Energy Safety Review Bill

I remind the Committee that the purpose of the Energy Safety Review Bill is to assure the public that electrical workers are competent to undertake work and that electricity and gas supply systems do not put the public at significant risk. The legislation seeks to improve procedures for addressing complaints against workers and it enhances enforcement provisions. It broadens obligations to notify authorities of accidents caused by or involving electricity, electricity generation, electricity conversion, electricity transformation, or electricity conveyance. So everyone is affected. It relates to safety issues around electricity generators, electricity transmission, and, of course, the end-user. The legislation provides an obligation for electricity system owners to implement a safety management system—they must have one.

The legislation restricts people from doing, or assisting with, what we call prescribed electrical work, unless that person is licensed, but provides for exemptions from this. Members will recall that National argued strongly that registration would stay. Yes, the Minister axed it at the beginning when the legislation was first put into the House, but we argued that registration would remain. Maryan Street is quite right, registration remains because the select committee recommended that, and, of course, licensing is there as well to keep account of ongoing professional development and maintaining professional standards.

The legislation allows for different classes of licences and associated licensing standards. Originally in the bill the licences would last for up to 2 years but, of course, that provision has now been extended to 5 years, because it was madness to go through the licensing process every couple of years. The cost involved and the time involved would have been pretty tough for tradespeople, who are in short supply and who, on the whole, are doing a very, very good job, so we extended that to 5 years. It provides for licensing of employers for up to 5 years to ensure that their employees are licensed and supervised, and it establishes a register of electrical workers that is publicly available and allows for complaints made by any person.

When the gasfitters, plumbers, and drainlayers came to National members across the country and said: “Listen, we don’t want to be part of this bill.”, the National MPs came to Wellington, banged the tables, put the case, and ensured that drainlayers, gasfitters, and plumbers fronted the Commerce Committee and told it of their concerns. The legislation was then split in two so that we deal with drainlayers, gasfitters, and plumbers in one bill, and electrical workers and others in another bill, which, of course is the ultimate outcome because there are issues that are specific to both and unique to both. I thank the members of the select committee for seeing the sense in that, and my National Party colleagues for bringing those issues to Parliament.

National did oppose this bill at the first reading because of insufficient consultation with plumbers. We support the bill now because the Government has seen good sense. It knows good sense when it sees it. There is the issue of standard setting that we were concerned about; that has been addressed. The initial bill removed the registration of these groups, but of course the select committee process has seen that return in there. The Minister in the chair, Harry Duynhoven, is himself still a card-carrying tradesperson—that is what it is called in the Labour Party, is it not?

💬 Hon Harry Duynhoven: Tradesman or tradeswoman.

The term in Harry Duynhoven’s party is “tradesperson”. He can be recognised if he is licensed. Of course the Minister never said whether he would continue with licensing. He never said that. So we have the Minister with a registration certificate in one hand and a taxpayer-funded pledge card in the other, and he is all ready to do business, because no matter how the votes fall he will have a job.

National is pleased to support this bill in its entirety, and we commend it to the House for its third reading.

Clause 1 agreed to.

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 76 in the name of the Hon Harry Duynhoven to clause 2 be agreed to.

Amendments agreed to.

Clause 2 as amended agreed to.

The Committee divided the bill into the Electricity Amendment Bill, the Gas Amendment Bill, the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Bill, the Ministry of Energy (Abolition) Amendment Bill, and pursuant to Supplementary Order Paper 77.

Bill to be reported with amendment presently.