Mentions of Contact Energy Limited in New Zealand Parliament debates
Contact Energy Limited has been mentioned in 109 parliamentary debates since November 2005.
General Debate 7 Sep 2011
LOUISE UPSTON ... because we know that that leads to jobs. With regard to energy, just last week I was with Minister Hekia Parata at Contact Energy. Some significant investment projects are under way. One is the Tauhara project, which was consented to in record time ...
Appropriation (2011/12 Estimates) Bill
Imprest Supply Debate 10 Aug 2011
GRANT ROBERTSON ... be part of our future. We must not let important assets like the electricity industry go offshore. We saw it with Contact Energy, and under this Government they will disappear completely. We need a plan that is based on good monetary policy that ...
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL ... to our balance sheet. Foreign investors—not mum and dad investors—are the true winners from privatisation. Since Contact Energy was sold offshore by National in 1999, it has paid $1.5 billion in dividends to its private, mainly Australian, ...
STUART NASH ... It was the good, hard-working people of New Zealand. The last major piece of infrastructure that was sold was Contact Energy, by Mr Bill English. Now what we have is $100 million—
General Debate 3 Aug 2011
STUART NASH ... the National Government is if he believes that ma and pa investors can also afford to buy shares. Let us be honest, Contact Energy is not owned by ma and pa New Zealand investors. Eighty percent of Contact Energy, which Mr English privatised in his ...
General Debate 13 Jul 2011
Hon ANNETTE KING ... are going to buy these assets are the big overseas investors. They know that because they have watched the sale of Contact Energy and have watched their power prices go up far more under that privately owned company than under the State-owned ...
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE ... and how they will guarantee that mum and dad Kiwis will be first in the queue. Bill English read out a list from the Contact Energy share register—Origin Energy and a couple of other names I cannot recall—and he said: “Well, we can’t tell what they ...
Hon RUTH DYSON ... by this dishonesty, because it is exactly what we heard in 1999 when the then National Government said it would sell Contact Energy to mum and dad investors. What happened was that Edison Mission Energy bought up 51 percent for nearly $1.7 million ...
Supplementary Estimates - Imprest Supply Debate
Imprest Supply Debate 21 Jun 2011
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN ... profits offshore and has no focus on exporting from New Zealand. It is an all-too-familiar story, and it happened to Contact Energy. But we can do something about it: we can keep it Kiwi, we can keep the public energy companies in public ownership so ...
STUART NASH ... investors, because we know that is not the truth. Members opposite know that is not the truth. We have one precedent: Contact Energy shares. Eighty percent of Contact Energy shares are owned by 0.1 percent of investors, and that is what will happen ...
Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises - In Committee
In Committee 14 Jun 2011
Hon DAVID PARKER ... of assets does increase private sector disciplines to maximise shareholder returns. That is why, on average, Contact Energy and TrustPower charge more for electricity than the State-owned enterprises. That is why, if these companies are ...
Hon DAVID PARKER ... buying shares initially. Then they will take a profit as they sell the shares, like that which occurred in respect of Contact Energy, and eventually most of those shares will end up in overseas ownership. Treasury was express in its advice to this ...
Budget Debate 9 Jun 2011
CHARLES CHAUVEL ... excellent governance skills in the company when I was there. I think the directors’ fees were $50,000 a year. At Contact Energy, which ran a business of a similar size and with a broadly similarly balanced portfolio of hydro and other generation ...
Budget Debate 8 Jun 2011
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR ... to be the beneficiaries of the large tax cuts will be able to afford the shares and they will, as they did with Contact Energy, flick them off for a healthy profit to overseas investors. Sure as day follows night that is what will happen, and ...
Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill
First Reading 19 May 2011
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE ... queue for shareholdings in these assets. How will National members guarantee that? They could not guarantee it with Contact Energy, which is now owned by foreigners. Yes, a few Kiwis may have grabbed a few shares but the truth is that it is now ...
Third Readings 11 May 2011
NIKKI KAYE ... renewable energy. We know this, because an application is currently before the Environmental Protection Authority for Contact Energy’s $1 billion Tauhara geothermal station near Taupō. I acknowledge the support of certain environmental groups for ...
General Debate 4 May 2011
Hon PHIL GOFF ... is saying this ownership will go to mum and dad investors. That is what Mr English told us when he privatised Contact Energy back in 1999. But what happened to Contact Energy? Does Mr English know that every year $100 million of money ...
Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill
Third Reading 4 May 2011
DAVID SHEARER ... talking about—can buy them. The mums and dads already own them but they can now own them again. We have looked at Contact Energy. What happened to the assets of that organisation? They ended up in foreign hands, generating benefits and dividends ...
Westpac New Zealand Bill 2010
Second Reading 4 May 2011
STUART NASH Simon Bridges is dead right: Bill English does know about selling State assets, because he sold Contact Energy in 1999, the company that returns over $100 million in dividends every year to its Australian owners. So, yes, Simon ...
Debate on Budget Policy Statement 9 Mar 2011
LOUISE UPSTON ... developments are a massive part of what is going on in Taupō. It is exciting to see continued projects such as Contact Energy’s Te Mihi project. Those will continue to create jobs in my electorate. More importantly, we must help exporters to ...
Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... to own the future. We do not want just wealthy Kiwis to buy the shares, then sell them offshore, as happened with Contact Energy. We do not want only the wealthy to buy them and flick them off—sometimes at a profit and, to be fair to them, ...
General Debate 16 Feb 2011
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE ... around that. The people of New Zealand are impatient to know how foreign interests that gained 51.8 percent of Contact Energy when it was sold off will be prevented from eventually gaining our assets. The people of New Zealand are impatient to ...
Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 10 Feb 2011
PHIL TWYFORD ... sell. Whom will they sell to? It will almost certainly be to foreign investors, and we can look to the experience of Contact Energy, which was privatised by the National Government in the 1990s. What happened? A controlling share ended up in the ...
Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 8 Feb 2011
Hon PHIL GOFF ... of living? They will lose ownership of our assets. They will gain nothing. Do members know what happened to the Contact Energy shares that National promised for the mums and dads? Those shares went to the big corporates. They have ended up with ...
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE ... to these benches beyond 26 November, the Government will continue to hold 51 percent of those companies. Today Contact Energy is 24 percent owned by New Zealanders and 16 percent owned by local fund managers and local funds, including ACC, the ...
Hon SHANE JONES ... rent-gouging assets, which, for a short period of time, may be with mums and dads, but the instructiveness of the Contact Energy episode shows that the assets will soon disappear into foreign ownership. So not only will that worsen the ...
Phil Twyford Contact Energy was a great success.
SIMON BRIDGES Tens of thousands of New Zealanders in this country, I tell Phil Twyford, have shares in Contact Energy. I am not saying that that is the perfect model, but I would remind members opposite that they were the ones who sold ...
Environmental Protection Authority Bill
First Reading 23 Nov 2010
LOUISE UPSTON ... what this legislation is about. If we look at any example—one of which I will talk about in a little while is the Contact Energy Tauhara Stage Two plant in my electorate—we see that there is no reduction in democracy. I was a little perturbed that ...
Financial Markets (Regulators and KiwiSaver) Bill, Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill - First Reading
First Reading 23 Sep 2010
Hon DAVID PARKER ... in a written document prepared by Treasury under Max Bradford’s National Government. But what happened was that Contact Energy, Meridian Energy, and the other companies could never agree on any upgrades, so none were done. By the end of the ...
Goods and Services Tax (Exemption of Healthy Food) Amendment Bill
First Reading 8 Sep 2010
Hon ANNETTE KING ... power prices right around New Zealand. Yesterday, a letter arrived notifying me of a 6 percent increase in power from Contact Energy. Secondly, I pointed out the increase in the cost of bus fares in Wellington for people to get to work, which is $5 ...
Estimates Debate - In Committee
In Committee 28 Jul 2010
LOUISE UPSTON ... harsh recession that has been felt across the country. Taupō has been sheltered because both Mighty River Power and Contact Energy have recently opened significant geothermal power stations, and they are consenting at the moment for further ...
Estimates Debate - In Committee
In Committee 27 Jul 2010
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA ... for 180,000 of its customers. The Minister said that this was very, very disappointing. In February of this year Contact Energy increased electricity prices by 5 percent for over 300,000 households. Gerry Brownlee advised customers to shop ....
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE ... as far as security of supply is concerned. Of those projects, 287 megawatts are currently under construction, and Contact Energy is building its new peaker project at Stratford, which will be a significant fillip not only for the development of ...
Hon Darren Hughes David Carter sold Contact Energy.
MOANA MACKEY Well, David Carter did sell Contact Energy. I want to talk a little bit about Kiwibank, because Kiwibank is an asset that New Zealanders are extremely proud of. ...
Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises - In Committee
In Committee 29 Jun 2010
Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... we did not get it right. My view is that when in late 1998 to early 1999 there was a signal of the privatisation of Contact Energy, the Labour Party then should have made it clear that we would reverse that move and bring it back into State ownership—...
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... Government-owned generators—windfall profits, not just to the Government-owned generators but to the privately owned Contact Energy and TrustPower. Why is that? In essence, the emissions trading scheme makes electricity produced by burning coal and ...
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... actually increasing the price by less. We ain’t seen nothing yet. What will drive those increases will be Genesis and Contact Energy, and particularly Genesis because it burns coal and gas. Genesis is sitting on a 1 million tonne stockpile of coal in ...
Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill 2010
First Reading 16 Jun 2010
JONATHAN YOUNG ... to look for alternate gas supplies when they thought that the gas supply in New Zealand was going to diminish. Contact Energy and Genesis at that particular point in time looked at importing gas. Interestingly enough they looked at liquefied ...
General Debate 16 Jun 2010
LOUISE UPSTON ... But that is not all. Mighty River Power has started work on its Nga Tamariki geothermal project, and on 1 July Contact Energy is opening the Te Mihi geothermal power station. Of course, once we have generated electricity, we need to get it to ...
CLARE CURRAN ... GST rise. Where are all these people who are going to be better off? In the last few days in Dunedin we heard that Contact Energy will raise its electricity prices by almost 10 percent next month. I do not know how many members on the other side of ...
CLARE CURRAN ... increase is ridiculous in the current environment. Let me tell members what Gerry Brownlee’s response was to Contact Energy’s announcement. He said: “Shop around. Change power companies.” What a great response by the Government! It is even ...
Budget Debate 27 May 2010
STUART NASH ... executive officer of Air New Zealand, Rob Fyfe, will get about $120,000 extra per year; and the chief executive of Contact Energy, David Baldwin, will get only about $73,000 extra per year. I could go on, but my point is not that those men are ...
Carter Observatory Act Repeal Bill
Third Reading 26 May 2010
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... In the last 24 hours Mercury Energy announced that it will increase the price of electricity by 3.3 percent, and Contact Energy announced that it will increase the price of electricity by 3.2 percent. It is all very well for the Minister for ...
Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill
In Committee 21 May 2010
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... could actually bring this legislation further forward than that. We could introduce the tax cuts in June, because Contact Energy, a company that generates electricity from gas and that has to pay for its emissions from 1 July, has already ...
