Brown Peter: Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13985] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I thought the previous speaker made his point pretty well. I have to say he read that speech pretty darn well. Perhaps someone should advise him that from time to time when there is a little dot at the end of a sentence one pauses; one does not carry on reading—that is the idea.  
Chris Auchinvole 
: Thank you Mr Brown. 
PETER BROWN 
: No problem! I would love to give National Party members advice and I know that that member will take my advice willingly. Let me get back to a few basics. I hope the National Party appreciates this because my colleagues here are going to give me a little bit of borax.  
Hon Members 
: Oh here we go! 
PETER BROWN 
: No no. They will give me a little bit of hell but never mind I can handle that. When Max Bradford brought in his reforms—[ 
Interruption 
] They are getting a little bit irate now. At the time he did that there was an abundance of electricity in this country. There was more than we needed. The theory was he would carve it up and there would be competing entities generating electricity and that would reduce the price for the consumer. That worked for a year or so but gradually the demand for electricity overtook the pace with which generation was being brought on stream. This bill is essential. This gives the lines companies more freedom to produce electricity. That is it in a nutshell; that is all it is about. Believe it or not the first party to say that we should be doing that in— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Was it ACT? 
PETER BROWN 
: No it was not actually. It was New Zealand First and Phil Heatley the member for Whangarei—and I have just checked this—followed us around on the campaign in 2005 and thought that that was a good idea and that National would follow that. That is how National became involved.  
With due respect I cannot recall Labour wanting to give too much more freedom to lines companies; but they do now because firstly the country needs more electricity and these guys are prepared to get in and do it—or we hope they are. Currently they can produce electricity but there is no incentive for them to do it because they have to sell it all into the grid. This bill releases that obligation. But there is another incentive for them to do it because the Government is putting on a moratorium; Part 2 of the emissions trading legislation which the National Party voted for yesterday will put a moratorium on base electricity produced from coal or gas.  
I have real concerns about that and I have no problem saying that because I know that we have supported the bill and my colleague Doug Woolerton stood in this House yesterday and acknowledged me as at least one New Zealand First member who has concerns about Part 2 of the emissions trading bill that had its first reading yesterday. Let me make it quite clear: I agreed with my caucus colleagues to send the bill to the select committee but I do have real concerns about putting a moratorium on coal and gas.  
Let me tell the House why; I know I am deviating from this bill but it is all intertwined and it is important that people understand the full reason. If we put a moratorium on coal and gas it seems to be a little bit of a double standard because we are mining coal and we are selling it to the Indians the Chinese and the Japanese and two of those countries are not signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and they are burning coal— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: For steel. 
PETER BROWN 
: They are burning it probably to produce steel and we are also giving exploration licences to people down south to go and look for oil. If they find oil they will find gas first. We are saying that they are unlikely to be able to sell it into the New Zealand market so that will discourage— 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: You can’t get it here. 
PETER BROWN 
: The Green member says “Forget it.” 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: No I said: “You can’t get it here.” 
PETER BROWN 
: Well you do not know that with respect. You might think you know that but you do not. If they find gas they will have no market in this country to sell it and they will have to sell it overseas. So that will be a disincentive for exploration for oil and whatever in this country. I say that that is a bit of a double standard and that I have major concerns about supporting a moratorium on coal and gas or thermal energy as it says in the bill. I want to be straight up. I wonder whether the Minister the Hon Harry Duynhoven will share that view. I know that the Greens will criticise me for it. I know that the National Party will criticise me for it.  
But let me just draw the attention of the House to the fact that tonight we will finish in urgency tomorrow 120 MPs will go home and most of us—most of us—will get on a plane and fly to wherever. Then we will come back Tuesday morning on another plane and we will probably stay in a hotel overnight on Tuesday night and our carbon footprint will go up considerably. Yet we stand in this House—National Party members and Greens in particular—saying we are greater than the average member of the public and that we should be doing everything possible to reduce our carbon footprint. I will not blame the Greens for the delay in the House. This crowd over here—the 48 National Party members here—have done their very very best to delay this House over the last few days in urgency. They have been talking waffle garbage and God knows what to extend it out. They want to put 50 questions to members in the House. 
I have got quite a lot off my chest tonight actually. I have been dying to say much of this tonight. I am grateful that Arsenal won today and got into the UEFA Champions League play-offs and will be playing a European team. But more important back to this bill: this bill is a very simple straightforward bill and New Zealand First will be supporting it to the select committee.