Nash Stuart: Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Energy (Fuels Levies and References) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 10 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1334. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier):Labour is supporting this bill for the reasons that the Minister of Energy and Resources Simon Bridges just outlined—or for a number of them. But I must admit that Mr Bridges must be quite a tired gentleman. That was a speech that was read with no passion whatsoever. Take a long holiday mate and come back all refreshed. Maybe you could put a bit of energy into it.We understand the reason for this bill. We are talking about an obligation of about $10 million by 2016-17 and a shortfall of around about $20 million over the next 3 years. We have got to meet our obligations under these treaties and it is important that we do that as a good global citizen; so we will.There are a couple of concerns that I do have about this particular bill. One is that according to the bill—in new section 24 which is inserted by clause 5—the levy will be collected by the New Zealand Customs Service and it will be paid by the oil companies. It is at a very small rate. It is at about 0.045 cents per litre so it probably will not be noticed at all. But we are still talking about $20 million out of taxpayers’ pockets over the next 3 years. When I say “out of taxpayers’ pockets” the levy on this actually has to be paid by the oil companies but the concern I have is that what will actually happen—the rate as mentioned is 0.045 cents per litre—is that the oil companies will say: “We have this new levy we have to pay for it” and therefore they will pass it on to the consumer through the petrol pump and they will whack another cent per litre on. I see this as potentially just another way for the oil companies to make extreme monopoly-rent profits out of a piece of bad news that will come along. I hope it does not happen but I can just see how it could.This is at a time when petrol companies are making record profits. They seem to have us over a barrel—pardon the pun.Hon Member: Oh that is weak. That is weak.STUART NASH: Thank you; someone is listening. Fantastic!Hon Member: Roll out the barrel.STUART NASH: Terrible—I know. However the oil companies are very very quick to put up the price when something like this comes along but very slow to drop the price. We have seen a little bit of a fall in the price recently—there is no doubt about that—but not at the rate that international prices are dropping around the world.The one interesting thing about this is that I was looking through the regulatory impact statement and it is something that MPs use—as the Assistant Speaker himself knows very very well—to get a little bit of a background about the bill what it is about and the process it has gone through. It is a very important document. I was looking at the risks because it tends to be the first thing I look at when I am assessing a new bill and I was surprised to see that there were a couple of sections that were deleted under the Official Information Act. I am just a little surprised because we need to know what this is about and certainly when it comes to the risks why you would take a chunk of those risks out so MPs cannot assess them.I am pleased Clare Curran will be talking on this because she was on the Commerce Committee and maybe she can just allude to a couple—[Interruption]—yes she will allude to just a couple of the risks—Clare Curran: Yes I shall.STUART NASH: That is good to hear and she shall. We are supporting this legislation but the final point I would like to make—I have made it before but I would like to make it again—is that I just hope that what we do not see as a result of this bill going through is a disproportionate increase in petrol prices at the pump for good hard-working Kiwis who are really struggling to make ends meet at this time of growing inequality. On that note I do wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a safe and enjoyable New Year. We commend this bill to the House.