Mackey Moana: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMackey Moana: General Debate[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11862. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOANA MACKEY (Labour):That was an intriguing speech from Judith Collins a woman who has a Twitter account that 99 percent of people assume is a parody because it is so bizarre and so random. I take offence at her lecturing Metiria Turei about the merits of women after she tweeted last week: “What a vile vulgar ugly speech Metiria Turei gave just like her jacket.”—just like her jacket. How is that being a role model for women in this House when apparently the jacket that a woman wears is more important than the substance of the speeches that she gives in this House?I want to inform the New Zealand public that that Twitter account is not a parody; it is real. That is how scary it is. She actually believes those things that she is saying onthat account. I think that Ms Collins is on wafer-thin ice when she lectures anyone on this side of the House on the merits of women and respecting the role of women in Parliament.It has been interesting to see the focus of the National Party. One of the issues we want to talk about on this side of the House is power prices. In 1 year disconnections have jumped by 10000. Mr Simon Bridges the Minister of Energy and Resources said: “There’s no problem. Nothing to see here. That’s OK.” Power prices have continued to increase at double the rate of inflation despite flattening demand despite the surplus of supply and despite a collapsed carbon price and Minister Bridges says: “That’s OK. It’s all fine. Nothing to see here.”It is unfortunate that it has been left to Simon Bridges to deal with this issue because he is the JustinBieber of the National Cabinet. He does not take these issues seriously. What he has been saying consistently is that power prices are not too high. We said to him: “Well then what would be too high?”. He replied: “Oh I don’t know—I don’t know.” That is not an appropriate answer from a Minister of Energy and Resources who is overseeing a jump in disconnections of 10000. People cannot have power connected over winter because they cannot afford to pay the power bills and the National Government has no plan to do anything about that.I suspect that Minister Bridges would think that power prices were too high if he could not afford to pay the power bill. I suspect that that is the real answer to that question. National members will think power prices are too high when the massive tax cut they gave themselves is no longer enough to pay the power bill. But the unfortunate reality out there for most punters is that as winter kicks in and as power bills are landing in letterboxes family budgets are being stressed and the National Party is saying: “There is no problem. There is nothing to see here. Please look the other way because that is certainly what we are doing.”One of the most extraordinary statements from Minister Bridges was: “Well we just haven’t given the Bradford reforms enough time to bed in.” Given that he was not even born when they first came in I do not know how long he needs to show that they have utterly and completely failed to deliver the competition and the price reductions that were promised at that time. They have failed. They have not worked. They do not need time to bed in. They need to be reformed. They need to be changed. Tinkering will not help. A Labour Government is the only Government that is going to be prepared to do that.Minister Bridges’ answer to this is always: “We have this fantastic What’s My Number campaign so the fact that people are able to switch power companies and go and find out all the different options proves that there’s competition.” Firstly if there is such great competition in the market why do we need to throw millions of dollars at a What’s My Number campaign in order to improve competition? But more important what does that programme do for the poorest families in this country?Hon Member: Nothing.MOANA MACKEY: Nothing. Do you know why? Because the families that I am dealing with every single day at home who cannot pay their power bills are lucky if they can find one power company to pick them up. The idea that they could have a choice of power company—[Interruption ] Anne Tolley who has moved from Gisborne toŌhope Beach and so is hardly ever in Gisborne now does not realise perhaps just how hard people are doing it in Gisborne. The local fire service tells me that it is seeing an increase in house fires because of people using little gas stoves to cook on and candles to light their homes. Maybe she needs to spend a little bit more time in Gisborne to get some idea of how hard people are doing it there.The reality is that most families in that position cannot find one power company to take them on. So when they hear the National Party and Anne Tolley lecturing them saying: “Well just change power companies. You have a choice.” they realise just how out of touch this National Government is. Those programmes do not help the poorest families. Simon Bridges the Minister does not care about those families—neither does this Government—and that is why the Labour-Greens NZ Power policy is the only policy that is going to deliver for the poorest families in New Zealand.