Sowry Roger: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — In Committee 
Sowry Roger: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18932] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 I was not going to speak on this part at all but the fact that the Minister refused to speak on the last part has persuaded me to speak on this part. In the debate on this bill people have raised legitimate questions and the Minister has stood up and said that she agrees with the concerns and will put her mind to how the problems could be fixed. When people then gave Marian Hobbs a whole lot of solutions and she chose basically to do nothing she invited members to seek calls in the debate on other parts of the bill to ask why the previous part has not been fixed and what can be done in the current part to make sure that we fix the problems. I would like to know from the Minister whether she would be prepared in this part to make it clear that for example gas conversion into electricity would be something that would be enabled to be done. It would not be allowed as of right because we want it to go through the long and tortuous process of the Resource Management Act but at least it should be allowed to be done under this part. 
The other issue that I wish to raise here is that this part states the Wellington Regional Council is allowed to construct operate and maintain electrical installation works for renewable energy on the land. That means the regional council can own the windmills on the land. I say to Marian Hobbs and to other members of the Committee that as a ratepayer of the regional council I do not want Parliament to give the council the power to build and operate wind turbines. There are enough people who are prepared to invest their money in that. There are private companies out there doing that right now. I believe they should have the responsibility of carrying the risk of that not people who are ratepayers. I ask Marian Hobbs whether she is happy that elderly people on the Kapiti coast—and indeed elderly people in Wellington—on fixed incomes will be faced with a rates increase in order to carry the risk of this wind generation. I ask Mrs Laban whether she is happy for the people in Porirua to pay more rates so that the council can enter into a new business venture that private enterprise would be quite happy to do. 
There are plenty of people who are willing to invest in wind farms. We know there are members of this Parliament who own shares in wind farms. Jeanette Fitzsimons is one of them. So we know— 
Rod Donald 
: The Green super fund. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The member rightly interjects. The Greens have put some of their superannuation fund into a wind farm. That is fine. I do not begrudge them doing that at all. The Greens have made a decision. I would suggest that the Greens would not want to put their super fund into a brewery but they have chosen to put it into wind farms. This is a serious point. The point I make to the Greens is that they have legitimately made a choice and I think that is fine. But why would they make ratepayers particularly those with a fixed income carry the risk of the council investing in something like a wind farm? I say to the Greens that the council does not have a flash record on investment in business ventures. Many of us remember the “sesqui” debacle; I think we are probably still paying for it in our rates. This is a council that is not flash with regard to investing public money.