Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill

This clause addresses the issue of governance regulations, where retailers are looking at a customer who cannot pay the bills. It looks at billing options or payment options over time—spreading the load through the year, rather than having big winter electricity charges and low summer electricity charges—and what happens when a retailer goes through the process of a disconnect because someone is not paying the bill. That is what this is all about.

The deal is quite simply this. What is happening in a typical New Zealand household? The first thing that is happening is that taxes are going up. Personal taxes are going up, petrol taxes are going up, accident compensation levies are going up—if one is out there working—

💬 Chris Tremain: Working to clear the mortgage!

Well, I am going to get on to interest rates, but I will just talk about taxes. The Government is introducing health taxes, and it nearly introduced the “fart tax”—so one told one’s wife to stop buying onions. All those taxes are going up. That is one side of the balance sheet—expenses are going up and taxes are going up.

Interest rates are also going up; they have been going up every year for the last 10 years—about half a percent each year—so they have risen from about 5.5 percent to about 10.5 percent. So taxes are going up and interest rates are going up. We jump into the car in the morning because the bike has a flat tyre, and we discover that petrol prices have gone up yet again. They have gone up every month for the last year or two. We are dealing with petrol prices, interest rates, and taxes. We are upset so we think about going home for lunch, because we cannot afford to go down to the local cafe. We pop into the local supermarket to buy some cheese, milk, eggs, and bread, and what do we find? A 25 percent increase. Cheese is 17 bucks a kilo, and we are paying $3 for 2 litres of milk.

Everything is going up. Food is going up, petrol is going up, interest rates are going up, taxes are going up, and what does one do? A father walks into the house and the family says: “Dad, you’ve got some mail.” He thinks: “Thank God, someone loves me.” What is it? It is an electricity bill. They say: “Dad, you’ve got some mail.” He thinks: “Somebody loves me.” The petrol station does not, the supermarket does not, the bank with its interest rates does not, and the Inland Revenue Department certainly does not, but someone loves him. The family hands over the mail, and it is the electricity bill. An average New Zealander—an average Kiwi—cannot afford to pay it.

What the Minister of Energy, David Parker, has done for people under this sort of pressure is pass regulations that will not help them with their interest rates, will not help them with their tax bills, and will not help them with their block of cheese or tank of gas. What they will help them do is pay their electricity bill over 12 months instead of having to pay it outright. The Minister is dead right that it does not help very much. He is right that it helps a little bit, but it does not actually help where it really matters, and that is what I say to the Minister tonight. On behalf of New Zealanders I say “Thanks for your help.” It is not much. It is not really what they need. They want the increases in interest rates, groceries, petrol, and taxes to be addressed. But they thank him for giving them the opportunity to pay their electricity bill over 12 months instead of paying it this month. They appreciate the small help that he has offered.

Perhaps if everybody in the Labour Party team contributed and did something little like this measure it might add up to something. That is what clause 5 is all about. It is all about being able to pay one’s big electricity bill over the course of the year. It has one extra bonus. The electricity companies say that if people cannot pay they will cut them off, but they are going to give them a few extra weeks’ notice before they do.

💬 Bob Clarkson: Winston Peters’ card gives you 10 percent on your funeral.

Oh, there we go. Winston Peters’ card gives 10 percent off the cost of a funeral.

So that is what clause 5 is about. The electricity companies are still going to bill people, but they will let them pay it over a period of a year, not a month. They are going to cut them off, but they will give 2 extra weeks’ notice. Thanks very much to Labour. We wish it could look after interest rates, petrol prices, grocery prices, and our tax bill, but thanks for not cutting off our electricity for an extra 2 weeks. That is what this clause is all about, and National will be supporting it because at least it is something.

I suppose that there is one answer to a lot of the irrelevant statements made in the previous speech. It is, of course, that real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—have increased very substantially under this Government. In addition, there has been substantial tax relief for families with children—

💬 Bob Clarkson: What about my tradesmen?

That member’s tradesmen have actually been doing very well over the last few years during the building boom. The ability of people to pay their bills has been enhanced under this Government.

Clause 5, which is in debate at the moment, does not say anything about giving people 6 months to pay their electricity bill. It is a response to the tragic circumstances last year when a lady’s electricity was cut off, despite the fact that she needed it for running the electrical equipment that her life depended upon. It was cut off by the electricity company’s contractor. I am sure the company deeply regrets that action, but the mistake happened, and it had tragic consequences.

When the Government looked at what its response was—because Governments have a responsibility to pass regulations to protect the public when that is appropriate; National members might scoff at all regulation, but some regulation is necessary—it found that the Electricity Act was deficient and that, notwithstanding that it was a terrible thing that should never have happened, we did not have the right to stop it happening again. In the meantime, we have developed voluntary guidelines, and it looks like those voluntary guidelines are being adhered to by the electricity companies. But, if that were not the case, then it is proper that the Government should have the means to protect consumers from this sort of thing happening again.

This bill creates a regulation-making power. It does not create regulations; it creates a regulation-making power. In the event of something like this happening again, the Government, in its role of protecting people from adverse consequences, has the ability to regulate and to make sure that electricity companies have to do by law what they should really be doing anyway.

I stand in support of the bill, and thank the Minister for that clarification, because as we heard from the Opposition speaker previously, I did think that National was losing the plot on the intention of this bill. But clause 5, “Electricity governance regulations”, inserts section 172D(1)(22A), which states: “providing for the terms and conditions on which electricity retailers must provide domestic consumers with billing and payment options …”. Now I think that drives at the very heart—the very essence—of the intention of this bill. Because we have heard of what obviously very tragically happened with the Muliaga family, but I recently fielded a call from a constituent, a solo mother with three children, at 5 o’clock in the evening, who had her power cut off. Obviously during that time of the day when one has children, one has to cook, and the children have to be cleaned. There was no way she had the opportunity to continue with those services, because her power was cut off. What does one do? At the end of the day, one can imagine how that solo mother felt. She was literally left in the dark. That can be isolating.

The question I pose to the Opposition is who has that social responsibility to ensure that people are looked after. I believe that clause 5 represents the very essence of this bill. It also acknowledges the moral issues surrounding the reason why we are regulating in this case. I thought I would contribute that, and I thank the Minister for his clarification.

Clause 5 agreed to.

Bill to be reported without amendment presently.