Heatley Phil: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
Heatley Phil: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15726] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I would like to bring the Minister of Energy the Hon Pete Hodgson up to speed on what we have heard in the Committee this evening regarding the deal he made we understand with Gordon Copeland of United Future. United Future has apparently made a deal with the Labour Party in relation to lines companies having the ability to go into generation over and above the 50 megawatts as proposed in clause 22. 
We would like the Minister to comment and confirm that Gordon Copeland had assurances from him that if there were some discovery in terms of gas or some huge need or opportunity for lines companies to go into significant generation—by definition I suppose that means above 50 megawatts—the Minister together with United Future would put a bill through the House— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Rush it! 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: —and rush it through the House we presume under urgency to allow lines companies to go into generation well over and above the 50 megawatts as proposed in the bill which is the current restriction they have. So we would like to hear from the Minister whether that is in fact the case. Will lines companies sometime in the future be able to generate well over and above 50 megawatts? We would like to ask the Minister whether he gave assurances to United Future that legislation would be passed. Did he do that verbally or in writing and does he stand by it? I invite the Minister to take a call on that matter. 
In doing that I also invite the Minister to tell us why he thinks that in the future—whether in the near term medium term or distant future—there might be a sudden need for generation that is over and above the need that exists today. We already know that the No. 1 constraint in the electricity industry today is the availability of power. There is constraint through the lack of generation and through the fact that the Government in no way encourages generation in this country at this time and certainly has not for the past 5 years. The Government does not encourage coal generation with the Kyoto Protocol and through the Resource Management Act. It is starting to dismiss wind generation and we saw that by the cancellation this evening of a proposal for wind generation because of constraints under the Resource Management Act. We know that the Minister does not support geothermal generation because the constraints on that for sustainability go way past 100 years—which is unachievable. So why would this Minister suddenly decide that at the moment with the lack of generation in this country and with poor growth seen into the future there may be some need down the track? Can the Minister please take a call on that and tell us whether he has given some assurance that he will whip legislation through the House to allow lines companies to go into significant generation. 
We also ask the Minister: what is magical about 50 megawatts? Why has he chosen in clause 22(a) that lines companies are allowed to generate 50 megawatts of energy? We know that 25 megawatts was the magical answer before that and that is in the bill and before this legislation came to the House 5 megawatts was the magical number that lines companies were allowed to go into generation with. So why was it once 5 megawatts—why was that the magical figure? Why did it become 25 megawatts? How come through this legislation today lines companies are suddenly limited to a figure of 50 megawatts? In percentage terms it has gone from 5 percent to 10 percent and then to 20 percent.