Hughes Gareth: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: General Debate[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9652. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. Talking about Fiji if I look at some of the legislation we are seeing in this Chamber today that is what makes me think of Fiji. It is not lower power prices it is not lower housing prices and it is not our economy going forward which is not what we see from the Government benches. If we are talking about Fiji let us look at some of the legislation the spying legislation that this Government is introducing and passing under urgency in this Chamber.What a low standard of debate we have seen from the Government benches today. Government members are not focused on ideas and they are not focused on solutions; they are focused on the Opposition. Do you know why? I guess it gives us a bit of heart as well because it is the Opposition that is coming up with the ideas. It is the Opposition coming up with solutions. All we hear from the National Government on power is 20 years of excuses. For 20 years all Kiwis have heard is excuse after excuse about why their power bills have to go up. While our power bills over the last 20 years have gone up 70 percent in real terms across the OECD the average has dropped 6 percent. Under this Government we have seen power bills go up over $300 a year—under National—and there is no relief in sight because all we hear is excuses attacks and rhetoric ignoring the real issues facing us.That is why the Green Party and the Labour Party came out with our positive suggestion our positive solution for a Pharmac-style single buyer. We came up with the ideas of progressive pricing and greater energy efficiency. Those are going to have a huge impact for the economy. We have seen that with the Business and Economic Research Ltd report. We could see more than 5000 jobs created. That is more than we can see in the Government’s agenda. Those members have lost 40000 jobs in manufacturing over their term in Government. We could see the creation of 5000 jobs from NZ Power. That is going to have a huge impact for households because we know that Kiwis are shivering over winter. We know that Kiwis are going without energy just to eat. A quarter of our whānau are in energy poverty. They are spending 10 percent or more of their weekly budget just to stay warm.NZ Power is going to have a huge impact for the environment as well. Progressive pricing is going to help I think two key parts of the country. The first is those people just going without power. They are going to use power to keep warm. They are going to use power to stay healthy. Also NZ Power is going to drive efficiency because if you have taken advantage of the Warm Up New Zealand healthy homes scheme if you have got an efficient house and if you have got efficient appliances there is going to be a huge incentive to reduce your power bills to stay within that 300 kilowatt a month progressive-pricing threshold the Greens will introduce. NZ Power is going to drive energy efficiency. Having NZ Power is going to drive cleaner energy. The Government is failing in its target to try to get 90 percent renewable energy in the future—it is failing. There is no carbon price and there is no signal from the Government. It is just picking winners in the oil fracking and mining sectors. NZ Power is going to drive clean energy like solar in households.Like the Green plans to support our information and communications technology industry through a second internet cable we also have plans to lower housing prices and give housing affordability to Kiwi families. It is the Green Party not the National Government that is coming up with real solutions for Kiwis. What we see from the National Government is just this irrational hysterical approach. Its members said the plan was from the USSR. Steven Joyce said it was like North Korea. This is a guy who is fond of saying “jumping the shark”. I cannot think of anything more “jumping theshark” than Steven Joyce’s North Korea comments because it is not North Korea but South Korea that has a single buyer like NZ Power which Labour and the Greens propose and it is South Korea that has seen its electricity prices drop 38 percent over the same period ours have been driven up 70 percent.We saw Business New Zealand come out to try to defend the long-run marginal cost electricity generation pricing system where basically all electricity even if it is cheap clean hydro paid for decades ago is charged at the most expensive rate. We have seen accusations thrown around of economic vandalism. Economic vandalism is the $700 million that the Commerce Commission’s Wolak report said was coming out of our economy every year in excessive super-profits—that is the economic vandalism. It is the hundreds of dollars extra that Kiwi households are paying every year in their power bills and excessive profits that we are going to see with the asset sales simply going offshore—that is the economic vandalism. It is the $200 million a year that Kiwi businesses are going to miss out on because the Government has got its head in the sand over rising electricity prices and no solutions—that is the real economic vandalism.It is clear that the current market is not working. Simon Bridges reckons 20 years is not long enough for it to bed in. We do not see real competition. It is the same five generator-retailers that control the market. We have seen more than $300 million a year in assets’ upward valuations driving it. What we are doing is giving Kiwis a real choice on energy. Under National you are going to hear more excuses and more tinkering. You are going to see your assets flogged off. Under the Greens Kiwis are going to save money. They are going to see cheaper power. They are going to see cleaner power. It is like the National Government is advocating for old Telecom. Why does it not advocate for re-bundling the network if it supports old-fashioned uncompetitive markets? We are giving Kiwis a real choice and I think Kiwis like the idea of cheaper power.