Environment
Resource Management Act Reforms—National Consenting Policy 5 Apr 2011
Hon Dr NICK SMITH ... submission stages and appeals taking many years. The first project lodged under the new policy was the $1 billion Contact Energy Tauhara stage two geothermal station. This was processed under the 9-month timetable, enabling all parties to get a ...
Hon Dr NICK SMITH The feedback I have had from major investors like Contact Energy is that they would much prefer the certainty of the constrained timetable and the one-step process rather than the ...
Resource Management Act Reforms—Consents for Major Infrastructure 24 Aug 2010
Hon Dr NICK SMITH The Environment Protection Authority has received two major applications: Contact Energy’s $1 billion Tauhara 2 geothermal station near Taupō, in February; and Auckland’s $2 billion Waterview Connection on ...
Resource Management Act Reforms—Consents for Major Infrastructure 24 Aug 2010
Hon Dr NICK SMITH The Environment Protection Authority has received two major applications: Contact Energy’s $1 billion Tauhara 2 geothermal station near Taupō, in February; and Auckland’s $2 billion Waterview Connection on ...
Environmental Protection Authority—Resource Consent Applications 23 Mar 2010
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Yes. The first application has been received, from Contact Energy for its Touhara 2 240-megawatt geothermal power plant. The proposal is nationally significant and would provide power ...
Resource Management (Requiring Authorities) Amendment Bill
First Reading 17 Mar 2010
LOUISE UPSTON ... during these hard times, and we can look at whether it has been electricity generators for Mighty River Power, or Contact Energy’s geothermal developments. The East Taupō arterial road and Taupō bypass are also significant projects that we want to ...
Energy and Resources
Power Prices—Measures to Address Excessive Increases 1 Jul 2010
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA What action other than persuasion will he take if Contact Energy’s proposal to raise prices by 10 to 17 percent in Dunedin, as referred to by the Prime Minister on Monday, is followed ...
Hon Dr NICK SMITH ... no immediate price increase for consumers, and they collectively amount to over 50 percent of the market share. Contact Energy, which has a 25 percent market share, has announced an increase of 3.2 percent, and Mercury Energy, which has a 23 ...
Hon Nanaia Mahuta How can consumers be confident that his persuasive powers will keep power prices down, given that Genesis, Contact Energy, and TrustPower all hiked prices by between 5 and 8.4 percent shortly after his warning to the electricity industry ...
Hon Dr NICK SMITH ... for consumers to change power companies. The advice I have, for instance, for the consumers in Dunedin who are with Contact Energy is that they should look at the options to switch to one of the companies that have not put up their prices.
Power Prices—Reduction 25 Feb 2010
Charles Chauvel Has he seen comments from David Baldwin, the Chief Executive of Contact Energy, that “The outcome of the electricity review itself is of no particular concern to Contact.”; if so, how does he ...
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE The reason that Mr Baldwin suggested that the Electricity Act changes were of no consequence or concern to Contact Energy is that it supports them and knows that it will be able to operate successfully within them. It is the most balanced ...
Electricity Industry Bill
Third Reading 23 Sep 2010
CHRIS HIPKINS ... In fact, I think he was an Associate Minister of Energy and Resources last time around when it was busy hocking off Contact Energy. That was Maurice Williamson. He cannot wait to get his hands on the other State-owned enterprises. That is what this ...
In Committee 21 Sep 2010
CHRIS HIPKINS ... deal with that so why did we not do something? Well, it is very difficult to unscramble an egg. The Government sold Contact Energy and privatised a lot of the retailers and lines companies, to the point—
CLARE CURRAN ... quite high there. I will refer to an article in the Otago Daily Times last Friday that reported that Contact Energy lost more than 2,000 Dunedin customers in the same quarter that it controversially hiked prices up by more than 9 ...
Hon DAVID PARKER ... the electricity system has long foreseen the cost of carbon coming. Indeed, when I was the Minister some years ago, Contact Energy told me that it had already factored into its investment decisions—and, indeed, into its share price—the effect of the ...
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR ... to go back and refer to a submission made to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I was not at the committee, but Contact Energy—a major player—confirmed in its evidence that it will need to continue to raise its retail prices by up to 5 percent ...
Second Reading 20 Jul 2010
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA ... the adjournment I received a complaint from a woman living in Nelson about the increase in her power prices from Contact Energy. She said that Contact Energy has raised its prices four times—
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... in the South Island, and Genesis is essentially a non-renewable company. We can add to that list TrustPower and Contact Energy. Contact Energy, which came out of the old New Zealand Electricity Commission, was privatised and sold off by the ...
CHARLES CHAUVEL ... put huge upward pressure on prices, and that demonstrates the fundamental conflict at the heart of this legislation. Contact Energy told the Finance and Expenditure Committee that it will need to raise retail prices by 5 percent per annum from now ....
First Reading 15 Dec 2009
Hon DAVID PARKER ... that the upgrade was necessary. It was a nonsense. Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis, TrustPower, and Contact Energy would never agree. As a consequence, TrustPower never had any confidence that it would get paid for additional ...
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... pay the off-setting carbon tax. So for Trustpower it represents a massive profit windfall. That is equally true for Contact Energy, Mighty River Power, and Meridian Energy. Meridian Energy and Mighty River Power are Government-owned, so one might ...
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES ... companies? We are aware that customer switching can effect change and keep down prices, such as in the situation with Contact Energy in 2008 when it wanted to raise prices considerably, including to cover increased directors’ fees. The company lost ...
Hon PETE HODGSON ... the moment one seeks to reverse the changes of Max Bradford one rolls up against two things. Either one nationalises Contact Energy and TrustPower, or one accepts that that part is irreversible. And if it is irreversible then a market is necessary, ...
Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill
In Committee 25 Nov 2009
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... New Zealanders. To whom? To the shareholders of Genesis and Meridian Energy, which is us, and to the shareholders of Contact Energy and TrustPower. So it is little wonder that there has been speculation today that the ruling council of the Māori ...
In Committee 25 Nov 2009
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... the emissions trading scheme puts a price on the carbon discharges from thermal power stations. So, for example, if Contact Energy was to generate electricity from gas, it would have to pay a tax on its emissions from its thermal power plants. That ...
In Committee 24 Nov 2009
JOHN BOSCAWEN ... of Meridian Energy, we are subsidising the shareholders in TrustPower, and we are subsidising the shareholders in Contact Energy. From 1 January 2013 every single New Zealander will be paying 10 percent more for his or her electricity. If we want ...
First Reading 24 Sep 2009
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS ... carbon price must be factored in to their investment decision-making? Some businesses have already factored it in. Contact Energy has put aside its consented gas-fired plant at Ōtāhuhu and turned to geothermal and wind energy. Many people have ...
Budget Debate 4 Jun 2009
CHARLES CHAUVEL ... Labour Government, between 1999 and 2007. The main funding for this scheme came from the Health Research Council, but Contact Energy, to its credit, also kicked in $600,000 over 3 years. The Ministry for the Environment came to the party at a similar ...
Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill
First Reading 19 Feb 2009
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE ... re-consent stage. I point to two outstanding examples in my own portfolio area. First, there was the re-consent of Contact Energy’s Clyde Dam scheme. It took about 6 years, through various stages, just to get a re-consent. I think that that is an ...
Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill
Third Reading 18 Dec 2008
CHRIS HIPKINS ... for Gerry Brownlee, but 6 percent is not flat out for Whirinaki. When he was told he had made an error, he said that Contact Energy was trying to put a bit of gloss on a very big turd.
In Committee 17 Dec 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... proposing changes to the Resource Management Act to enable more rivers to be dammed. It has been interesting that Contact Energy has said that it does not need just aided processes to get consent for more dams on the Clutha River; it needs a ...
Second Reading 17 Dec 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... is another one of 200 megawatts already under construction by Mighty River Power. That is next year’s demand growth. Contact Energy has also committed to another large facility at Te Mihi. That is about 600 megawatts that I have just given you. That ...
Hon DAVID PARKER ... built—but it might be bigger. There are consented sites throughout the South Island. Consents are being sought by Contact Energy for about 500 megawatts of wind power in the North Island. There is oodles of renewable generation. But do members ...
Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... any investment at all. But after the legislation was passed we had quite a rush towards increased generation. Contact Energy, one of the companies I was not responsible for, announced plans to invest about $3 billion in 1,400 megawatts of ...
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS ... to buy from Meridian, because it is wholly renewable. TrustPower is also totally renewable, but it is quite small. Contact Energy is also a fossil generator, and it has some gas-fired plants. But members of Contact Energy came to see me quite some ...
Third Reading 17 Dec 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... substantial quantities available, and we already know that it is economically sound because Mighty River Power and Contact Energy are both heavily investing in geothermal generation in order to bring those renewable projects to market. I also ...
First Reading 17 Dec 2008
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS ... station, at all, that could not be built under one or other of these exemptions. None of the three submitters could. Contact Energy said that it could not, but that it is a nuisance having to apply for an exemption even though it would be granted ....
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS ... goes wrong with them. Leaving aside the question of the risks of an LNG plant, I say that if we allow Genesis and Contact Energy to build an LNG reception plant in New Plymouth we will link the price of all electricity in New Zealand to the price ...
RAHUI KATENE ... scope of these problems. Furthermore, it is, of course, of note when one of our country’s biggest energy companies, Contact Energy, said last night that it had no plans to build fossil fuel power stations, despite this bill being on the books today—a...
JONATHAN YOUNG ... the last Government’s oversight—are gas-fired thermal plants. The major players that this affects are Genesis and Contact Energy, which have embarked on a project to now import liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to secure their security of ...
Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill 2007
Second Reading 5 Sep 2008
PETER BROWN ... one reason only: we had more capacity than there was demand for electricity. It set up four State-owned generators. Contact Energy was independent but owned by the State at that time, and three new ones came on board, so there were four competing ...
In Committee 5 Sep 2008
LINDSAY TISCH ... where the new generation has come from. We have those that have been commissioned, and I will start back in 2000 when Contact Energy at Ōtāhuhu B, whose fuel type is gas, had a capacity of 380 megawatts. I will not go through them all, but Contact ...
LINDSAY TISCH ... Pan Pac in 2005. But let us look at those of geothermal fuel - type: Todd Energy at Ngāwhā, 2008, had 13 megawatts; Contact Energy at Wairākei had 20 megawatts; Mighty River Power at Kawerau, in 2008, had 90 megawatts; Meridian Energy at Manapōuri, ...
Supplementary Estimates - Imprest Supply Debate
Imprest Supply Debate 24 Jun 2008
Hon ANNETTE KING ... Will it privatise again, by stealth, the remaining energy companies and infrastructure in New Zealand? National sold Contact Energy. It is proving to be a disaster for this country. Will National do it again? It did it before. The answer is yes. ...
Finance
State-owned Assets, Sales—Projected Revenue 16 Aug 2011
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Has he asked Treasury to re-estimate the projected sales revenue from his proposed privatisation policy in light of Contact Energy’s share price falling 20 percent so far this year?
Hon BILL ENGLISH ... of Government control of these energy companies with a sell-down of up to 49 percent. Secondly, the change in the Contact Energy share price highlights the risks to taxpayers from owning commercial assets. As a rule, Governments are poor at ...
