Hipkins Chris: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13304. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): On behalf of my colleague Moana Mackey I now have the opportunity to speak for 5 minutes in reply to the other contributions that have been made in this debate on the Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill.What has become abundantly clear listening to the members opposite speaking on the debate is that none of them have actually read the bill. They have been clearly reliant on notes put together by someone in their research unit who also has not actually read the bill. As they talk about security of supply and particularly talk about the importance of having access to thermal generation in the case of a dry year when supply might be at risk they seem to have missed the fact that that is specifically allowed for in the bill. There is a provision in there that allows for non-renewable energy during a power crisis. So it is already covered. It allows for the running of plants that combine non-renewable and renewable sources. It allows for one thermal generating plant to replace another thermal generating plant where that is needed for upgrades and so on.There are plenty of provisions in this bill that allow for security of supply. What the bill seeks to achieve is to ensure that future demand is met through renewable electricity. There is no good reason in a country like New Zealand why we should not be doing something like that. When we already get such a high percentage of our electricity from renewable energy anyway we should be aspiring to do even better. We should be aspiring to have a fully renewable electricity sector over time. Of course no one is saying we are going to switch off the thermal generation plants which is what some of the members over there have suggested—clearly another example that they did not actually read the bill. There is no suggestion from anybody that that is what is going to happen. What we are saying is that as we try to meet future demand in the electricity system we should do that from renewable sources and that is something that I think is a perfectly legitimate thing to ask for.This is the second time that we have debated this bill in this House because the first time it was in my name and it was in the last term of Parliament. Gerry Brownlee came in and he spoke against it and he said “We don’t need this bill because although the Government does support the idea of meeting future demand through renewable electricity”—they do actually agree with that; you would not know that from listening to some of their speakers earlier tonight. But Gerry Brownlee a couple of years ago was saying that the Government did believe in meeting future demand through renewable electricity and he said that the way it was going to achieve that was by putting a price on carbon. Well how has that worked out? The price on carbon has collapsed. It is now providing no real incentive for renewable electricity.Actually now the Government has gone even further and said that it does not actually believe in renewable electricity at all. It is talking about how it supports this kind of 90 percent aspirational target but it is just not going to do anything to ensure that we get there. But actually we need to get there. As a country New Zealand should be leading by example when it comes to renewable electricity. We have no good reason not to and we know that in the long-term interests of New Zealand that is something that we should be doing. In the long term renewable electricity is actually going to be significantly cheaper. In fact much of our renewable electricity is already significantly cheaper than thermal generation and that is one of the reasons why we have this very distorted market which the Labour Party is committed to addressing through the NZ Power policy. At the moment New Zealanders are paying a higher price for their electricity than they need to because the current market is failing. Yet the Government over there once again is not willing to do anything about that.The Labour Party has made it very clear: we support renewable electricity. We are willing to do something about that. We support New Zealanders paying a fair price for their electricity. They are certainly paying well above a fair price at the moment and we are willing to do something about that. In the meantime the National Government’s response is “Just leave it to the market. The market will sort everything out.” So if future demand for electricity is met through further use of non-renewable resources which costs more money to consumers in the long term the National Government says that is perfectly OK. We on this side of the House say no that is not OK. We want renewable electricity. We want cheaper electricity. We want New Zealanders to be paying lower prices in their power bills each month. That is something that we are willing to do something about while the current Government sits on its hands and simply says “It’s OK the market will sort it all out.” The market is not sorting it all out. The market is failing in electricity and the Government needs to intervene to do something about that.The NZ Power policy will result in New Zealand consumers paying $200 to $300 per year less than what they are paying now. That is something we are very proud of. It alsohas the potential to create 5000 more jobs. That is not something you hear the National Government talking about much these days. It does not seem to believe in creating new jobs any more. John Key is probably the only person in world history who hosted a job summit that resulted in higher unemployment but that has certainly been the track record of this National Government.We on this side of the House say we should get active. We should ensure that New Zealand’s electricity future is a renewable electricity future. We should ensure that we bring down the price of power for New Zealand consumers. We on this side of the House are willing to do something about that.