Hughes Gareth: Electricity Industry (Small-Scale Renewable Distributed Generation) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Electricity Industry (Small-Scale Renewable Distributed Generation) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 11 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7915. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. This bill about to be voted on is about fairness it is about certainty and it is about power. It asks the questions: who has the power—is it the electricity industry or consumers as well? It asks who the electricity system works for—just the big companies or for everyone? It also asks a fundamental question of our electricity grid: going into the future will the industry continue to discourage solar Kiwis thereby forcing them into batteries and off grid or will it work with them and harness the national and network benefits they bring?In this speech I would like to outline the solutions the bill brings but also address some of the objections. First I would like to thank all the dozens of homes schools businesses farms and maraes that opened their doors to me let me up on to their roofs and proudly showed me their solar panels. I would like to thank the clean energy industry in New Zealand particularly the Sustainable Electricity Association New Zealand. I would like to thank Grey Power and I would like to thank the New Zealand Labour Party and the New Zealand First Party for their support for this bill.I drafted this bill a few years ago as a common-sense pragmatic solution to the real issues facing Kiwis. My bill in a nutshell simply empowers the Electricity Authority to act as an independent umpire to standardise contracts and to set a fair reasonable non-subsidised buy-back rate. We are seeing Kiwis go solar in record numbers but what they have found out is that it is the power companies that have all the power and this is the problem definition that David Seymour asked me about.One of the problems is that they face ridiculous regional red tape. Across the country there are 29 different regional rules forms and fees. For solar installers of the 60-odd days it takes to install a panel 59 are to deal with paperwork. Remember this: the people across the country who are part of small businesses installing solar panels and the people shelling out money to invest in solar will remember the parties that voted to continue this ridiculous red tape.Currently solar Kiwis do not have a choice. The only choice they have is between a range of seven retailers that offer them similar low buy-back rates that seem to move in concert. They tell me they feel ripped off because they know their surplus solar electrons are being sold at the full retail rate. This is an average of 26c across the country considerably higher in some regions yet they are offered rates as low as 4c. They feel hard-done-by because they can get less than the wholesale rate yet the retailer sells it at full whack. It sells it as if the entire electricity grid were behind those electrons—or waves David Seymour—flowing to the neighbours.These people cannot trade on the spot market. They do not have teams of lawyers to argue the contract terms and in many cases it is the retailer that has all the power and sets the terms. It offers no rationale in return and it can change it again at short notice.This bill supports a fair reasonable non-subsidised buy-back rate that is not set by politicians and it is definitely not set by the power companies. It is set by an independent umpire and it would take into account the generation costs the avoided transmission and distribution costs network benefits and other aspects like administration.In the debate we heard Gerry Brownlee say that it was all about higher prices. No it is not. It is not about subsidies. It is about a fair and reasonable price set by the National Party’s own authority. Then Mr Brownlee said that it would be too complicated. Perhaps I have a little more faith in the Electricity Authority than the Minister who established it. Then he called it price control. What we have at the moment exactly is price control. It is a small number of very large and wealthy companies that dictate the price—there is no say for the little person—and this bill breaks into their cushy old business model of simply selling more electricity.Melissa Lee said: “Well it’s not solar’s time yet.” Well that is not what Deutsche Bank said about New Zealand this year nor is it the experience on the ground. Kiwis in record numbers are going solar because of record-high power bills and record-low solar costs. They are voting with their wallets and investing their own money. They are simply asking for more certainty and a fair go.The Electricity Authority says that it is wasted and that it is the poor old electricity industry that is getting a raw deal from customers. The same argument is analogous to saying that someone who does not drive during the day only at peak hour and rides a bike the rest of the time is subsidised by other motorists. It is a red herring. It is not the solar customer’s fault that that is the current distribution pricing model adopted by the industry. I think it is deeply unfair to decry consumers for ignoring the same price signals that the power industries ignore.What we see is a clear choice between shining a little sunlight on the issue and hearing from all these people—continuing the discussion around the select committee. This is my question to members: will they stand with the big old power companies or will they stand with the little people of New Zealand who want a little bit of fairness a little bit of certainty? Kia ora koutou.