Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:607;Page:4332] 
8.  
GERRY BROWNLEE (NZ National—Ilam) 
 to the  
Minister of Energy 
: Why is he resisting calls by the Major Electricity Users Group for him to set up a national power savings campaign and to instruct Government departments to start saving power immediately? 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Energy) 
: 
 The Grid Security Committee is meeting this afternoon to consider what level of conservation is appropriate now and I have been meeting various members of that committee over the past week or two. The Major Electricity Users Group is represented on the committee. If saving targets are set I am sure they will include the public sector. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Why is his Government focusing on the increasing creeping hand of socialism by its interfering in the electricity market in the future a move Contact Energy Ltd has today warned will discourage further investment in generation stating: “The market is not to blame for the lack of fuel or rain.”; and why is he not acting now to encourage savings so New Zealand can avoid the impending crisis this winter rather than relying on an outside group to voluntarily give up its production? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: The outside group is the industry including consumer representatives. They have the ability to manage the conservation campaign if that is needed and they will call on me for assistance if they want it. The member needs to be clear whether he thinks the market works. He was on the radio this morning saying that “the picture we have at the moment is in fact clear because the market does work; the problem is we do not have enough generation.” 
David Parker 
: Why are members of the Major Electricity Users Group so strongly affected by current high wholesale electricity prices? 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We do have a thing about patsy questions and ministerial responsibilities and I think that for people who are involved in a group called the Major Electricity Users Group it is probably self-evident why they have an interest in energy use—and the Minister is not responsible for them. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Let me put it this way: I am hoping that the Minister can reply indicating his position on this. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Indeed I can. The important fact is that many major electricity users choose to buy electricity on the wholesale spot market because on average the price is significantly lower than the going contract price which is what many other electricity users choose. Last year for example the major users paying the spot price for electricity saved many millions of dollars because prices were usually less than 4c a unit. The downside of choosing some exposure to the spot market however is that in periods of tight supply or uncertainty spot prices can climb very rapidly and very high as they have lately. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Rather than having Cabinet dictates on power consumption as proposed by the substantive question why does his Government not address the supply constraints and remove the obstacles to investment in generation capacity imposed by the Resource Management Act and the obstinate intransigence of the Department of Conservation in schemes such as Ngakawau and Arnold River on the West Coast? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: In October of last year the member’s colleague Mr Gerry Eckhoff said precisely what the member had suggested: that the Resource Management Act in this case would cause a 4-year delay for Project Aqua. A few weeks ago I announced changes to the Resource Management Act and Mr Gerry Eckhoff rushed to the media saying that the Government is resurrecting the Muldoon era. What does the member think the ACT policy is on this matter? 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Will the Minister again consider adopting my proposal made during the last dry winter that we develop a comprehensive power-saving strategy involving all New Zealand businesses and households with several levels of intensity so that everyone knows when to start and how much to do how soon rather than building new capacity which will raise all power prices while it sits idle for 95 percent of the time? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: That is precisely the work that was completed by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority last week which I have handed to the industry for its consideration. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Can the Minister confirm that the Government is considering establishing a systems operator who will buy and sell all generated electricity doing away with the market and destroying all incentives for investment in new generation that we desperately need? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: That idea has been around for some years—in fact for a bit over a decade. It is one that is being actively explored by the committee that Dr Cullen has headed up to look at infrastructure issues including electricity generation. It is one of the options. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I raise this point of order somewhat cautiously but with the utmost respect. We had a situation where my colleague Mr Gerrard Eckhoff raised a question about why the Government had ignored the opinion of Chen Palmer and Partners. The Minister’s response was essentially to say that the question was out of order and that he was not responsible for Chen Palmer and Partners’ opinion. That was raised as a point of order by the Hon Richard Prebble. It seemed to me that the question was in order. We then had a situation where a Labour MP asked the Minster why the Major Electricity Users Group thought something or other. That clearly is out of order. The Hon Roger Sowry raised that as a point of order and it was allowed. I think there needs to be clarification on consistency. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No I did not take it that way at all. That was how he chose to answer it. It was his call.