Brown Peter: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
Brown Peter: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15724] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I want to follow on from where Richard Prebble left off although not perhaps in such a fierce mood. I say to Mr Copeland that he has let New Zealand down by taking pride in doubling the megawatts from 25 to 50 that lines companies are allowed to get involved in generating. He has let New Zealanders down. I wish New Zealand First had known that before today. We did not really know where that figure came from; nobody on the Commerce Committee could tell us that. Now we know there was some sort of little backroom— 
Gordon Copeland 
: I wrote to the select committee and told it about that. 
PETER BROWN 
: I say to him that if he had done nothing but put a representative on the select committee—and I cannot recall a United Future member turning up to the select committee at all if I am correct— 
Gordon Copeland 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I think that is a breach of Standing Orders. The United Future party does not have representation on that committee and for the member to announce to the people of the New Zealand that we are not on that committee is against the Standing Orders. That is not fair to— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: That is not a point of order. 
PETER BROWN 
: I have to go on along those lines because I say to Mr Copeland that frankly if United Future had even had someone sitting in the audience to listen to the submitters and especially to the lines companies he might have thought then as we thought that 50 megawatts was not enough. 
The debate tonight has certainly convinced me in my mind that there is a stronger case for National’s proposal to totally uncap the limitation on lines companies. The honourable member shakes his head but I can remember that separating lines businesses from generation was a result of the Bradford reforms. The argument was pretty sound. I thought Labour opposed it at the time; as I recall the situation it opposed it pretty strongly. But the point now which Roger Sowry made exceedingly well is that we now have lines companies investing in generation in Australia. I hope they are not investing in wine companies but they have to do something with their money. There is a strong case for considering allowing lines companies to get back into investing in generation in this country. 
New Zealand First debated that matter at length in our caucus. We were concerned that if we removed the cap totally one of them—or maybe two—would go out and buy Contact Energy and we would have not a kilowatt more of generation. But there would be some advantages in that because Contact Energy would be a totally New Zealand - owned company. We decided that the whole matter should really be subjected to a comprehensive review by professionals by people who know the industry inside out with a view to determining the best outcome for New Zealanders in terms of security of supply a reasonable price and the availability of electricity at the flick of a switch. 
But after hearing the debate tonight and after listening intently to Roger Sowry and then to Gordon Copeland New Zealand First has decided it will support the National Party’s amendment. We think there is a lot of merit in deleting clause 22(a) and allowing lines companies back into the scene so to speak. We know that they are now subjected to regulation that they are controlled by the consumer price index minus x formula and that they cannot cross-subsidise. Why we did not do that in 1998 I am at a loss to know. It seems to me that the National – New Zealand First coalition Government at that time made a mistake because it did not think through that change thoroughly enough in my view. I know that the Minister the Hon Pete Hodgson made very strong representations at the select committee—he was on that committee at the time—along the lines that we should not just split it all off totally. 
So New Zealand First is of the view that there could be some significant benefits to New Zealanders and to this country as a whole if we get new generation. It seems we can get that more readily by allowing the lines companies in and it seems that if we allow them in and allow them to build coal-powered generators with some degree of liberalisation for want of a better term we will all be better off.