English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:608;Page:5817] 
2.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she have confidence in the Minister of Energy; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes because he is a good hard-working and conscientious Minister. 
Hon Bill English 
: In the light of the Minister’s statement today why is the Prime Minister imposing a tax on users of electricity to pay for stand-by generation and is she aware that that tax will mean higher prices for electricity every year? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The Government’s announcements today are predicated on the assumption that the public would rather pay 80c extra a week to have secure power under Labour than have cold showers under National. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is early on in the week but I will not have people shouting out like that. I have been told constantly that it is not polite to do so and I agree. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is all very well for you to have a go at the Opposition about responding to the Prime Minister like that— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I never mentioned just the Opposition. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: No? That was clearly the inference that was taken. I have not yet heard you suggest that any Minister was being impolite when giving a response to the House. I suggest strongly that the Prime Minister was impolite—but of course that is her way. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is enough of that. I did actually look at one particular very senior member who interjected and the member was a member of the Government. 
David Benson-Pope 
: Can the Prime Minister please advise the House of the purpose of the announcements made by the Minister of Energy today? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Yes I can. The measures were announced to bring some control into the energy market and to see that in future New Zealand does not face electricity shortages whenever there is a particularly dry year. The market model we inherited has not achieved that. 
Peter Brown 
: Given that in the last 3 years the Government has had to plead with New Zealanders to save power; that the proposed industry governance board did not get any legs; that on occasion prices have gone through the roof; and that generally there has not been sufficient expansion of the generation capacity in this country what has the Minister has actually done that inspires the Prime Minister’s confidence—or is it simply a case of being the best of a bad bunch? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The litany the member has recited would of course point to why there needed to be changes to the model which the Minister has announced today. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Would not a conscientious and hard-working Prime Minister who told Kim Hill on  
Face to Face With Kim Hill 
: “I’m outraged it’s happening” and “I started pushing very hard for action on this in the second half of last year.” and “I put Dr Cullen on the case.” and “I am not satisfied at all that all of us have been put in this position.” have replaced the Minister of Energy? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No—no more so than she would have prayed for rain. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There are people who are seeking a very early exit. I have called only the Hon Bill English. 
Hon Bill English 
: Given that the Government has stood in the way of new generation over the last 4 years why does the Prime Minister believe that the imposition of a tax on all electricity users will make it more likely that we will get new generation in the next 4 years? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The first part of that question cannot be substantiated. It is a sweeping generalisation and it simply is not true. Secondly the Government has taken steps to ensure that a market model can work. The present one does not. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Accepting the Prime Minister’s assurances on television that she knew last year that the energy crisis was going to happen and that the Minister of Energy told us that his modelling—after it had it remodelled—showed it was not going to happen and that the Prime Minister now thinks it is absolutely infuriating that we are in this position I ask this question: why has she not replaced the Minister? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Nothing I have said today or before implies that I knew an energy crisis was about to happen. I knew no such thing. What I knew was that New Zealand was still at risk of dry years because the problems had not been sufficiently addressed in the model and the reason for bringing in a group of Ministers is that a number of minds is always better than one regardless of who the one is. 
Hon Bill English 
: If she is now so concerned about managing dry-year risk why did she not take action after the review of the 2001 electricity shortage when any number of reviews and reports were made to her about steps that needed to be taken to avoid a crisis again? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: As the Minister of Energy advised the House last week the thrust of officials’ advice was that the market would move to correct the situation. I did not accept that which is why we called for more advice.