China Investment Corporation—Meeting with Minister 7 Jul 2011
Hon Trevor Mallard When he went on to say “Contact Energy … still has the largest register of shareholders on the New Zealand stock exchange—shares still largely held by Kiwi ...
Hon BILL ENGLISH Well, the Opposition uses the example of Contact Energy, which was sold in a different way. It was sold to overseas owners in a majority. Edison Mission Energy bought 40 ...
Energy Companies, State-owned—Onselling Shares to Foreign Investors 6 Jul 2011
Hon BILL ENGLISH We just look at the experience of Contact Energy, which was floated in the late 1990s and still has the largest register of shareholders on the New Zealand stock ...
Hon David Cunliffe Given that Contact Energy is now largely owned by a foreign multinational that bought its shares from mum and dad investors, can the Minister ...
State-owned Assets, Sales—Ownership of Shares 5 Jul 2011
Hon David Cunliffe ... policy would ensure that the shares sold by the Government would not end up in foreign hands, as they did with Contact Energy and the BNZ, given that Treasury has found “significant participation by foreign investors would be essential …”?
Hon BILL ENGLISH ... Zealanders will be at the front of the queue. The New Zealand Government will retain 51 percent. Even in the case of Contact Energy, which was sold down over 10 years ago, a significant proportion of those who initially bought the shares are still on ...
State-owned Assets, Sales—Public Consultation 23 Jun 2011
Hon David Cunliffe ... and ticket-clippers would cost the taxpayer if the Minister’s privatisation agenda goes ahead, given that in the Contact Energy sale alone, $32 million of taxpayers’ money was spent in fees to consultants and bankers, and that officials yesterday ...
Hon David Cunliffe ... using other words. Can the Minister tell the House how much he expects the cost of sale to be, given that in the Contact Energy sale alone those costs amounted to $32 million in fees to bankers and consultants, and that officials yesterday told ...
Hon David Cunliffe ... Finance and Expenditure Committee yesterday, and given that only 8 percent of New Zealanders ever bought shares in Contact Energy and only 2.5 percent of them retain any interest in it now, can he tell the House what percentage of New Zealand ...
Hon David Cunliffe ... leave to table advice from the Parliamentary Library setting out the proportion of New Zealanders who owned shares in Contact Energy and who do now.
Energy Companies, State-owned—Financial Returns 15 Feb 2011
Hon Clayton Cosgrove Has the Minister seen reports from energy specialist Molly Melhuish that Contact Energy and TrustPower have both raised their retail charges consistently faster than the three State-owned power providers, ...
Inflation and Wage Growth—Treasury Forecast to March 2013 23 Sep 2010
Hon David Cunliffe Do the retailers he was just talking about that will have to discount include Contact Energy, which will increase its prices by 6 percent on 1 October; bus fares in Wellington, which for some people are ...
Sovereign Credit Rating—Reports 18 Jun 2008
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN ... and of course in 1998-99 the then Government engaged in a major asset sale programme around Auckland airport and Contact Energy. As a result, of course, we also had tax cuts at that time. The trouble is that by selling State assets one also ...
Questions to Ministers - Question No. 7 to Minister
Question No. 7 to Minister 28 May 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER I should have sought leave at the end of an earlier question to table Contact Energy’s statement about its intention to recommission 100 megawatts—
Budget Debate 27 May 2008
Hon DARREN HUGHES ... no planning for the future of this country then, and when hard times hit, the pension got cut, tertiary fees went up, Contact Energy was sold, and tariffs were eliminated overnight, which cost hundreds of workers in Porirua their jobs in the motor ...
PETER BROWN ... Party when it was last in office, one finds that it downgraded pensions and that it sold State assets such as Contact Energy, despite a coalition agreement that it would not. It introduced draconian industrial legislation and supported it to ...
Hon MARK GOSCHE ... percent in the next few months? No, it cut it. It also decided that it had to sell a few things. Not only did it sell Contact Energy but it sold 13,000 State houses and had the rest on the block. So when I became the Minister, Labour inherited a ...
Budget Debate 22 May 2008
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK ... to a slowing economy? They cut New Zealand superannuation. They sold one of New Zealand’s prime State assets. Contact Energy was sold, and they penny-pinched and under-invested across the board—health, education, and the rest of it. Let us ...
General Debate 16 Apr 2008
Hon DARREN HUGHES ... on this matter was that mum and dad investors should be able to buy assets. That is what happened when it sold Contact Energy, when it cut the pension, when it increased student fees, and when it cut taxes. So that just tells us what National ...
Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises - In Committee
In Committee 15 Apr 2008
METIRIA TUREI ... and a number of whio have been sighted there. I think that one of the other major energy companies—it might be Contact Energy, but I am not sure—has just decided to invest something like a million dollars into the restoration of habitats and ...
Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill
First Reading 12 Dec 2007
GERRY BROWNLEE ... legislation around the role that thermal generation will play in supporting that. People will be aware, I hope, that Contact Energy has a $1 billion project for the development of a very, very large wind farm on the west coast of the North Island, ...
Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill
In Committee 9 Apr 2008
CHRIS TREMAIN ... gone up only a couple of percentage points from that, and that overall the increase of the fixed charge was due to Contact Energy and to the increase in prices for gas from the Māui field. I am not sure how the average consumer is supposed to get ...
Second Reading 19 Mar 2008
Hon PAUL SWAIN ... about that. In fact, we were 100 percent involved in the electricity sector, until the National Government sold off Contact Energy in the late 1990s, as well. I asked the National Party members over there whether one of its solutions to doing ...
First Reading 26 Jul 2007
PETER BROWN ... wave power. The Minister of Energy will shudder now, but I would have a gas-fired power station in Ōtāhuhu tomorrow. Contact Energy would have a gas-fired power station in Ōtāhuhu tomorrow if it got the OK, and I would agree with it. I will go—I hope,...
