Cunliffe David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: General Debate[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9654. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): Ko Tītīrangi te maunga ko te Whau te awa ko Ngāti Pākehā te iwi ko Parekura Horomia nā Īhowa.[The mountain is Tītīrangi the river is Whau the people are of European descent and Parekura Horomia belongs to the Lord.]This is the first opportunity to speak since Parekura Horomia’s passing and I would like to add my short words to those of other colleagues who have spoken for him and acknowledge you and other members of this House who have honoured our colleague and friend in his passing last week.I wish to address the claims the member opposite Todd McClay has made. This is not Soviet Union economics; this exists in the United States. This is not North Korean economics; the single-buyer electricity model is handled in South Korea currently one of the world’s most successful economies. It is not bizarre; it is common EU policy. It is followed in many of the world’s most successful developing tigers like Brazil—indeed countries like South Africa. It is widespread around the world. And why is that? Because we have a problem: the electricity market is not working. It has not worked for a number of years. Successive Governments have tried to fix it since Max Bradford wrecked it and it has not worked.It does not work because it is declining gas and coal resources that are setting the price for the whole market. It has not worked because residential tariffs have skyrocketed while commercial and industrial tariffs have not. That has widened the gap and meant that ordinary Kiwis are being ripped off. It has not worked because there are huge problems in the so-called free market. The spot market is so thin because the generators and the retailers co-own each other and trade only internally not on the spot market. So you have the bizarre thing where the marginal unit of coal sets the whole price for the whole country through a spot market that does not work and that is closer to Albania and North Korea than what Labour is proposing.The single-buyer model is one of three absolutely standard models around the world. The first one is a regulated market. Well that is what we have tried and it has not worked. The current Government does not have the foresight to see it. The second is a monopoly seller or a single seller that is controlled. We had that in ECNZ; the previous Government wrecked it. The regulated market cannot now work because the Government is privatising half of the Crown’s power companies meaning domestic price rises will be even more rampant in the future and New Zealanders will be exposed. Why does that matter? Well as our leader David Shearer has said it is the little people who get it in the neck. I remember doorknocking a senior citizens village in Glen Eden in my first campaign in winter and I remember seeing senior citizens with their eiderdowns pulled around their shoulders because they could not afford heating.Hon Gerry Brownlee: That’s the last time you visited them 12 years ago.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: They could not afford to turn on an electric blanket. That member may have his own insulation but many many Kiwis do not and they require decent power prices to stay warm in the winter.It is very interesting what this debate is telling New Zealanders about the choices they will have next year. As people can see they will have real choices: a choice between a bunch of cronies of the so-called free market who have spent the last years giving tax cuts to the wealthy and blessing the worst rorts we have seen for generations; and on this side of the House a team that is united behind the interests of ordinary New Zealanders—a team that is going to go forward win Government and deliver real change. This team is going to deliver lower prices higher employment greater social equity fairer chances for New Zealanders and prosperity for all for many years to come. Thank you.