Gilmore Aaron: Electricity Industry Bill — In Committee 
Gilmore Aaron: Electricity Industry Bill — In Committee 
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AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I want to spend a little time talking about some of the interesting statements we have had across the Chamber. Mr Jones who did not sit on the select committee when the Electricity Industry Bill was being considered talked about the fear and loathing of this bill and the worries about it. I think Mr Jones is a very good member of the Parliamentary Rugby Team but that shows he knows nothing about electricity. Mr O’Connor whom we have just heard from was also not on the select committee and is also a wonderful member of the Parliamentary Rugby Team but also showed that he did not know much about this bill. We heard from Mr Hipkins who talked of worries about the environment concerns about the new part and issues of the authority not having a role to do with the environment. That shows that Mr Hipkins has not read the bill either and it is beholden upon me to correct a few people on some of the misapprehensions that exist. 
Clause 20 allows a power to come forward for the Minister to give requests to the authority to do anything that he or she may like which might be environmentally related or related to pricing or another review. Another key aspect is the change in the role of the authority. I have had the misfortune of working in the energy sector both as an adviser and as a supplier to the industry in terms of cables in particular. I worked for a major supplier to the energy industry that was one of the major players. One of the issues in the energy sector is the big confusion that we used to have with the commission. The commission grew from about 20 staff to huge numbers over a very short period of time and the budget grew to about $50 million as I understood it. There was $50 million for the bureaucracy. People were writing reports for the sake of writing reports to give to the person in the next department to justify quality or price. To me that was pretty much a waste of time and effort and we saw that. 
What we have now is a greater focus by an authority. We will have the Electricity Authority which will have some aspects of environmental oversight. Indeed there will also be more detail around the use of the Resource Management Act. But the promotion of energy the issue that members on the other side of the Chamber seem to be worried about—those energy ads that we see on TV and such things—lo and behold will now be done by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority because that is what it was set up to do. We have taken that away from the Electricity Authority and we have focused it more and given more control over what those roles will be. I think that is a better way to do things because we do not have the left hand and the right hand arguing with each other; we have an entity set up to focus on what makes sense. One focuses on energy efficiency and one focuses on the governance and administration of the industry. 
One of the factors that we are worried about and we have talked about some of the roles and aspects under Part 2 is the issue of security of supply and the fact that we have not had enough generation capacity built in the last few years. In the last 2 years there has been a bow wave of new generation build but for many years we had a focus on not having new generation build approved because it got stuck in those huge infrastructure bottlenecks commonly called the Resource Management Act and the Electricity Commission. What we have done is refocus the Electricity Authority to separate out what it is good at and what it is not good at. That will allow and help new generation plant to be built quickly. 
It will lead to a lower price rise path over the next few years as the issues around promotion are being separated off and instead of being one big massive amalgam of bureaucracy roles and tasks will be broken up into those entities that make sense. And that is an absolutely critical aspect. 
Under Labour prices went up by 72 percent. 
Hon Nathan Guy 
: How much? 
AARON GILMORE 
: By 72 percent in 9 years. Do members know what prices have done in the last 2 years? 
Hon Nathan Guy 
: What? 
AARON GILMORE 
: They have gone up by about 4 percent. That shows that some of the things we are doing are working. The intention is to sort out the bureaucracy and allow more building of generation plant in particular geothermal plant to put thermal generation back on the curve and put in place greater incentives and money. Today we announced the investment into new marine energy arrangements and that is a good thing. It is future technology as we bring on the new curve of technology for the energy sector. That is an important role for the Electricity Authority to take. 
All that members on the other side of Chamber tend to worry about is creating more bureaucracy. We have heard that a Supplementary Order Paper has been put forward by the Hon Nanaia Mahuta which will mean more bureaucracy and control on the Electricity Authority and that is the last thing we need. We know after 9 years of Labour that more bureaucracy did not work prices went up renewable energy went down and carbon emissions went up. It did not work. All we want to see is that this bill after a long review process is put forward. We want a very tightly focused Electricity Authority with a very tightly focused role that separates out those things. I think that is a good thing.