Hague Kevin: General Debate 
Hague Kevin: General Debate 
[Volume:662;Page:10337] 
KEVIN HAGUE (Green) 
: 
 When I need to buy laundry powder I go to the supermarket. I go to the right aisle and I check out all of the products that are available. I look at the effectiveness the environmental and ethical dimensions and the price of each product and I choose the one that best meets my needs. How dumb would it be if all of the laundry powder manufacturers queued up to offer me their products one by one? If the first one came and I said yes then all of the others could go away; if I said no then the next one would come and I could continue that way until I bought something. It would not make sense for soap powder and it does not make sense for power generation schemes yet that is precisely the method that we use to determine power generation schemes. 
The problem in the soap powder example is that I would have no way of knowing which is the best of the products that are being offered to me and no way of knowing what the total range would be. That is precisely the problem for power generation. The only schemes that get to be considered are those that best meet the purpose of profit maximisation of the power companies not those that best meet the public good. Very often those two purposes will not be aligned. Furthermore it is currently forbidden rather than encouraged for the merits of for example two competing schemes to be compared. 
It is a ridiculous situation and it is currently well illustrated on the West Coast and northern Buller where a company called Hydro Developments Ltd has received resource consent for an ingenious power generation scheme that involves dropping water from the Stockton Plateau down to sea level and using the drop to generate electricity. The scheme that is proposed by Hydro Developments would have a net positive environmental impact. If that scheme goes ahead along with the Arnold Valley scheme which is already consented and the existing generation the West Coast would be self-sufficient in electricity. 
It is a worthy goal but the consents have been appealed most notably by two State-owned enterprises Meridian Energy and Solid Energy. In both cases the grounds of the appeals look spuriously weak. Understandably members of the public have come to the conclusion that both of the appeals may have more to do with rival schemes owned by those two State-owned enterprises. Solid Energy’s scheme is broadly similar to that of Hydro Developments and it is a matter of extreme regret that the State-owned enterprise has refused offers of mediation from the chief executive of the Buller District Council. I would like to hear from the Minister for State Owned Enterprises as to what mechanisms he has in place to rein in the apparently unethical behaviour of both of these State-owned enterprises. 
The shortcomings of our current decision-making framework are best illustrated by the Meridian Energy scheme. Its plan is to desecrate one of the most valuable and treasured places in the entire country the Mokihinui River. Meridian Energy intends to build an 85-metre-high dam and a 14-kilometre-long lake. It intends to inundate around 300 hectares of our most precious forest ecosystem in New Zealand. According to Meridian Energy’s own assessment the conservation values and recreation values are second to none in the New Zealand conservation estate and cannot be offset. The impact of this scheme can never be reversed. 
A rational decision-making framework would say that given that either of these schemes would make the West Coast self-sufficient we should be able to compare the one that has the net positive impact on the environment with the one that has a catastrophic irreversible impact. Kate Wilkinson has this matter in her hands. She has the chance to refuse the land swap that is proposed by Meridian Energy and that is recommended against by the local conservation board. I have heard her say that she loves the conservation estate of this country as much as anyone. This is one of the most important parts of that estate and I say to Kate that it is time for her to show the love.