Kedgley Sue: Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15608] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is very very pleased to support the Electricity (Disconnection and Low Fixed Charges) Amendment Bill particularly the clause that allows the Government to regulate the content of guidelines for disconnection because of non-payment. 
It is just as well that we are slipping this bill through and giving the Government these powers because I predict that more and more vulnerable consumers will find themselves at the mercy of electricity companies and at risk of having their power cut off. As other speakers have said the cost of electricity is going up; that is a huge concern for many New Zealanders. We will be faced with rising food prices rising oil prices and rising electricity prices so many more New Zealanders in coming years will not be able to afford to pay their electricity bills and will stand at risk of having their electricity disconnected summarily as happened in the tragic incident that many have talked about today. So thank goodness for that! 
I will say a few words about why our electricity prices are rising so dramatically. I well remember back in 1993 when I was newly elected to the Wellington City Council waging a campaign against the sale of Capital Power—the lines company that Wellington City Council owned. There was a move which I and a few others opposed to sell off our lines company to a Canadian company called TransAlta. I think that company bought 49 percent of the shares for about $100 million. Then it managed to take over the Lower Hutt lines company which it onsold. Mark Blumsky now a National MP was one of those who argued strongly in favour of selling our lines company. Those in favour said it would reduce consumers’ electricity prices enable investment in the lines company etc. But of course instead of saving Wellington ratepayers money it has cost us literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. If we had sold Capital Power now we would have millions and millions of dollars. Far from the projected savings all we had was our lines company onsold from one company to another and then it was sold off to Vector. Now we have Vector wanting to sell our electricity grid to a Chinese company—well a number of companies including the State Grid Corporation of China are bidding for it. 
Meantime under Vector’s ownership power prices in Wellington far from declining—as Mark Blumsky the present mayor Fran Wilde and others assured us would happen when we sold off Capital Power—have in the last 10 years increased 600 percent. We have had the extraordinary situation whereby Vector which owns our Wellington electricity company has actually charged more to Wellingtonians than it has to Aucklanders. Meantime an American bank Wachovia with a very questionable reputation internationally owns the grid in the South Island. So basically since the National Government introduced its electricity reforms the situation has gone from bad to worse. The South Island electricity grid should be a strategic asset should be protected and should be in New Zealand ownership. Instead it is owned by some strange American bank called Wachovia—which is no doubt watching over us and watching huge profits being sent off to that American bank at our expense. This explains why our electricity prices are rising so astronomically why electricity has become such a huge concern for New Zealanders and why our prices seem to be rising inexorably more and more. 
It is all really a consequence of the National Government’s reforms which we were told would like the sale of Capital Power result in reduced electricity prices greater competition and greater savings. But of course the exact opposite has happened and now we find ourselves in a situation where electricity prices are rising to such an extent that more and more New Zealanders cannot afford to pay their bills more and more New Zealanders are having their electricity disconnected and we are coming in with a rather feeble effort—nevertheless it is better than nothing—of giving guidelines. This bill gives the Government power to regulate guidelines so that companies like Meridian Energy can switch off power only in certain circumstances not arbitrarily. We have got ourselves into rather a tragic situation with our electricity prices with astronomical increases particularly in the Wellington region. Who would have believed that electricity prices could rise by 600 percent in 10 years when we were sure they were going to come down? 
If only we had done what Christchurch City Council did. It retained control of its lines company. All the people of Christchurch are benefiting from the wisdom and foresight of the Christchurch city councillors who retained ownership of their lines company rather than being like the majority on the Wellington City Council who opposed efforts by me and other councillors to retain control of our power company Capital Power. So whereas Christchurch is benefiting we are faced by this ridiculous situation of astronomically increasing electricity prices and the fact that our electricity lines now stand to be controlled by a State electricity company in China. How bizarre and ridiculous is that? Whether the new owner is the State electricity company of China or one of a couple of other companies that I think are lining up—I think some Canadian company is interested; maybe TransAlta in another guise is lining up to buy it back and make more profits on it—I ask whether it will really have our interests at heart. Will it be concerned about our electricity prices and about the social issues we face when we have increasing prices for electricity food and oil? 
Hone Harawira 
: No they won’t give a stuff. 
SUE KEDGLEY 
: As Hone Harawira says it will not give a stuff. This situation is the consequence of the much-vaunted electricity reforms of the previous National Government. They have got us into the terrible situation we are in today. 
This bill is a very small effort to try to protect vulnerable consumers who are at risk of having their electricity cut off. It does not go nearly far enough but the Green Party is pleased to support this rather modest legislation. Thank you.