Katene Rahui: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Katene Rahui: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:904] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Last week Wellington hosted a prestigious event packed full of academic excellence ground-breaking research and creative expertise. I am not talking about the maiden speeches—as outstanding as they all have been—I am thinking of the Realise the Dream event which celebrates our extraordinary young secondary students who are pushing boundaries and taking on the world of science research and technology. The event hosted by Genesis Energy included a project from Jake Martin of Cambridge High School. He explored the possibility of turning biomass energy and waste streams into a usable energy source for transport by experimenting with an engine that runs on wood. His model a gasifier demonstrated not only that the charcoal waste product of his engine was useful for growing plants but that the biochar produced was also magnetic. 
Is it not time for Aotearoa to realise the dream? The question is of course what the nature of that dream is. In the Maori Party our dreams include keeping our natural resources and environment healthy safe and intact for future generations. To do this we know will require this House to exercise as much rigour and expertise in creating innovation and energy efficiency as those students attending Realise the Dream did. For the great challenge facing us all is that while on one hand Genesis Energy was sponsoring an amazing event that was all about inspiring our young people to achieve on the other it was announcing plans for price hikes of up to 9 percent in parts of Auckland. This is our challenge: to meet the growing demand for electricity while at the same time seeking to reduce demand by the energy efficiency strategies we invent. If a group of secondary school students can construct a steam engine that produces electricity surely the members of this House can come up with a good idea or two about renewable energy sources including geothermal hydroelectricity wave wind photovoltaic and solar. Merely continuing to use coal oil and gas to generate electricity is hardly stretching beyond the frontiers of what we know already which is that coal is the fossil fuel that generates the most carbon dioxide per unit of energy generated. 
The coal-fired power station at Huntly—technically known as a baseload fossil-fuelled thermal electricity generation plant—has a direct and immediate impact on climate change yet in this bill we are disregarding our best knowledge and throwing caution to the wind. Is caution or is commercial pressure paramount? The question that must test all of our minds is whether we actually know what problem this bill seeks to address. Is the real issue that we all need to show much greater interest in creating effective energy conservation and efficiency strategies? Is the real issue that our transmission infrastructure is in such a poor state that the surplus capacity in Te Wai Pounamu cannot be carried across to Te Ika-a-Maui because the Cook Strait cable needs urgent repair or replacement? Is the real issue the bizarre fact that in our southern hydro lakes Waitaki and Manapouri the transmission infrastructure is so weak that water is currently being spilled? Or is the real issue the structure of the electricity industry itself? 
I was interested to read the recent statement from Bryan Leyland of the Climate Science Coalition. He suggested that the way the market is structured now rewards generators for keeping us on the edge of a shortage. It is all a matter of perspective. Rushing under urgency to try to meet the growing demand for electricity by increasing thermal generation is at best short-sighted and at worst it simply heaps coals on an ever-burning fire. Repealing the ban on thermal energy generation will have other effects that the Maori Party is concerned about. Maori organisations involved in sustainable energy developments such as geothermal power have spoken to us about their concerns that fossil fuel plants as a result of this bill will be at an unfair advantage that is not conducive to fair competition with renewable energy developments. That is because there is no current economic instrument through which these fossil fuel plants will have to face their carbon costs. 
It is time to be brave to realise the dream and to explore other alternatives. Alternatives such as geothermal energy deserve the support of this House. Geothermal energy is a sustainable energy source. There are no pollutants attached so it is safe for the environment. There is also a significant amount of energy to be harnessed with geothermal power. It is a source that is available 24 hours a day and for which very little land is required. It is a concept the Maori Party is very interested in. We know that Maori organisations have been heavily involved in geothermal energy developments. In fact one of those energy developments Tuaropaki Trust—an amalgamation of landowners from the seven Mokai hapu who affiliate to both Tuwharetoa and Ngati Raukawa—topped the Maori and iwi sector in the  
National Business Review 
’s monthly exciting company series with a rating of 93.1 which is the highest ever recorded. 
The Tuaropaki Trust was described by trust chairman Tumanako Wereta as giving his people a beacon of hope and prosperity. That hope and prosperity has emerged from annual revenues that have almost doubled to around $50 million in the past 4 years. The trust combines farming and horticulture business with geothermal power generation and satellite communications. It has come a long way since 2000 when the trust commissioned its first generator Mokai I powered from geothermal steam under the land. A second plant has since opened up and now a total of 110 megawatts of electricity is being produced. Tuaropaki Trust is not just about providing a beacon of hope and prosperity to the descendants of seven hapu of Mokai; it provides Aotearoa with inspiration about a bright future—a future when renewable energy allows us to be sustainable while at the same time protecting and preserving the limited resources of oil gas and coal. 
We are so fortunate in Aotearoa that we have so many renewable options. We must place faith and trust in those organisations that can produce renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions as a result. We need to find new post-carbon ways of living to contribute to solutions that address the global issues of peak oil and to find sustainable energy alternatives without indulging in further finite and exploitative gas and oil exploration. The security and demand of supply the infrastructural problems the price hikes and the structure of the electricity industry are all challenges that face us. But they are not insurmountable. Windflow Technology in Christchurch has become a world leader in the design of smaller but highly efficient wind turbines. We can accelerate the development of new technology by making a commitment to using renewable energy. That commitment creates a market for electricity from renewable energy and supports private investment which in turn brings down the relative cost of renewable electricity. We need a forward-looking policy to kick-start a new industry and to create a competitive market in which new players can compete with established operators. 
With the Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill we have a solution that misses the mark in terms of addressing the wider scope of these problems. Furthermore it is of course of note when one of our country’s biggest energy companies Contact Energy said last night that it had no plans to build fossil fuel power stations despite this bill being on the books today—a view that is apparently shared by Genesis Energy as well. The Maori Party policy is to support the development of renewable energy as a key response to both climate change and peak oil. We cannot support this bill. Thank you.