Sowry Roger: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
Sowry Roger: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15845] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 I want to thank members for coming to the Committee because this is a very important bill. Part 3 is where the Minister can direct the Energy Commission. For the benefit of people who are listening to this debate I will explain that we have a bill here that sets up a large bureaucracy—in fact it is growing by the week. Most weeks there are advertisements for staff for this bureaucracy in the  
Dominion Post 
. The commission is charged with the job of acting in the interests of a range of people—both generators and consumers. Where those interests collide then the Electricity Commission has to have the Wisdom of Solomon and make decisions and recommendations to a Minister about the energy market. 
Unfortunately before this bill has been passed the commission has not only been established by the Government but in a sweep of the arrogance that we have come to know this Government for has in fact been ignored by the Government. What the Government first did with regard to the commission was to decide that one of the Government’s own entities Genesis Energy—to which the Government has appointed the president of the Labour Party Mr Mike Williams to sit on the board—should have a special deal with the Crown to underwrite a facility that it is building namely a gas-fired electricity plant. Although the commission is not even established and up and running the Government’s first major action in terms of its energy policy was to decide to ignore the commission and to do a cosy deal with the president of the Labour Party and Genesis Energy because he is on its board to allow Genesis Energy to be underwritten as it goes and builds a new gas-fired power plant. The independence of the commission then comes into question. When we look at Part 3 we can see that the independence of the commission is brought into question because the Minister can direct the Energy Commission as to what it does. So we have a body that is established to give frank and fearless advice but the Minister can direct it. Although we have a commission that has been established to give free and frank advice the first thing the Government does is to go round to the back of the bike shed and ignore it and the next thing is that it is passing a bill in the House whereby the Minister can direct the commission as to what to do. 
If that is not enough the Government which is really all-controlling in its arrogance has decided in this part to cross-credit appointments to the Energy Commission with those to the Commerce Commission. In this nation we have had a proud history of having an independent Commerce Commission—the people who looked at the Qantas – Air New Zealand merger and fearlessly recommended that it not go ahead. Even though the Government was desperate for it to happen the Commerce Commission stood independent of the Government. Through this legislation the Government is deciding that it can appoint someone to the Commerce Commission and the Energy Commission who is the very same person. We will have a person who on one day takes an instruction from the Minister on matters of energy and then on the next day sits on the Commerce Commission and has to act independently. I do not agree with New Zealand First on the campaign it is running against Powerco but I say to the New Zealand First members that if the Commerce Commission were to look at the Powerco sale or at any takeover or merger of any energy company it would have the same person looking at it who took the instruction as an energy commissioner on how to act. What sort of system is that? In some countries people would call that almost corrupt. It is certainly not free and frank or fearless advice. So it certainly fits with the Government’s modus operandi which is to have a Minister to control and dictate everything and where he cannot do that to ignore a commission. I think it is murky political unhealthy and wrong—it is plain wrong. 
I want to appeal to the Government because Governments come and go. I know the Minister in the chair does not know much about this bill but I say to her that long after she is gone the legacy— 
Phil Heatley 
: It won’t be long. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: It will not be long in her case. The Government will leave a Commerce Commission that is no longer made up of wholly independent people. Is that what she wants? Does the Minister have a view on that? Instead of reading papers that are totally unrelated to this matter I would really like the Minister to take advice from the officials behind her— 
Jill Pettis 
: Go to sleep! 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The senior whip for the Labour Party Jill Pettis does not care about this. New Zealanders have valued having an independent Commerce Commission. 
Jill Pettis 
: Give Max Bradford a phone call. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The member does not care about New Zealanders having an independent Commerce Commission. Business in New Zealand does care about that; it is about setting standards for business. All I want to say to the member for Wellington Central who is sitting in the chair is that she has some of the largest companies in New Zealand in her electorate. Does she believe in having an independent Commerce Commission? If she does how does she reconcile Part 3 of this bill with that? Will she take a call on that? Will she even engage in eye contact on it or will she continue to studiously look at the  
Woman’s Weekly 
 or whatever she is looking at? I think it is appalling that a Minister of the Crown will not engage in that sort of debate. It is something that worried the Commerce Committee across party grounds. I know that it worries New Zealand First. 
I will give the Minister the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she has not read all the Cabinet papers. Not all Ministers read all the papers; a few try to slide by. I say the Minister should at least take the advice of the officials.