste taxpayers' money like the last Government did on ghost projects like Lake Onslow which weren't going to come until 2040 when we have information such as this [holds up graph] where the number of low residual notices from Transpower have increased dramatically from zero up to 15 per year since that last Government cancelled oil and gas exploration.David MacLeod: What reports has he seen on energy security?Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well Transpower have today released a customer advisory notice that tomorrow morning there is a—Hon Dr Megan Woods: Well get used to it; you're the Minister of Energy.Hon SIMEON BROWN: —shortage in energy and we will get—and the member over there says "get used to it". Well we are getting used to it because as Transpower show [holds up graph] since 2018 when the last Government cancelled oil and gas exploration the number of low residual notices has increased significantly from zero under the last National Government. So getting used to it means turning the heaters off means not being able to charge your electric vehicles which means that is the risk that they are facing because of that Government's policies.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Where did the money that was budgeted for the detailed business cases for dry-year risk go?Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well I think I've answered that question multiple times. It's been returned because we're not going to waste money on ghost projects. We've returned it to the centre because we're not going to waste it on ghost projects which have left New Zealand with energy insecurity—a direct result of that last Government's policies. They banned oil and gas exploration in 2018. They then focused on a ghost Lake Onslow project which wouldn't have come into effect till 2040. How is that going to help keep the heaters on tomorrow morning?Hon Nicola Willis: Can the Minister advise what type of fuel is better for heating people's homes: natural gas coal or ghost business cases?Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well it's a very good question. I can tell you very quickly: ghost business cases won't keep the lights on or keep the heaters on. I tell you if we had a choice I'd much rather we had the gas being burnt to keep the lights on. What's happened because of the oil and gas exploration is we are having more and more coal being burnt at Huntly which has twice the carbon intensity. That party on the other side of the House their policies are pro-coal.Hon Kieran McAnulty: Point of order sir. Thank you very much. Sir I was just wondering how the third leg of that supplementary question was in line with the direction you gave the House yesterday.SPEAKER: Yeah you may well ask that but if you read the primary question it was inevitably going to lead to discussions about the impressions that one side of the House has of the other. So I was listening for that—listening very carefully for that. While it might not be absolutely within the scope of what I said yesterday I don't think it is outside the scope of the question or that it was an unreasonable response."