Ngobi TerisaTERISA NGOBI (Labour—Ōtaki): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I'm just trying to find my notes. There's some comedians in the House today. But can I say it's a privilege and honour to always take a call in the House and as a newbie like I said the other night get used to and learn when we get into the House what we're doing and how to speak. Really good to have members like Simon Bridges on the other side of the House to role model that to us and we can hopefully pick up those tips—Hon Simon Bridges: Hey I'm helping you get to 10 minutes.TERISA NGOBI: Kia ora. Oh thank you. Make sure you heckle heaps so I can make sure you get into my speech.Hon Simon Bridges: I can be 2½ minutes of this speech.TERISA NGOBI: Well that's fantastic. That's what we want and that's as much as I needed to filibuster so that's great Simon Bridges thank you. That's working together across parties—fantastic.So as I said it's a privilege and an honour to take a call on the Gas—Barbara Kuriger: Filibustering with hot gas!TERISA NGOBI: Well and you too Barbara Kuriger—another good mentor to be able to help me fill in my 10 minutes' time so kia ora for that.So yes a great privilege to take a call on the Gas (Information Disclosure and Penalties) Amendment Bill—jump in whenever you like Simon Bridges and Barbara Kuriger. First of all I just want to thank the Hon Megan Woods for championing this bill forward and of course the 52nd Parliament that we know Simon Bridges and Barbara Kuriger were part of but I wasn't obviously. So I wasn't part of the select committee either.Hon Member: They missed out.TERISA NGOBI: Yes the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and I'm still not part of that but absolutely support the work that they're doing—amazing mahi they're doing—so thank you for that. Also just to thank I think the 11 submitters that did submit on this bill. So while I wasn't on that select committee my understanding is that this bill looks to strengthen the regulation-making powers as has been said before in the Gas Act provide and enhance information disclosure requirements for the gas market and ensure that settings around enforcement and penalties are suitable and strong.I read about and was obviously affected by the outage in 2019 at Pohokura gasfield which I believe holds up to about 40 percent of our natural gas supply and they were prolonged and actually coincided with other gas outages and gasfields at that time. And also during that really dry time as well. We know that this led then to record natural gas spot market and wholesale prices which emphasises the need to regulate settings regarding disclosure of important information to the market. So—Barbara Kuriger: The member and her Government are making it go away and now they want to measure it.TERISA NGOBI: Oh OK. I don't know if I'll take that into consideration Barbara Kuriger but thank you for another couple of seconds. So we did hear from those 11 submitters and also acknowledge that there were some concerns by some of the industry and that was around they felt that the regulation-making powers went beyond what was required and were heavy-handed—I believe was the language used at that time. And while we hear those concerns we also believe that this legislative regime is set up appropriately to consider non-regulatory options before we impose any further regulatory options. And we again go back to the fact that we need to have the powers to make sure that we don't have another episode like 2019.Some of the other submitters though were for this bill; for example Mercury who were in strong support for this bill. They said In the absence of one or more significant upstream exploration discoveries natural gas in New Zealand will become increasingly scarce over the next decade. As identified by the Interim Climate Change Committee [at the time] these remaining gas reserves are critical if we are to become a low carbon economy as it is the most efficient bridging fuel available to support the electrification of transport and process heat."Barbara Kuriger: Now that's true.TERISA NGOBI: Oh good so that is correct! And that is from Mercury. And they also go on to say "Natural gas may be required further out than this in the absence of a alternative solution to New Zealand's electricity dry year risk". And again going back to the outage in 2019 that's what we are trying to avoid. So really good to be able to have Mercury support that also.We also just quickly had Transpower—and this isn't as long—that also agreed with the amendments to the regulation-making powers. They say that it was "necessary for gas governance on matters that may have a significant downstream impact on or may contribute to the risk of critical gas shortage." which we know that there is. And they supported the regulatory-making powers of disclosure for production and shortage outage proposed in clause 9(3) inserting new section 43F(2)(e) which is "providing in relation to wholesale or any other markets for gas for arrangements relating to outages and other security of supply risks including imposing requirements in connection with those matters on any industry participant or consumer (other than a domestic consumer." Then the market information proposed in new section 43F(2)(f): "providing for the provision and disclosure of data and information by any industry participant or consumer (other than domestic consumer)."So again that brings me back to why this bill is so important and also the amendments in that Gas Act which will ensure the regulatory requirements and ensure that transparency and that disclosure of information is strong and is right.Hon Member: Really important.TERISA NGOBI: Absolutely. And this bill also made some changes to the Gas Act's penalty charges. So it took it from my understanding from $20000 to $200000 and hopefully that will act as a real preventative. In that the penalty regime for the industry participants increasing the maximum civil pecuniary penalty able to be imposed by the Gas Rulings Panel for breaches of gas governance regulations—and again like I said it's from $20000 going to $200000.Barbara Kuriger: Why is the Government filibustering its own legislation?TERISA NGOBI: Oh look I'm not just filibustering because it's been good to be able to have your input as well Barbara Kuriger but it is important. We know that there's a limit—Barbara Kuriger: Is there not enough work?TERISA NGOBI: Well look I know a little bit about gas. This is what I do know. [Interruption] Well I've got children that's the first thing. But secondly—Simon Court: There's gas in Ōtaki.TERISA NGOBI: Well when I was in England actually Simon Court—when I was in England that was the first time I ever cooked with gas.Hon Members: Oh!TERISA NGOBI: Yes yes it was. I can't say that I was a fan straight away. It took me a little while to get used to it but I understand now the need for it.Hon Member: It's the best.TERISA NGOBI: Well yes but I also understand the limitations now that we have. We are not just going to be going—you know just—Simon Court: Simply the best—better than all the rest.TERISA NGOBI: I think—was it 2006 the last time that gas was discovered Simon Court? So you know we have to be I guess tapu or scarce with our use of gas and how we're using it. And it's also making sure that we regulate that market too to make sure that again when things like 2019 happened—that there are penalties around that and that they can't hold on to the gas that is so scarce already. So that's part of the purpose of this Simon Court.Barbara Kuriger: They're sharing it right now.TERISA NGOBI: Oh am I?Barbara Kuriger: To keep the lights on.TERISA NGOBI: That's right. It's about keeping the lights on I know. And we're going to—Barbara Kuriger: They're sharing it right now with this Government to keep the lights on.TERISA NGOBI: Well listen the Government's doing more than keeping the lights on for New Zealanders. It's making sure that New Zealanders are able to keep their lights on by increasing benefits so people have enough money to pay for the lights on and also this Government has also introduced winter energy payments so we're able to afford to run our gas heater if you're lucky enough to be able to afford one and you're also able to make sure that you can pay the power bill if you're able to if you are on the benefit now because of this Government with its winter energy payment. So yes Barbara Kuriger this Government is definitely helping New Zealanders to keep the lights on and it's also making sure that it's fair and that we don't have another episode like 2019 and we're making sure that we regulate the information that goes out and we make sure that we take care of the little gas that we've already got while we also take care of the rest of New Zealand. With that I commend this bill to the House."