Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill

Mr Chairman—[Interruption] I do not stand up and rush the Committee, and yell and carry on. I take a sensible call, and I take my time and explain to the Committee my position.

The commencement clause, which states: “This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.”, is something that we in the National Party do support. Members will recall that we had some reservations initially when the bill was brought to the House. But we were thoughtful, we had done our homework, and we were confident that the bill should go to the Commerce Committee and that we would make the improvements necessary to be able to support the bill at this stage—and, of course, we do. So we will be supporting the commencement date, which is “on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.” We originally had some—

💬 Peter Brown: Sure? Say it with some conviction.

The New Zealand First immigrant from, I think, Britain is chipping. He is the last guy off the boat. The last guy off the boat is chipping.

National members do support the commencement date. We did have some reservations when the bill was introduced, because members will recall that Mrs Muliaga went through that quite stressful time when she was disconnected, and that drove this whole legislation. Helen Clark said that the answer to the problem was to regulate. That is what the Labour Government does. Essentially, if there is a problem, it regulates, and if there is a bigger problem, it taxes. If there is an even bigger problem, it does a U-turn and changes its mind.

In this case the Government did not tax and it did not do a U-turn. It decided to regulate, and we had some reservations at that time. But we were happy to support the bill’s referral to the Commerce Committee, and I know that Labour members have been quietly thanking us in the corridors and lobbies for the changes we instigated at the select committee.

So National members are in a position where we will support this bill, and we will support the commencement date, which we are talking about now. We will round in beside the Minister of Energy, David Parker, because the Labour members are not. They are all quietly turning away, I guess, from supporting Mr Parker. But National members will support him.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: We’ll be there.

We will be there, and we will support the commencement date. I wanted to make sure that the Committee was aware of that.

Kia ora, talofa lava, and warm Pacific greetings. It is my pleasure to speak in support of the Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill.

The bill has two unrelated purposes. Clause 4 amends the definition of “low-use consumer” in the Electricity Act 1992, so that regulations can be made to enable an increased number of low-use electricity consumers to benefit from the low fixed-charge tariff option for domestic consumers. There is also the matter of the commencement date. So we are very, very thrilled with this issue.

I thank all my colleagues for doing the good work on this bill, and I especially thank the Minister of Energy, the Hon David Parker. I thank him for his vision and for bringing leadership on this bill to the House.

Clause 2 agreed to.

Clause 3 agreed to.

Clause 4 Low fixed charge tariff option for domestic consumers