Urgent Debates - Tranz Rail Shares—Insider Trading
Tranz Rail Shares—Insider Trading 19 Jun 2007
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS ... That is the point. As soon as he had the chance last time, after we had been in Government, he upped and flogged Contact Energy, did he not? That is why we pay the electricity prices we pay today, because they always—
Urgent Debates - Mercury Energy—Disconnection of Electricity Supply
Mercury Energy—Disconnection of Electricity Supply 12 Jun 2007
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE ... informal but none the less very effective protocol—that term might be an overstatement—or working arrangement with Contact Energy in my Dunedin electorate. Irrespective of the chills of the North Island, people will be aware that the criticality of ...
PETER BROWN ... members will shrug their shoulders at that and say no, we should be given a few windmills somewhere else. But Contact Energy would build a gas-fired power station tomorrow if the Government was willing to give it a bit of support, and that ...
Climate Change Issues
Electricity Revenue—Insulation and Household Compensation 28 Aug 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... is undoubtedly the biggest push for energy efficiency this country has ever seen. Electricity prices are estimated by Contact Energy to rise by 4 percent in 2010 from the emissions trading scheme. Energy efficiency can help New Zealanders save more ...
Climate Change—Contributions to Debate 21 Mar 2007
Hon DAVID PARKER Yes. Contact Energy has released a web-based carbon calculator that assists New Zealanders to calculate their own carbon footprint. This ...
State Owned Enterprises
State-owned Assets, Sales—Extension of Mixed-ownership Model 10 Feb 2011
Hon SIMON POWER Not necessarily. In fact, according to a report in the Waikato Times in 1999 after Contact Energy was floated, of the 225,000 small New Zealand investors who bought up to $2,500 worth of shares, 120,000 were new ...
Land—State-owned Enterprises 20 Mar 2007
Hon TREVOR MALLARD I am advised that Contact Energy was given a right of first refusal—granted in 1996— for over 381 hectares of State-owned enterprise land, which it is ...
Prime Minister
State-owned Energy Companies, Privatisation—Ownership of Contact Shares 13 Jul 2011
Hon BILL ENGLISH ... the question. I stood by the answers to the questions asked yesterday. The Prime Minister is not responsible for the Contact Energy share register. That is an answer to the question.
Mr SPEAKER ... It does not imply anything. The question asks, in relation to the answers given yesterday, for the percentage of Contact Energy shares that are held by foreigners or corporations. It may not be possible to give exact figures on that. I am not ...
Hon BILL ENGLISH It is not possible to establish with accuracy whether New Zealanders or corporations or foreigners own the shares in Contact Energy—for instance, Tea Custodians Ltd—who would that be? Custodial Services Ltd—who would that be? ASB Nominees Ltd—who ...
State-owned Energy Companies—Privatisation 13 Jul 2011
Hon Phil Goff Is Contact Energy, privatised by National in 1999, an example of a company in which control has now been lost to foreigners; if not, why ...
Hon BILL ENGLISH Contact Energy is not the model the Government is following. That model was wholly privatised and a big chunk of it was sold initially,...
Hon Phil Goff ... did the Prime Minister say yesterday that “nothing could be further from the truth” when asked whether the control of Contact Energy had passed to foreign owners, when the majority of shareholders are foreigners and the majority of directors are also ...
Hon Phil Goff It appears so, Mr Speaker. From memory: why did he say yesterday that “nothing was further from the truth” when Contact Energy, when privatised, was passed over into foreign control, when, in fact, the majority of shares are foreign-owned and ...
Hon BILL ENGLISH ... was talking about the question the member actually asked yesterday, which related to all those shares—50 percent of Contact Energy—that were floated in the retail market to mums and dads. As it happens, the biggest single owner of those shares is ...
Hon Phil Goff ... the Prime Minister keep on saying that it is about mums and dads when the fact is that 80 percent of the shares in Contact Energy are owned by fewer than 1 percent of shareholders, who are certainly not average mums and dads but wealthy investors ...
Hon BILL ENGLISH Because as the Prime Minister pointed out—and I think the Minister of Finance might have pointed it out—in Contact Energy’s case, the Government set out to sell the whole of the company, including a cornerstone shareholding. That is not the ...
Hon Phil Goff I seek leave of the House to table a number of documents. The first one is from the Contact Energy Ltd annual report 2010, which shows that nearly 80 percent of its shares are owned by fewer than 1 percent of ...
Hon Phil Goff I seek leave of the House to table a document that is a company extract from Contact Energy Ltd, which shows that at least five out of seven directors are not New Zealanders.
Hon Phil Goff ... the figures set out in the business section of the Dominion Post this morning that show that the privatised company Contact Energy is charging a typical four-person household in Wellington $500 a year more in power prices than any of the State-owned ...
Hon BILL ENGLISH ... and retain all its customers. In the long run that simply cannot be the case, and, in fact, my understanding is that Contact Energy is losing customers, probably because its prices are too high.
State-owned Assets, Sales—Ownership of Shares 12 Jul 2011
Hon Phil Goff ... local investors flicking on those shares at a higher price to foreign investors, which is exactly what happened when Contact Energy shares were sold?
Hon Phil Goff When the Prime Minister gave Contact Energy as an example in this House of how to sell shares to local investors, was he aware that nearly two-thirds of the ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ...say: “One of the less defensible criticisms of the Key Gov’s partial privatisation plans has been regular reference to Contact Energy as an example of a privatised company which lost control to foreigners. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. … ...
Hon Phil Goff Are most of the shares in Contact Energy that were sold to local investors now in the hands of foreign and corporate investors?
