Mathers Mojo: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mathers Mojo: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3078. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOJO MATHERS (Green) 
: 
 I wish to speak to clauses 3 4 and 5 of Part 1 of the Mixed Ownership Model Bill. I am concerned by these clauses because they remove the four energy State-owned enterprises from the State-Owned Enterprises Act and put them in a new schedule under the Public Finance Act. I am particularly concerned that this is being done without replicating the social responsibility clause that all State-owned enterprises are legally bound by. This clause requires State-owned enterprises to show a sense of social responsibility by having due regard to the interests of the community in which they operate—that is all New Zealanders—and by endeavouring to accommodate and encourage these when able to do so. 
Among other things what this clause does is it means that they have to consider the impact of raising the price of power on consumers and acts as a shield to the push to maximise profits because without these clauses they become legally bound to maximise profits. So even if the Government retains a 51 percent majority the risk is that by removing the social responsibility clause if it then tries to stop the minority shareholders from going in and maximising their profits it could get sued. And we already know that this is going to very likely see an increase in the cost of power because private companies at the moment have on average 12 percent higher power prices than the State-owned enterprises. 
What this is going to do is impact most severely on vulnerable New Zealanders. Vulnerable New Zealanders are the elderly the sick the disabled those with young families and those with insecure incomes. Disconnection of power means that these people end up with no heating no hot water no ability to have showers in their homes no cooking no lighting and no internet connection to the world outside. These are very extreme measures and they impact on the health of our vulnerable. We already have fuel poverty in New Zealand. Consumer New Zealand did a survey and it says that last year more than 30000 households were disconnected; 9000 were disconnected during the winter months when they were unable to pay the power bills. 
 In addition to these disconnections more than 37443 households were given hardship grants by Work and Income in order to help them pay their power bills. That is a huge number of New Zealanders affected and it is only just the tip of the iceberg because before you get to disconnection there will often be a cutting back on those using the power in a very extreme way such as not heating their homes. I know because I have been one of these families with young children unable to keep my children warm in my house because I just could not afford the power. 
So what we want to see is clauses 3 4 and 5 deleted so that they remain bound by social responsibility. The Green Party will be supporting the Supplementary Order Paper by Russel Norman to delete these clauses. Thank you.