Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I know I'm not allowed to mention the presence or otherwise of a Minister, but I am giving this speech today because the Minister is unavailable to give it. Could I begin by saying that regardless of the mechanisms and the rules of the electricity market in New Zealand, which are complex, it is absolutely the right of New Zealanders to expect that on a cold winter's night—indeed, at any time of the day and night, on any part of the annual cycle of demand—the lights will stay on and the heaters will stay on and the system will stand up to the demands of a cold winter's night. The situation that unfolded on Monday of course was unacceptable, and I want to go a little into what happened—and the member Barbara Kuriger, who has just taken her seat, has summarised that, but I'll restate that—and then I'm going to make some comments as to how it is that we're going to try to get to the bottom of what's gone wrong here.