State-owned Assets, Sales—Onselling Shares to Foreign Investors 6 Jul 2011
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... cost of an initial public offering is about 7 percent. In the United States it is 3 to 4 percent. In fact, when Contact Energy was sold off, I think it was about 1.8 percent. That is exactly what we are working towards, and the member knows that,...
State-owned Assets, Sales—Shares 8 Jun 2011
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... I want to take this opportunity to clarify one point. I said yesterday that off the top of my head the cost of the Contact Energy initial public offering as set out in the recent Official Information Act reply to the Leader of the Opposition was 1.9...
State-owned Assets, Sales—Ownership of Shares 7 Jun 2011
Hon Clayton Cosgrove Given that the then Minister for State Owned Enterprises, Tony Ryall, said in 1999 that the sale of Contact Energy had been “a great success” after claiming that 225,000 mums and dads had invested in the company, can we now conclude ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... queue for the other 49 percent of shares. I refer the member to a story written by Pattrick Smellie in relation to Contact Energy’s Kiwi shareholders. He called them a loyal bunch, and said: “One of the least defensible criticisms of the Key ...
Hon Clayton Cosgrove ... investors, which is something Treasury has said will happen, and is something that clearly happened in the case of Contact Energy?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY I go back to what I said earlier: in the case of Contact Energy the model was very different. Treasury is looking at that model, and there could well be a lot of examples—I think in ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... the Opposition asked for some information from my office just this week in relation to what the fee structure was for Contact Energy. I am sure the member has seen that. From the top of my head, the fee structure was 1.9 percent. That is very low, ...
State-owned Energy Companies—Financial Returns 6 Apr 2011
Hon Phil Goff How much of the profits and dividends from Contact Energy, a company once wholly owned by New Zealanders—I use the Clyde Dam for an example, which was built and paid for by New ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY I do not know the answer to that question. But I do know that had Contact Energy not been sold, that debt, which was also from overseas, would have had those dividends going overseas. There is also a ...
Hon Phil Goff When the Prime Minister told the House yesterday that Contact Energy was owned “by a very wide range of Kiwi mums and dads”, was he aware that in fact 80 percent of the shares in that ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... actually hear it, but we will go through it—“Government’s partial privatisation plans have been regular references to Contact Energy as an example of a privatised company which lost control to foreigners. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. ...
Hon Phil Goff How can the Prime Minister possibly be right in saying Contact Energy is owned by a wide range of Kiwi mums and dads, when most of the shares are owned offshore, and when 80 percent of the ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY As I said earlier, Contact Energy was privatised in a completely different way from what the Government proposes. The proposals are that there will be ...
Hon Phil Goff Is it correct, as reported, that TrustPower and Contact Energy, which are now privately owned, have increased their prices since 1998 by 180 percent—
State-owned Enterprises—Shareholder Returns and Average Bond Rate 5 Apr 2011
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... the Government will hold a majority ownership, because we will not go below 51 percent. It is also worth looking at Contact Energy as a good example of where New Zealand mum and dad investors bought shares. Although the shares may have individually ...
Hon Phil Goff In respect of Contact Energy, which the Prime Minister has just mentioned and which was privatised by a former National Government, is it not ...
State-owned Assets, Sales—Ownership of Shares 17 Feb 2011
Hon David Parker When the Prime Minister said on radio this morning that the vast bulk of Contact Energy’s shares remain “in widespread Kiwi mum and dad ownership”, why did he not tell New Zealanders that 75 percent of all ...
Hon David Parker Did the Prime Minister also say on radio this morning in regard to Contact Energy: “The float when it started gave 51 percent to an Australian company Origin. That was the starting position and it did ...
Hon David Parker I seek to table a Treasury document from its website, which shows that the sale of Contact Energy was originally a 40 percent sale to Edison and not a 51 percent sale to Origin.
State-owned Assets, Sales—On-selling Shares to Foreign Investors 10 Feb 2011
Hon Clayton Cosgrove Did the Government communicate with Contact Energy yesterday to, among other things, find out how many foreign investors it has?
Hon Clayton Cosgrove ... the Government has not properly researched its proposal to sell State-owned assets, given that one Simon King, who is Contact Energy’s Government relations manager, confirmed that a Government representative rang the company yesterday to find out, ...
State-owned Assets, Sales—New Zealand Investors 9 Feb 2011
Hon Phil Goff Actually, does history not indicate that when National sold Contact Energy, the shares to the so-called mum and dad investors that it talked about then quickly flowed to the corporates and to ...
Rt Hon JOHN KEY ... the least defensible criticisms of the Key Government’s partial privatisation plans have been regular references to Contact Energy as an example of a privatised company which lost control to foreigners. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. ...
Hon Phil Goff ... the private shareholders seek to maximise their dividends and increase the directors’ fees, as in fact happened with Contact Energy when it was privatised, and as happened in Australia with privatisation?
Tax System Changes and GST Increase—Effect on New Zealanders 8 Sep 2010
Hon Annette King Is he aware that power companies are increasing their charges on 1 October, with Contact Energy being the latest company to inform customers of a 6 percent increase in power prices, leading to an increase of about $6...
Tax System Changes and GST Increase—Effect on New Zealanders 8 Sep 2010
Hon Annette King Is he aware that power companies are increasing their charges on 1 October, with Contact Energy being the latest company to inform customers of a 6 percent increase in power prices, leading to an increase of about $6...
Tax System Changes and GST Increase—Effect on New Zealanders 8 Sep 2010
Hon Annette King Is he aware that power companies are increasing their charges on 1 October, with Contact Energy being the latest company to inform customers of a 6 percent increase in power prices, leading to an increase of about $6...
