Mahuta Nanaia: Electricity Industry Bill — In Committee 
Mahuta Nanaia: Electricity Industry Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:667;Page:14139] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 I have lodged Supplementary Order Paper 163 which has a particular emphasis on the role of the Electricity Authority. I draw the Committee’s attention to the Supplementary Order Paper and its intention. My amendment to clause 17 of the Electricity Industry Bill would insert the words “and environmental sustainability” after the words “efficient operation”. The intent of clause 17 as it stands is missing looking at how environmental sustainability can be taken into account in terms of the work and role of the authority. The authority can play an important role and from what we have heard from the Minister of Energy and Resources other than citing an intention to have increased investment in geothermal energy we need to look at the whole investment landscape of non-thermal energy sources and what can be done about leadership in that area. I believe that by including that amendment the Government would be sending a positive signal of leadership in that it would be looking at the whole integrated way in which energy is generated from mainly non-renewable sources. That is certainly my intention going forward. 
My amendment to clause 18(1) would add other functions to the Electricity Authority first inserting paragraph (k): “to ensure that electricity is produced and delivered to all classes of consumers in a fair manner:”. My intention in tabling that amendment is to ensure greater fairness across the sector. There have been a number of contributions from members about price differentials between residential or domestic users vis à vis industrial users. The authority can play a strong role to ensure that there is greater fairness in price setting and Labour believes that the Committee could give its attention to that in making amendments to the bill. 
Second paragraph (l) requires the authority “to undertake monitoring of environmental impacts of electricity generation and ensure that an environmentally sustainable approach is taken in the development of electricity generation.” That amendment refers in part to the point that I made earlier. When we think about how energy is generated in our country we see that there is far too much reliance on the thermal generation landscape. Certainly Labour believes that renewables are the way forward that leadership must be given by the Government and that it needs to be clearly set out in a bill like this one. It is Labour’s intention to go through in some detail the various debates and outline the reasons why we believe that the Government must give leadership. 
I was heartened to hear the Minister say that increased investment in geothermal is a good thing but we cannot leave it to chance. We have to be really firm that the Government should direct greater geothermal investment. In fact we can be the leading edge in the international landscape in terms of our contribution in geothermal energy; that is what the Government should do. More important with regard to our natural resources we can play a key role in increasing our commitment to renewable energy generation and leading-edge technology in that area. That is a bigger debate than is afforded by this bill but it is the type of future and vision that Labour sees going forward. It is simply not correct for the Minister to say that Labour wants to go back to the position that we were in. The world has moved on; Labour has recognised that. We know that the future requires a stronger emphasis on environmental sustainability and that energy generation has to take greater account of renewable sources of generation. That is the future. Leadership must be shown in that area; the Government cannot simply leave it to chance. The role of the Energy Authority if it is to be as the Minister has outlined should be to ensure environmental sustainability in the setting of the electricity generation market. 
I want to speak briefly with regard to the authority given that the previous speaker David Parker eloquently raised a number of issues about the role of the authority. I want to come back to a number of other Supplementary Order Papers but for the purpose of these clauses in Part 2 I just highlight that the role and function of the authority is somewhat narrow and I believe that including the amendments in my Supplementary Order Paper will set the authority on a landscape of looking at where New Zealand is best headed in terms of energy generation. That is the kind of future that New Zealanders want to see and they know that it requires leadership. We cannot leave the State-owned enterprises to their own devices to go down a path without some direct guidance from the Government and the Minister in charge. The role of the authority will be paramount to that given that the Minister has delegated to the authority a number of roles and responsibilities. 
For that purpose I am hopeful that the Committee will consider those particular amendments to clause 17 and 18 to be positive ones that will achieve that objective. Kia ora.