Ward Mike: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — Third Reading 
Ward Mike: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:19275] 
MIKE WARD (Green) 
: 
 The Greens have to applaud any opportunity to put New Zealand on a more sustainable energy basis. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: A modest one. 
MIKE WARD 
: It is a modest one but the idea of “Absolutely Positively Windy Wellington” having trolleybuses and trains powered by wind has a certain panache so we approve of that. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee has made a number of important changes. It specifies renewable energy. I am sure that that is what the council had in mind anyway and of course Wellington has plenty of wind to produce that renewable energy. As my colleague Ken Shirley said it is part of the mix. It is probably a very small part of the mix. 
It is interesting to follow Ken Shirley because in an earlier life we worked for the same outfit—a catchment board in Nelson. So he knows about water catchments and what happens in those places. We never contemplated these issues in those days. 
Any plans to capitalise on this bill would have to be notified and the public given the right to be heard. Could such a notification lead to refusal? I suppose it could. But what is more likely to happen is that it will lead to conditions being put in place to make sure that historic ecological landscape and recreational values are preserved. Every level of Government has a responsibility to look after the environment and none more so than regional councils which often take on names like Environment Waikato. That is upfront. As a consequence they normally do not have commercial enterprises or not too many of them. They do not tend to be resource users; rather they are resource managers. That is a very good thing because it means that they are not seen to be both poacher and gamekeeper. But in this case it is probably part of the reasonable efforts of this regional council to care for the environment. 
It is to be hoped that the Wellington Regional Council will look to New Zealand’s own industry to build its turbines. Windflow Technology is developing New Zealand - made wind turbines to do the job. It would be nice to think that those turbines might be employed in the water catchments of Wellington to provide power and jobs for the people of New Zealand. The unpredictability of wind complements the hydro-energy system very very well. Hydro can be turned off and on. There is storage available so that when the wind is not blowing hydro storage can be drawn on. 
The argument that Governments should not be active in commercial enterprises does not hold much water when one thinks that the hydro-energy network in this country was built by Governments and built brilliantly by Governments. When one looks at the history of the electricity industry over the last few years one would say that it has not done particularly well under a deregulated regime. So perhaps this will be a move in the right direction. 
This bill is not a blank cheque for any activities. Proposed activities will have to go through the resource management process and the resource management process requires that there be good plans in place. It would be nice to think that the councils will make sure that their plans recognise those historic recreational ecological and landscape values. Because if they do not then it is not possible to take them into account when resource consents are issued. So it is really important that both the regional council and the Wellington City Council put protections in place in their district plans for those other values. 
The Green Party is supporting this bill. It is interesting legislation that opens up some interesting possibilities including the possibility to make a small contribution to a future of sustainable energy for New Zealand.