Soper Lesley: Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Soper Lesley: Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15611] 
LESLEY SOPER (Labour) 
: 
 I stand to take a call in support of the Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill for the very good reason that I am a lower South Island MP and I represent many people who have been waiting for this bill to be passed; people in my city of Invercargill Bluff Riverton Ohai Nightcaps Wyndham Edendale and all the other towns of the lower South. Why? Because unlike the National Government that privatised and deregulated the electricity market and unlike the National Government that created an environment where profit was the motive rather than providing a service to the people Labour is actually repairing the damage. This bill is part of Labour’s plan for the future to ensure the safety and the well-being of all Kiwi families. 
I want to talk particularly about that low fixed charge regime. The low fixed charge regulations were introduced in 2004 by this Labour-led Government with the purpose of assisting low-use domestic consumers and to encourage energy efficiency. Prior to that introduction low-use consumers in many areas—and this was a National Government legacy—faced unreasonably high fixed daily charges for their limited or low electricity usage. The introduction of the regulations in 2004 provided those low-use consumers with a tariff option that was more equitable for low energy usage and compatible with the Government’s energy efficiency objectives. 
At present those regulations require networks and retailers to make available a low fixed charge tariff option to all domestic consumers whom they service who have consumption at their primary dwelling of less than 8000 kilowatts per annum. The same 8000 kilowatt threshold is used across the entire country despite the reality that in the colder parts of the South Island average power use is higher in large part because the climate is colder and there is little reticulated gas. That is the situation in my Invercargill and Southland area. Analysis of average consumption data shows that an adjustment to the low fixed charge eligibility threshold of 8000 kilowatts per year is warranted because far fewer consumers are on the current low-fixed charge tariff in the lower South Island than in other parts of the country. For example in Auckland and in the north over 52 percent of domestic consumers are covered by the low fixed charge tariff whereas in the lower South Island—Christchurch and further south excluding Westland—only 9.2 percent of domestic consumers are covered by that tariff. Those figures mean quite a bit to my people in the lower South Island. 
The bill alters the definition of a low-fixed charge consumer from a fixed-charge eligibility threshold of 8000 kilowatts per annum to a definition that will be provided in the regulations to ensure different regional locations and averages can be used. That means a great deal indeed to my lower South Island people and I am very proud that we are passing a bill that will make a difference to their lives. I have had many calls to my office asking when this bill will be passed and here we are in the third reading tonight and I am very proud of that fact. 
But I also want to dwell for a moment on the other thing that this bill primarily does and that is that it strengthens the regulation-making powers in the Electricity Act 1992. It responds to recent concerns about the disconnection practices of electricity retailers. I do not think I have to remind anybody of the Muliaga family and what it went through—and what other families have gone through—when an electricity retailer chose for the sole reason of its profit to disconnect its power despite the life-and-death situation that Mrs Muliaga faced. 
The Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill is designed to ensure that the Government can if necessary regulate the content of the disconnection guidelines that have recently been developed. Retailers are however being given the opportunity to follow the voluntary guidelines first. 
The changes in this bill will require electricity retailers to observe a sense of social responsibility in respect of those in financial difficulty and that is a message to the Muliaga family and to every other family or individual who was ever caught in that terrible disconnection mix. 
This bill will protect some of the most vulnerable people in New Zealand society and that is why it is part of Labour’s plan for the future; a future that ensures the safety and well-being of all Kiwi families. Some of those families are our most vulnerable people. They cannot afford to be forgotten. The National Party forgot them during the 1990s with benefit cuts with its changes to bring in the Employment Contracts Act with its changes to the health system with its pernicious asset-testing and with its bed-night charges in hospitals. All that 1990s stuff did nothing but disservice to the most vulnerable families. The benefit cuts in the 1990s that National was so proud of created and still create major levels of poverty in this country. Labour has taken a great deal of our term to address this issue and we are proud of having addressed it. 
Let us not forget that in 1999 when we became the Government the National Government had left us with a minimum wage for adults of $7 per hour and a minimum wage for youth of $4.20 per hour. That was disgusting. As of 1 April this year the minimum wage for adults became $12 per hour and we effectively ended the youth minimum wage. We have delivered that to vulnerable people whom the National Government deliberately forgot about and penalised during the 1990s. 
We are confident that electricity retailers will abide by the Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill. We are confident that they will follow the guidelines to prevent a repeat of the May tragedy for the Muliaga family. The regulating power is an important last resort to ensure that the Government’s objectives are met. That is why we have put it in the bill. 
For people listening to the debate in the House the new disconnection guidelines will ensure that consumers who have difficulty paying their bills are advised of the assistance available from community service providers and from Government agencies—those Government agencies that we have restored after the National Government allowed them to break down in the 1990s. These guidelines will protect vulnerable consumers and those reliant on electricity for medical equipment to maintain life so that never again does a Mrs Muliaga have her power disconnected in the way that happened in May of last year. 
I am immensely proud of both parts of this bill; the part that will deliver to so many of my people in the south and the part that will deliver to so many vulnerable people throughout this country. I commend this bill to the House. I am proud to have spoken in the third reading. 
Bill read a third time.