9. Energy Market—Electricity PricingJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) to the Minister of Energy and ResourcesEnergy Market—Electricity Pricing9. JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) to the Minister of Energy and Resources: Does she stand by all her statements and actions?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House) on behalf of the Minister of Energy and Resources: Yes.Jonathan Young: Will the Labour-led Government commit to electricity prices being lower in the next three years than they have been in the last three years?SPEAKER: Order! Can I just have some authentication that that is a statement that has been made by the Minister—a statement or an action that's been made by the Minister? The supplementary must flow from something that the Minister has said or done.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think you'll find that when the inquiry report was released yesterday by Miriam Dean QC the corresponding Minister's comments about it spoke about reducing the cost of power to New Zealand households.SPEAKER: But that's not what the question was.Jonathan Young: I can restate it. I'll restate the question.SPEAKER: Yeah restate the question.Jonathan Young: As she said that New Zealanders deserve affordable electricity will the Labour-led Government commit to electricity price rises being lower in the next three years than they have been in the last three years?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: On behalf of the Minister I cannot guarantee how much it's going to rain or how much the wind is going to blow but the Government's expectation certainly is that for some consumers lower electricity prices may well be possible.Jonathan Young: Will the Labour-led Government commit to those electricity prices being lower in the next three years when under a National Government the cost of electricity for households decreased between March 2015 and March 2018?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think if the member looks back over the entire totality of the report he will see that electricity prices for domestic consumers increased by 79 percent since 1990 whilst commercial power price increases were a fraction of the increase. Max Bradford promised consumers lower power prices when he implemented his power reforms and power prices went up steeply after they were introduced. There is a reality here that the Government cannot control power prices and we don't intend to control power prices.Jonathan Young: Considering that under what's called the Brownlee reforms the rise in power prices significantly decreased from 2010 onwards why can't the Labour-led Government commit—well if they can't lower the prices at least keep them the same?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm not sure even Gerry Brownlee can claim credit for the global financial crisis and an excessive amount of rain.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. How on earth can the global financial crisis affect the price of electricity in New Zealand? It's not possible.SPEAKER: Well I mean if you're asking me the question: quite easily because it reduces demand.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Well Mr Speaker I'm sorry to engage you in the questioning because—SPEAKER: Well it did.Hon Gerry Brownlee: —what I did and it was—obviously you don't know enough to answer it because during the global financial crisis New Zealand did not suffer a retracting economy. It's one of the hallmarks of the Key-English regime. The question is—SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. I didn't spend quite as long as the member did as Minister of Energy but I did I think fulfil the role on three separate occasions as well as being the State-owned enterprises Minister and I certainly understand growth paths for electricity supply and demand and the effect that that has on price. We're not going to continue this debate now. If we want to continue with the question Jonathan Young will ask another supplementary.Jonathan Young: When she said yesterday that the Labour-led Government is committed to seeing households in energy hardship offered some relief does that mean more costs will be allocated to businesses?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think the member should read the report carefully. One of the things that the report found for example is that prompt payment discounts are a tax on the poor and that is something that I'm sure electricity generators and retailers will be looking very closely at.Todd Muller: Does the Minister agree with the power generators that prices will need to rise for them to invest in more generation to support New Zealand's climate change target?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No.