Court Simon; Salesa JennySIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for the opportunity to take a call. I have some specific questions for the Minister regarding the function of the Electricity Authority the ability of the authority to amend the Electricity Industry Participation Code. In the last week we have seen the Electricity Authority intervene in the market to block a commercial arrangement between an electricity generator and one of their major customers the Tīwai Point Aluminium Smelter. I sense the cold dead hand of a Prime Minister past the sponsor of the Think Big regime in some of the worst and most harmful interventions in the New Zealand economy a former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in the way that the Minister of Energy and Resources has proposed this reform package. Last week we saw the Electricity Authority intervene to block the power companies from entering into power contracts with consumers unless certain conditions are met. This must be the most serious and damaging impact on business trust in Government; one of the most terrible things this Government has done to undermine trust in the sovereign to introduce sovereign risk to our economy. I want to reflect on the comments of the current chair of the small electricity consumer agency the current chair who has weighed in on this intervention—and while I have a great respect for the current chair and the work that she does in her community she appears to be unfortunately just another Government comms mouthpiece when it comes to electricity and the Government's intention to intervene in this absolutely vital part of our economy. The chair has said: We absolutely support what the authority is doing. It sends a very clear message to the generators that they must not settle on contracts that disadvantage residential and small business consumers." And yet residential and small-business consumers switched power companies 400000 times Minister—400000 times—in the last year. There are more than 40 retailers to choose from. It doesn't appear that business small business and consumers have any barriers to getting a better deal. They might choose a deal with a supplier who offers them internet gas a television a fridge. They might choose to go with a power company that offers them prices on the spot market. It might not have been the best choice for those consumers but they had the choice Minister. So I want to come to my proposed amendment to the bill. I've proposed Supplementary Order Paper 233 which would delete clause 11 the clause relating to the establishment of a Small Electricity Consumers Agency. Now the ACT Party—ACT is an acronym for the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers and we take this role very seriously. But we also recognise what a dangerous precedent this sets; in fact not really a precedent just another silly intervention by this Government in business and in relationships between suppliers consumers and of course the taxpayer who's going to end up picking up the tab for this unfortunate intervention. So what I'm proposing is that the small electricity consumers already have access to the utilities disputes service. That's a service that's funded through a levy on electricity and gas providers. They can make determinations about disputes up to $100000 if that's what they agree. The ACT Party's proposing to delete the small consumer advocacy component of this bill because there's no justification in the legislative statement Minister for strengthening the consumer voice when consumers struggle to make their voices heard and exert influence over decisions affecting them in the electricity sector. When those decisions are made about contracts between suppliers consumers when decisions are made between maybe suppliers who want to offer different services—it is unbelievable that the Minister believes that consumers the customer should have decisions as to what services businesses deliver and how they organise themselves and engage with other customers. This is not a piece of legislation which will increase the trust that business—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! [Interruption] I call on Simon Court—I call on Simon Watts."