Ministers—Conflicts of Interest and Blind Trusts 2 Jun 2010
John Boscawen I seek leave to table a draft letter from Contact Energy to its customers advising of an increase in electricity prices on account of the emissions trading scheme from 1 July.
Migration—Net Position and Australia 24 Jun 2008
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK ... that cut New Zealand superannuation and sold one of the jewels in the crown of our State-owned enterprises: Contact Energy. That was a ridiculous decision, which this country has rued ever since.
Economy—Statement 18 Mar 2008
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK ... to cut New Zealand superannuation and sell one of the jewels in the crown of the State-owned enterprises, which was Contact Energy. I can assure members that the Labour-led Government’s response to international market volatility will not be to sell ...
Energy Strategy—Carbon Neutrality 12 Dec 2006
Jeanette Fitzsimons Will the Energy Strategy prevent the building of the three big new fossil-fuelled power stations that are imminent: Contact Energy’s Ōtāhuhu C, Mighty River Power’s Marsden B coal station, and Genesis Energy’s gas station in Rodney, which, together ...
Energy
Electricity—Thermal Generation 26 Aug 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER Just today Contact Energy, one of New Zealand’s biggest generators, outlined its plans to invest up to $3 billion in about 1,400 megawatts of ...
Electricity—Emissions 18 Jun 2008
Gerry Brownlee Can the Minister confirm that it took 6 years to re-consent the Waitaki scheme, and it took 7 years to re-consent Contact Energy’s Wairakei geothermal scheme, and if those two points can be confirmed, does he still want to say that the Resource ...
Marine Energy Projects—Government Assistance 29 May 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... have seen a report of the comments made today on Radio New Zealand National by Mr Baldwin, the chief executive of Contact Energy, saying the opposite of that.
Electricity—Supply 28 May 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... a little, as a consequence of the higher spot price, which is, of course, one of the intended effects of that system. Contact Energy, I am also pleased to tell the House this afternoon, has announced that it is recommissioning 100 megawatts of its New ...
Energy Strategy—Gas-fired Power Station 9 Apr 2008
Hon DAVID PARKER ... and I do not think anything is hidden here. Not only is Genesis Energy looking at peaking plants but also Contact Energy has announced proposals for peaking plants. These are good advances. New Zealand does need some peaking plants into ...
Electricity—Supply 4 Mar 2008
Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... level for Mr Brownlee, it is very, very low for an energy system. When he was told he had made an error, he said that Contact Energy was trying to put a bit of gloss on a very big turd.
Electricity—Supply 13 Feb 2008
Gerry Brownlee ... operational pole, that the Huntly power station cannot operate at full capacity because of cooling issues, and that Contact Energy’s New Plymouth plant is shut and is not likely to open again this winter; are these the reasons why Transpower has ...
Electricity—Supply 16 Oct 2007
Hon DAVID PARKER ... energy provides great baseload electricity. To put that in context, demand grows by about 150 megawatts a year. Contact Energy today has announced 650 megawatts of wind power in the North Island and a 100-megawatt gas peaking plant. If we add up ...
Coal-fired Power—Carbon Neutrality 13 Sep 2007
Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... commissioning of Huntly E3P Power Station and substantial renewable investments by both State-owned enterprises and Contact Energy.
Resource Management Act—Meridian Energy 29 Mar 2007
Peter Brown Noting that he does agree with Keith Turner’s statement, does he agree with the statement made by David Baldwin of Contact Energy, who appears basically to want Huntly power station taxed to the hilt in order to force it to close down or convert ...
Electricity—Renewable Resources 20 Mar 2007
Steve Chadwick ... Minister please inform the House of recent reports on more renewables in the energy sector that are in addition to Contact Energy’s recently announced plan to invest $1.8 billion in new geothermal and wind generation?
Hon DAVID PARKER ... focus more on renewables and less on thermal energy. It is not just that Meridian Energy is carbon neutral and Contact Energy is spending $1.8 billion on renewables; Mighty River Power has cancelled plans to develop the Marsden B power station. ...
Carbon Footprint—Reduction 1 Mar 2007
Steve Chadwick Aside from last week’s announcement by Meridian Energy about its carbon-neutral status and Contact Energy’s plans to spend nearly $2 billion on renewables, can the Minister inform the House about other measures being pursued ...
Electricity—Renewable Generation 27 Feb 2007
Hon DAVID PARKER Contact Energy has announced plans to invest $2 billion in renewable geothermal and wind energy, in preference to using Ōtāhuhu C. I ...
Steve Chadwick How will Contact Energy’s extra renewable generation help New Zealand towards carbon neutrality?
Gerry Brownlee ... Act difficulties, the second-biggest thermal plant in New Zealand’s history is about to be commissioned, and Contact Energy has put the strong proviso that it will go ahead only if the Resource Management Act does not get in its road; what is ...
Hon DAVID PARKER ... is successful in actually bringing forward renewables. Indeed, I quote from Mr Baldwin, the chief executive of Contact Energy, who said that “with Government support for the consenting of geothermal and wind development, he believed the ...
Hon DAVID PARKER ... reliant for some years to come on electricity produced by Huntly. I seek leave to table two documents. The first is Contact Energy’s announcement of $2 billion in renewables where it says that the Government’s vision of achieving growth in ...
Electricity Supply—Reliance on Fossil Fuels 20 Feb 2007
Hon DAVID PARKER ... settings across the sector, is that if we banned State-owned enterprises from doing it but did not ban, for example, Contact Energy—not wanting to pick on them—TrustPower, or any other generator from pursuing coal, then if it was more cost-effective ...
Electricity Market—Information Accuracy 21 Mar 2006
Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... been possible in the old days before people hopped off the generation the way that the National Government did with Contact Energy.