Shearer David: Standing Orders — SessionalText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Standing Orders — Sessional[Sitting date: 06 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16431. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert): This motion would be opposed by the Labour Party but the inevitable has happened now that these State-owned enterprises have been sold off. The State-owned enterprises have been sold off and what has happened? Our electricity prices have started to go up at a rate that is extraordinary. I have just received power bills from people who have told me that their Meridian Energy power price has gone up by 15 percent—15 percent their bill has gone up by. This is what a person said to me when they wrote in: “Attached is the advice I received from Meridian Energy telling me to expect a 15 percent increase in my electricity bill at a property I own.”—a 15 percent increase—“Meridian Energy blames the lines companies for this increase.” Are you telling me that the lines companies have put his bill up by 15 percent? I do not believe that. I do not believe that and all over the country right now people are receiving bills with 10 11 12 13 14 and 15 percent increases.This is what the person went on to say. He said he had tried to get in contact with Meridian Energy—rung it up written to it—and still does not have an adequate explanation of why that power price has gone through the roof. He said to me: “It is of course impossible to work out from a typical power bill who is taking what cut as amongst the retailer the lines company or Transpower. Obfuscation seems to be the standard practice in the power industry. We don’t know what is going on because it suits the power industry to make sure that it stays that way.”This is in a country where John Key said that power price increases and the power price at the moment were OK. Simon Bridges our Minister of Energy and Resources said that actually power was not too expensive. For most New Zealanders they have seen power prices increase in the last year by four times the rate of inflation—four times the rate of inflation. So while inflation has been going up at 1 percent the power prices have been going up at a rate of at least 4 percent. That is wrong. That is wrong because we know right now that the electricity market at the moment into which the Government has sold Meridian Energy is oversupplied and has been oversupplied for the last 5 or 6 years that it will continue to be oversupplied for electricity probably for the next 5 to 10 years and that the demand has actually gone down. Free-market principles would tell you that in that sort of situation prices come down. The Government says the market is working efficiently. Adam Smith of course would be very interested in this because apparently it does a different thing to what he actually proposed back in the 18th century. Prices are going up despite the market being oversupplied and demand is going down. That is absolutely wrong.A number of companies are making a lot of money out there. One of those companies is the company we are talking about at the moment which has just been sold off. Its new private shareholders are not mums and dads. They are not mums and dads; they are the corporates. They are the 2 percent of the population that can afford to buyshares. They are the overseas companies that have bought into our industry so that the profits can be shipped off offshore and our current account deficit can get ever-steadily worse. Those companies are going to be demanding more profit. That is why people like the person whom I have spoken to and who has written to me says that his power bill is going up by about 15 percent.That is why we oppose asset sales that is why we oppose electricity price increases and that is why we support this motion. This is a cynical Government which took hold of Transpower. The person who sent me this Meridian Energy power bill is asking the question that is on everybody’s lips. If anybody is watching this right now and wants to send me their power bill please send it to me with the story of the power increases in your household. I would be happy to read those out talk about those and take those to the Government. This person does not know what part of his bill is what. It is just a big blur. Well let us take the power increase in Wellington alone which is 7 percent if you are with Contact Energy. If you are with Contact Energy it is 7 percent. Of that 4 percent is supposed to come from the lines companies.The lines company in the Wellington area says well actually 2 percent was passed on by Transpower. What is the story with Transpower? Transpower used to have a generator dividend a profit and that dividend was spent by the previous Government on upgrading our electricity grid. This Government—no no no—says: “No you give this Government the dividend because we need it to balance our books. You charge the consumers for the upgrade of the grid.” That is exactly what has happened. If you are wondering why your power bill is going up and why your Transpower prices are going up that is the reason. Two percent of that electricity price increase in the Wellington area is Transpower. Two percent is the lines company increases. Who knows where the other 3 percent came from? We have no idea because the power bills at the moment will not spell that out.The Electricity Authority created in 2010 4 years ago finally woke up to the fact that there might be a problem with the electricity prices in New Zealand—finally woke up. Mr Brent Layton who is the chair of the Electricity Authority after passing on a lot of information to the Minister of Energy and Resources to help him with combating our New Zealand power policy said he probably would not work under a Labour Government. Well that is fine. He has finally come to the realisation that the authority is going to have to look at this particular issue.Yesterday I drafted a member’s bill to go into the ballot so that in our power bills the charges will be unbundled. We will have the generation charge the wholesale charge the Transpower charge the retail charge the lines company charge and so on. Each of those will be separated out because we cannot have the situation we have at the moment where it is a complete blame game between all of those various parts of the electricity sector. Two hours after I put out my press release the Electricity Authority put out its press release and said it was going to look at the “blame game”—it used the same language. It is going to look at the blame game and it is going to try to distinguish between the various components of the electricity market. It needs to do that because like this Government it has looked the other way and relied on a market that is clearly broken while power prices have continued to go up. Meridian Energy’s power prices have gone up Mighty River Power’s prices have gone up and Contact Energy’s power prices have gone up. They are all blaming each other and blaming the lines companies but I can tell you one thing about one lines company called Vector which dropped its prices by 8.4 percent—at the instruction of the Commerce Commission I might add but nevertheless it dropped it by 8.4 percent—and guess how much of that 8.4 percent flowed through to the customer? Zero percent. The power companies pocketed that saving instead of passing it on. They pocketed that saving to increase their profits.This legislation where we have split off these power companies will add to the power prices of New Zealanders. They will hit those people who can least afford to pay. We will see more disconnections. There were a record number of disconnections more than at any time in the past in the third quarter of last year. More people than at any time in the past had their power disconnected and that is just because of this Government.