Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It's an absolute pleasure to rise and speak on the Electricity Industry Amendment Bill as the member of Parliament for North Shore and as member of Parliament obviously for the National Party. This piece of legislation is another example of a complete waste of time and of costs bureaucracy and regulation on hard-working Kiwis and it is another piece of legislation that is a solution looking for a problem. We had a chat yesterday—and God it was a bit of a painful process I'll be honest with you—at the committee stage. We were talking with the Minister and we were trying to actually work out Minister what is the problem you're actually trying to fix with this legislation. It's quite a simple question I must say and maybe I'm a simple man—maybe I was being a little bit too thoughtful. But I'll tell you what we just couldn't quite get to the crux of what the problem is that we're trying to look at here because do you know what? One of the impacts of this legislation is this introduction of this consumer panel which goes completely in contrast to the fact that the bill is meant to be ensuring we've got a competitive electricity sector. Well as my good colleague Stuart Smith said we've already got a hugely competitive electricity sector in New Zealand with 40 providers—a wide range—and I'll tell you what: what did Consumer New Zealand say when they did a poll of Kiwis in terms of How happy are you with your electricity providers?" Well I'll tell you what 52 percent of Kiwis said they were very happy with the service from their provider. If you're a lucky consumer—and I don't want to get into the detail of who I use for my power but I can tell you that Electric Kiwi was 70 percent satisfied; Flick over 77 percent; or Powershop.So let's be clear: we've got competition. A lot of these big electricity providers have consumer panels they have mechanisms to take complaints and feedback but this Government they don't care about any of that—they don't care. They just think "Do you know what? Here's another opportunity to put a bit more regulation into the system and a little bit more compliance." because what they don't understand is that there is a cost to compliance there is a cost to regulation and guess who pays that cost! Well I'll give you a clue. I know it's a Thursday afternoon and I know we've had a long week—gee what a week it's been. But I tell you what the people that pay for all this regulation that that side of the House is ramming down people's throats are the hard-working Kiwis out there across rural and provincial and urban New Zealand who are doing it tough with a squeezed middle and they are the ones who are going to pay the price from this regulation. I tell you what as members may know I'm reasonably good with numbers. I don't often speak too highly of my skill set of being able to add one and one but I've got my chartered accountancy and all that type of stuff. Now we'll leave it there and we won't—this is about the bill. But I asked a good question and maybe I was being a little bit out of order when I asked this but I said "What's the cost to fund this Minister? What's the cost of all this regulation and what's going to be the impact on the power prices as a result of that?" and do you know what the answer was? Hon Judith Collins: No. What was it?SIMON WATTS: There was no answer—there was no answer. There was no answer. Those guys on that side of the House are pumping through legislation like this and they haven't even done their homework. They haven't done their due diligence. They haven't thought about the complications and the implications of legislation like this. Not only do they not know what the problem is they're trying to fix; they don't know how much it's going to cost. They don't know what the implication is going to be on power prices for hard-working Kiwis and what does that say for Kiwis out there that are looking for a little bit of hope from the Government in terms of leading them forward from where we are today to where they need to be? Well I can give you a bit of a clue that hope is on the way. Hope is on the way for Kiwis across this country because next year a National-led Government is going to come in and start to unwind and rebuild this country and do what is required for this country to get us back on our feet—a prosperous and aspirational country looking forward to the future and not putting silly silly legislation like this through the system which does no one any benefit. Lastly I want to just thank the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment for their advice to the Minister to say that they thought this was a silly idea as well because even they know that this piece of legislation is not fit for purpose.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): I call Dan Rosewarne—five minutes."