Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises — Genesis Power Ltd

Rest assured that I have no slogans that might earn your ire. I want to point out to the Committee that this is actually a sad evening for this company, Genesis Power. It is a company that has enjoyed an improvement in its turnover. It is a company that holds strategic holdings in gas. It is a company that has a vested interest in the transmission of that gas. I am disappointed to hear very little from it in public about the security of that transmission capacity, but that is another matter, because this company will soon disappear from New Zealand control and New Zealand’s strategic oversight.

It may not be known, but in the actual Tainui settlement the iwi of that area hold a concession over the Huntly power station in the sense that the owners are obliged, if they do decide to move on from that site, to offer it back to the iwi. But it will never come to that, because very few people in this Parliament will ever exercise a level of oversight and control, which is a key part of the sovereignty of our House, over such strategic assets.

But I want the Committee and the various members of the public listening to these presentations this evening to know that this side of the Chamber will never ever resile from making a step forward and intervening in markets where there is failure. Whether that market represents the social negative impacts of gambling or whether it represents the imperfect market that we call the wholesale electricity market, this side of the Chamber will not be cowed by threats from merchant bankers or future owners of this energy company, and it will ensure that this House and future Governments from this side are never hobbled in having the ability to use the democratic basis and tools of governance that we have by dint of being in a position of privilege called a position of a parliamentarian. We will never ever tolerate a small, narrow group of Genesis owners in the future seeking to prevent this side of the Chamber passing regulation and fashioning rules and laws for public weal purposes. That is a broad principle that lies at the essence of our constitution.

Although Genesis Power may seem to be somewhat unrelated to these deep principles, it is a reflection of how seriously we treat the role and the oversight responsibilities. The oversight is going to be weakened in relation to Genesis Power, but I can tell you that it will be non-existent as a consequence of that foul deal entered into today that actually strips New Zealand parliamentarians of their right, as a consequence of the Prime Minister entering into that deal, but that is another matter. Let me come back to Genesis Power.

Customer-oriented technology is something that is boasted about by Genesis Power. There will be no customers. There will be only commercially enslaved, marginalised users of this essential service called energy, because in the future, although we are keen to effect an operational separation, we know that a consequence of selling off this valuable asset will be to surrender a large degree of the control and power that it is the inherent right of us as parliamentarians to exercise.

Without a doubt, once this company is dismembered, once it joins others on the chopping block—we will continue to fight against that, but it will represent a very bleak day in our role in relation to parliamentary oversight.

This company ended up with some assets in the South Island. It was a kind of a deckchair rearrangement, believing that it would lead to more competitive prices. The only thing that is going to lead to more competitive prices in the context of Genesis Power and its soon to be Australianised sibling companies—whether it is Mighty River Power or whether it is Meridian Energy—will be the unstinting focus from this side of the Chamber to ensure that with a clever regulatory intervention, gouging and other sort of profit-orientated—

Report noted.

Mighty River Power Ltd