Guy Nathan: Electricity (Continuance of Supply) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Guy Nathan: Electricity (Continuance of Supply) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:19084. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 I think it is very appropriate that I take a call on this bill because it is very important to rural New Zealand. Most of rural New Zealand will be tucked up in bed now at 10.35 in the evening on Wednesday night because that is where most normal people doing a hard day’s work actually should be. But the Government wanted to put the House into urgency up until midnight this evening and midnight tomorrow night and this is one of the bills it wanted to pass through. That just shows how disorganised after 9 years the Government is. 
This bill is vitally important for rural New Zealand which is often forgotten in this Parliament. It is important that I make a contribution as we come to the end of the 20-year sunset clause for this legislation which for those who are interested and who are still up listening—they may be having their cup of hot chocolate before they nod off to sleep—is the Electricity (Continuance of Supply) Amendment Bill. Section 62 of the Electricity Act will expire in 2013 which allows the lines companies to be able to review that section. 
One of the most important things for rural New Zealand—which is often forgotten in this House so I will make a contribution on it—is the continuation of electricity supply right through not only to the farm gate but to rural communities. When we think about all the isolated parts of rural New Zealand—it might be Mount Peel it might be an area over on the West Coast or it might be up and around the East Cape of the North Island or in the far north—we know that we have big tracts of rural New Zealand where electricity is supplied on power lines that might run down long kilometres of rural gully roads and it is important that lines companies do supply that electricity to those properties. For those properties electricity is actually their rural lifeblood is it not? We can think about how they are able to milk their cows shear their sheep or just keep their refrigeration going—their freezers in their own family homes. Electricity is vitally important. 
This legislation will mean that lines companies will still have to provide electricity but it might be in a different form from what is currently there. It might be more cost-effective for properties to think about an irrigation-supply generation dam option. Of course that will not happen under this present Government because it will need the reform of the Resource Management Act which is one of National’s key platforms going into the 2008 election. We are looking forward to getting into Government. That is one very important policy announcement for rural New Zealand and there are several others. Of course rural New Zealand is waiting on our tax policy which will also be vitally important for it as well. 
I have touched on how lines companies will still have to supply electricity to these remote parts of rural New Zealand but it may not be just an irrigation-supply generation dam option. It might be something to do with solar power or a localised scheme to do with wind turbines. There are several options. But the fundamental thing with this legislation is that rural New Zealand should not be forgotten. 
The important contribution I want to make in the debate this evening is to say that not so long ago in my area of Horowhenua-Kapiti we had what I guess we could call a very localised mini-cyclone. It came through wiped out trees and knocked over power lines. On our particular property we did not have power for about 6 days. Of course it makes us realise how reliant we are on electricity in New Zealand. When we cannot flick the light switch on when our cows cannot be milked and when all of our frozen items in our freezers are starting to thaw out we pick up the phone and think “I will just get a generator from the local hire company down the road in our local town.” But if someone from the hire company says “Sorry we sold out 2 days ago.” we look through the  
Yellow Pages 
 because we cannot use the white pages on the Internet as we have no power and the battery has gone down on our laptop.  
So we look through the  
Yellow Pages 
 and start ringing around. Suddenly we find that there are no generators in Horowhenua-Kapiti. We ring Palmerston North because we think we might get a generator there but we find they have all been hired out. Then we think that we can get something from Wellington but we find that they have all been hired out. In the end I found a generator that came all the way down from New Plymouth.  
Jill Pettis 
: Do you remember the blackout in Auckland when the generator crashed—when National was in Government? 
NATHAN GUY 
: The generator came through that former member’s area of Whanganui. We are looking forward to hearing her contribution for the final time tomorrow. It just shows that she has had several years in Parliament and has not been able to sort out this issue for rural remote areas around Wanganui. Chester Borrows is doing a fantastic job there representing that township and that area of rural New Zealand. 
In summary I say that this debate shows just how important it is that we get the Electricity (Continuance of Supply) Amendment Bill right. This is a first reading. It will go off to the select committee. Rural New Zealand will be able to have its say. It seems in recent times that the Government has just put the bulldozer blade down in urgency and just rammed legislation through. It is important that people have the ability to have some dialogue with the Government even though we all know that the Government is in its dying days now. There are just a couple of days to go under this urgency motion before we say ta-la-la not only to Jill Pettis but to all the other members on the other side of the House. We are looking forward to reigniting rural New Zealand. [ 
Interruption 
]  
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: Order! 
NATHAN GUY 
: I am coming to a summary. I know those members do not like hearing the truth and I know it hurts them. 
We need to acknowledge rural New Zealand. We need to acknowledge the powerhouse of this country. Of course we remember the contribution former Prime Minister David Lange made when he said that rural New Zealand the primary sector was going to be the sunset industry. How wrong that has proved the Labour Government! This bill is important for rural New Zealand. It is very important for the continued supply of electricity through to those areas. This will enable the line companies to investigate a whole lot of options. The most important thing I say to rural New Zealand is that electricity will continue to be supplied under this legislation but of course there will be some costs associated with it.