Reserve powers retained in bill

By RICHARD BRADDELL utilities writer

The Government will push through changes to electricity industry reform legislation that will leave intact features labelled draconian by opposition MPs in select committee hearings.

Under amendments introduced this week, the Electricity Industry Bill will resemble the form agreed by Government MPs during lengthy select committee hearings that ended in May.

But there will be no changes to provisions that give the Government strong reserve powers to intervene if the industry fails to manage itself properly.

At the select committee, Government and Green MPs accepted Electricity Governance Establishment Committee chairman David Caygill's view that a second layer of legislative and regulatory oversight to the reserve powers vested in the Minister of Energy would defeat the bill's self-regulation objectives.

But under parliamentary rules, the bill as amended by the select committee was "discharged" on May 28 when opposition MPs denied the Government a majority and refused to vote in favour of its report back to Parliament.

So the Government took the option of returning the original bill to the House for a second reading, which passed 66 to 52.

Energy Minister Pete Hodgson said the amendments introduced this week were the same in substance as those recommended at the select committee.

They include:

* Provisions to establish the Crown entity electricity governance board that will take over the functions of the industry governance board should it be required.

* Clarification of provisions for land access by lines companies that in their original form were strongly objected to by farmers.

* Provisions relating to energy trusts.

But while the amendments narrow the scope of regulation-making powers, they fall short of dealing with the substantive concerns raised by the opposition that the powers to intervene bypass Parliament's regulatory review.