11. Question No. 11—Energy and ResourcesBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country) to the Minister of Energy and ResourcesQuestion No. 11—Energy and Resources11. BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country) to the Minister of Energy and Resources: Is it correct that she was first informed of a New Zealand - wide power emergency when One News called her just before 8.30 p.m. and when was her office first informed of Monday's power emergency?Hon DAVID PARKER (Attorney-General) on behalf of the Minister of Energy and Resources: Not quite. I was first advised of Monday's power emergency by a text message from my press secretary at 8.36 p.m. in response to the phone call she had received from One News. A member of my staff in my office was sent an email from Transpower at 7.51 p.m. on Monday which understandably the staff member had not picked up prior to the One News call. This morning I met with the chair and chief executive of Transpower and received an apology for the lack of earlier communication with my office. Transpower agreed that earlier and direct communication was needed and will occur in future. My priority now is to determine what caused the power outage and what must be done to avoid it happening again.Barbara Kuriger: Was the Minister advised by the office of the Minister for State Owned Enterprises about the grid emergency notice and if so is she aware of when he was advised?Hon DAVID PARKER: I don't believe so but I haven't asked for a specific—I didn't know to ask that particular question. I had a thorough briefing before I came but that issue wasn't raised with me.Barbara Kuriger: Can the Minister confirm that it takes Huntly between six and 10 hours to fire up an additional generator and can she also confirm that it takes her office more time to tell her about a power emergency occurring than it does for Huntly to fire up a generator?Hon DAVID PARKER: Well the member's arithmetic inadequacy is disclosed by that question which of course cannot be reconciled with the answer that I've just given her.Barbara Kuriger: Does the Minister—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order! At least two members there should be quiet if they'd like this member to continue with her questions.Barbara Kuriger: Does the Minister agree that there was both a failure of generation and a failure of communication by the Government on Monday of this week?Hon DAVID PARKER: No I don't agree with the generality of that proposition. There was generation capacity available to be fired up that day that was not fired up. The cause of that whether there was adequate information provided by the system operator Transpower or whether the responses of generators were correct or whether there was perfect information provided by the system operator to the distribution companies—all of those matters need to be checked. The first of those inquiries looking into that is required by a matter of contract between Transpower and the Electricity Authority within 48 hours of the event. [Interruption]Barbara Kuriger: Mr Speaker—[Interruption]SPEAKER: The member can keep going. I know that someone else might want to ask one but he has to stand up first.Barbara Kuriger: Is the Minister aware that at 1.02 p.m. Transpower issued a warning that there were insufficient generation offers for the evening peak?Hon DAVID PARKER: Yes but the first I became aware of that was following the text message that I received from my press secretary which led to my more detailed understanding.