Hughes Gareth: Financial Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Financial Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 04 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16274. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Chair.Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to take a call on the financial review of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. One department within the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is energy. What we know when we look at what the Government is doing in the energy space is actually that there is going to be more business more innovation and more employment when you look at this side of the House and what its plans and visions are for energy. Kiwis have a real energy choice this election. On the one hand on the blue side you see a party that is offering New Zealanders more excuses for rising power prices a party that is going to be going to the election with atrack record of power increases of $360 on average a party that has seen power prices go up 3 percent despite demand going down 2.5 percent.David Bennett: Tell us about your carbon tax. How much would carbon tax go up by?GARETH HUGHES: Mr Bennett New Zealanders know all about that sinking feeling they get when they go to the letterbox to get a power bill from a big electricity company under National. What we have seen under the failed National electricity reforms is that power prices have increased 67 percent above inflation since those Bradford reforms. National is telling New Zealanders their power prices are not too high. In fact they are going to keep going up even when demand is going down. National is a party that talks about renewables but in fact has seen fewer renewables in New Zealand than we had in 1980 or in 1990. National is a party that goes around the country opening gas-fired power stations and sees Huntly extended for another 25 years. So when that party criticises NZ Power as seeing more thermal generation it is very hollow indeed.National is a party that is about higher electricity prices for Kiwis and less clean energy for Kiwis but also New Zealanders’ assets being flogged off. New Zealanders know all about the Government’s fiscally reckless short-sighted asset sale agenda. We are losing control of assets built up over generations of New Zealanders for a tiny amount of money that in fact has cost Kiwis the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.The fourth part of the jigsaw of so-called energy business innovation and employment is deep-sea drilling. Here we have got a sector that risks hundreds of thousands of jobs in the rest of the wider economy a sector that risks a $40 billion cost as we saw in the Gulf of Mexico from the very same company that the Government has invited down to New Zealand—a $40 billion cost. It is an industry that has got the lowest job-producing potential of all. So this election while National is talking about excuses for rising prices assets being flogged off risky deep-sea drilling and less clean energy the Greens are going to be talking about cleaner cheaper smarter power.The Greens have got a plan NZ Power to deliver $300 a year on average in savings for Kiwi households. With 42000 Kiwis disconnected in the last year—four times more than 5 years ago—it is high time a Government acted to put the interests of New Zealanders and their power bills before the profits of the big electricity companies. We have got a plan for 100 percent renewable power. New Zealand can lead the world in taking action on climate change.This election we are going to the public saying that although that side of the House sees excuses the Green Party will put insulation under their roofs and will put solar panels on top. What we know is there is more innovation in terms of the smart grid and smart devices on the demand side powered through NZ Power. We know there are 5000 jobs according to Business and Economic Research Ltd available in NZ Power and 1000 extra jobs when it comes to installing 30000 solar panels on Kiwis’ roofs. So when the choice is between a rise in power prices assets flogged off and more risky deep-sea drilling; and on the other hand insulation under your roof and solar panels on the top—cleaner cheaper and smarter power—I know what New Zealanders prefer. This is where the economic benefits for New Zealand are going to come from.Investment New Zealand says we will have a $150 billion export opportunity in clean energy andgreentech by 2030. We have got a $6 trillion global market we could be accessing according to Pure Advantage. PricewaterhouseCoopers hardly the Greenpeace of the business world says there is a $22 billion clean-energy economic opportunity. Just this week we have seen Bloomberg report record solar installations around the world. This is growing faster than the oil industry.