Sowry Roger: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
Sowry Roger: Electricity and Gas Industries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15994] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 It is indeed ironic that we are debating clauses 1 and 2 with the current Minister the Hon Harry Duynhoven in the chair because Clauses 1 and 2 are the retrospective clauses and of course the Minister in the chair Mr Duynhoven is the retrospective Minister in that he is in this Parliament by courtesy of this Government passing retrospective legislation so that it could keep him here and avoid going to the people as was the right thing to do within the law at the time. Now a change in the law is being sought retrospectively and that is being chaired through the Committee by the retrospective Minister. What an ironic situation we find ourselves in! The man who should have gone to the people who got the Parliament to change the law so that he could stay here sits in the chair tonight passing laws and will backdate them not just a few days not even just a few weeks but an extraordinary amount of time so that Part 2 will be deemed by the retrospective Minister to have come into force on 20 May 2003. That was 18 months ago. The Minister who should have gone to the people but got Parliament to change the law so that he could stay here retrospectively now wants the Parliament to pass a law that goes back to the middle of last year which is about the same time as he should have been on his hide around New Plymouth telling voters that he messed up and to have an election to see whether they still wanted him. 
The Minister finds himself in a very messy situation. We have proposed some amendments to the bill because we do not think this is good Government. We do not think it is good to pass legislation that has a clause that will deem Part 2 to have come into force on 20 May 2003 and includes the establishment of the Electricity Commission which is out there now. The commission is hiring people paying people all its rules are in place and it is doing its job and now a law is being passed to the effect that a whole lot of things governing it are deemed to have come into force in the middle of last year. 
But worse than that is that the retrospective Minister wants to pass a law under clause 2(1) to the effect that Transpower’s pricing arrangement all of its charging is deemed to have come into force on 26 January this year. If Transpower has charged wrong prices or has been out of time and there have been disputes—well to heck with any of that! A law is being passed on 7 October 2004 that Mr Duynhoven whose hide is in this House because of retrospective law is deeming to have come into force on 26 January this year. That is outrageous and National will move amendments to get rid of that retrospectivity. 
 I just want to make a comment on the Government’s handling of this bill because it has been an absolute shambles with the assistance of United Future all the way through. This bill was introduced into the House with a great flurry on 6 November last year—11 months ago. It was referred to the Commerce Committee. Companies were told to hurry up and make their submissions because the matter was really urgent and they had until 30 January. So the energy sector worked over the Christmas period through November December and January preparing technical submissions. The sector hired groups such as the Law and Economics Consulting Group to do a huge amount of work for it. The State-owned enterprises as one opposed the bill. The time for submissions closed on 30 January because we were told the bill was so urgent and we were required to get on to it straight away. Well we did. We met the deadlines that the House set yet the bill has sat here for months. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I call Brian Connell.