Scott Lynda: Third Readings 
Scott Lynda: Third Readings 
[Volume:620;Page:16129] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 Georgina Beyer’s short call was anything but electrifying. I think the fuse burnt out. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: No resistance! 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: There was no resistance in the system and it burnt out. 
Brian Connell 
: Lost in transmission? 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: No I think the speech before that was definitely lost in transmission. The Electricity and Gas Industries Bill has been broken up into the five different bills before us tonight. [ 
Interruption 
] I really am going to try to speak on the legislation. 
What do the consumers out there actually want? We are talking about all the details of this legislation but what do domestic consumers want? They want to pay a reasonable price for their electricity and they want security of supply. I think that every one of us can remember the number of times we ended up with power cuts at various times. I remember building a new house and putting in a fireplace that one could cook on because we knew— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Did you? 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: Yes I did because we used to keep having electricity blackouts. Blackouts and brownouts— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Was that during the war? 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: No that was a little before my time. It was not during the war; I am not that old. 
Brian Connell 
: Was the blackout Minister there? 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: “Blackout Pete” was very lucky a couple of years ago when we were heading for an extremely dry year everybody was getting desperate and no regulation was proposed at that time. What happened? It rained. He got off lightly that year because the situation had been looking very very serious. However it brought to everybody’s attention the lack of investment in developing security of supply in the electricity industry. 
As a constituency member of Parliament what did people come to me about? The spot market was one thing. They had gone on the spot market and ended getting price gouged. I had a friend who had a supermarket. His costs went up from $8000 to $20000 in 1 month. Someone else who owned a rest home faced cost increases from $10000 to $25000 in 1 month. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: They got burnt. 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: Those people had bought into those businesses and they got absolutely burnt by the system. Businesses want security of supply and to know what the price will be so that they can make some decisions. 
But the market has worked in various areas in New Zealand. When there is competition and people can make a choice then the price usually comes down and the delivery of service is improved. That is what National stands for. We oppose this legislation. But if there is competition then a marketplace is generally improved. The problem has been that in some of the smaller areas there has been a lack of choice so there is no competition. There has not been anybody come around to read our meter recently so when it is read we usually find that they have got the estimates incredibly wrong. People can end up with huge bills because their meters have not been read for a year. That has caused problems for elderly people in particular. Those are the sorts of problems about which people come to me as a constituency member of Parliament. 
The efficient reliable and secure supply of electricity is incredibly important when businesses are looking at whether they will invest in and come to New Zealand. If people are going to move to New Zealand they look at consumer protection. This Labour Government is about regulation. It has brought much legislation into this House that has seen a huge increase in regulation. Labour members will not leave the market alone. They said that they gave it 2 years. They are now in there boots and all regulating the market. 
A lot of submissioners to the Commerce Committee felt that the Electricity Commission should be independent and the Government should not be interfering in it. They did not accept that the Electricity Commission should be able to be directed by the Government. The Government is choosing to regulate a key sector of this economy. Most of the submissioners did not feel that that would bring down the cost or increase the security of supply. They felt that there could be conflicts of interest and they were not positive about that at all. Many of the submissions to the select committee were against the legislation that we are debating tonight. 
Part of the legislation is to do with lines companies. The ACT party talked about the fact that they were the Max Bradford reforms but the intention was always to increase competition and reduce costs to try to improve the system. The aims were honourable and they did work in some areas. They have not worked in other areas but increasing the ability of lines companies to generate from 25 megawatts to 50 megawatts is a token. It does not go far enough. I know that our Marlborough lines company would have liked to see a bigger increase which would allow local decision-making about increasing generation. One of the biggest problems of course is our lack of ability to have this increase in generation. 
In the Marlborough Kaikoura and North Canterbury areas but especially in the Marlborough area the problem has been that the Dobson dam was scuttled. I am actually quite a conservationist—I am very concerned about New Zealand and protecting our environment. But the Dobson area was an area of gorse and one has to look at the trade-offs. There were going to be some good trade-offs there to allow—[ 
Interruption 
] They were going to get more than they were giving and we would have increased hydro generation. For Nelson and Marlborough the Dobson dam should have gone ahead. 
Then there was Project Aqua. That has been scuttled as well. The problem is the Resource Management Act and this Government is not addressing it. That is the problem. Transpower has problems as well—its major problem is the Resource Management Act. It would be better if we were debating some substantial amendments to that Act tonight instead of legislation that National will not support. Members heard the Hon Roger Sowry talking about the fact that the Government was not going to move off the 25 megawatts of lines company generation ability until National came out and said that we believed we should go back to allowing lines companies to be able to be involved in generation. The Government then moved to 50 megawatts but that does not go far enough. Every energy company that submitted to the Commerce Committee opposed the legislation. Genesis Energy opposed it Orion opposed it and Transpower came and argued for changes. TrustPower said that the legislation will not solve the issues and opposed it. We have already discussed the lack of independence the Minister having to sign off the work plans the Minister appointing members on to the commission and then the fact that the Minister can completely ignore that if he chooses to. 
So one has to ask what the point of all of it is. We know that there needs to be much better investment. Tonight we debated all the various forms of electricity generation and I heard the Greens being very adamant against coal. I have visited China many times lately because my son was living in Shanghai. The pollution there is absolutely terrible. The kids grow up not seeing the sun; it is just an orange ball. But the pollution is quite substantial. We do not want to see that. But we do have huge levels of coal reserves and if it can be burnt to a level that is clean and with new technology that can be done then that is one of the options. 
This legislation is only a token in addressing the security of supply. Most of the people who came to the select committee and made submissions said that they did not think this bill would lead to new investment in the industry. That is one of the most important things. We do need overseas companies or New Zealand companies wanting to invest in the electricity and gas industries. The fact is that under the gas regulations that will come in through this legislation there will have to be a sharing of processing facilities. That also will lead to less investment.