Parker David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: General Debate[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9642. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour): I moveThat the House take note of miscellaneous business. I would like to have time to dwell on the broken promises of the Government: the promised 170000 new jobs—so far it has lost 30000 since it made that promise—the drop in exports especially outside of the primary sector; or the fact that despite its promises we have now clocked over 200000 people deserting New Zealand for finer pastures in Australia. I would like to be able to illuminate to the public as to why it is that 4 years into this Government we have got a terrible current account deficit. It is terrible. It is the worst in the developed world. But I do not have time for that because I want to tell the New Zealand public something positive rather than something negative and that is that under Labour if we are elected power prices will go down. They will go down by $230 to $330 a year for the average household and down by 5 to 7 percent for business. This is something that the Labour Party is proud of and we will make it happen.The National Government has made a fundamental mistake. It has said that you cannot trust Labour to deliver that. The public of New Zealand know that yes they can. They will trust us on that and they are going to vote for it. That is why National has been so vociferous and over the top with its hysterical reaction to what we announced. “Markets are good.” is shorthand for “Competitive markets are good.” It is not shorthand for “Uncompetitive markets are good.”There is a huge amount of evidence that the electricity market is uncompetitive whether it is the Wolak report of $4.3 billion of overcharging; whether it is the Auckland University study more recently of over $3 billion of overcharging; or whether it is these ever-increasing prices that have increased for 15 years at double the rate of inflation since the Bradford reforms—which Simon Bridges said need more time to bed in. We have given up on that ridiculous argument.The other problem is that under the current system over 50 percent of New Zealand’s power—close to 60 percent of it—comes from old hydro assets. They get jacked up in their values every year put into the power prices of New Zealanders every year more and more on the basis of a pricing model that is wrong. Free water is being capitalised by the Government into these balance sheets of the State-owned enterprises that are being sold. So we warned people. What did the Government say? That it is sabotage. What would people have said if we had not warned them? Those people would have been appropriately aggrieved that we did not warn them of what was coming.I want to reflect on what some of the commentary is saying. In theNew Zealand Herald Bernard Hickey said: “Power barons fail to fool the public this time around.” Around the same time Anthony Hubbard in theDominion Post said: “It’s enough to make you want to scream.” That was his description of the current situation in electricity. TheNew Zealand Herald in an opinion piece by Chris Barton said: “Power competition needs proper regulation.” He is not the only one saying that. We had Rob O’Neill the business editor of theSunday Star-Times saying around the same time that leaving the market as it stands is not good sense. He says there is a need to further regulate the market.The Labour Party is going to reduce power prices. This will have a benefit to the economy—this will have a benefit to the economy. Business and Economic Research Ltd suggests that the economic benefit is $450 million per annum in additional economic growth. In addition there will be 5000 to 10000 more jobs. On the other side of the House they look at the world through a merchant banking lens. On this side we look at it through a production and industrial jobs lens. That is the difference between us and that lot on the other side. It is not Stalinism or Albania or North Korea. It is because of a failed experiment by Max Bradford under National that power prices are remorselessly going up.