Bollard blasts high prices

Prices are determined by market forces. If prices are high in regulated markets (all the ones he mentions), it means that there are genuine reasons involved. If markets are competitive, anyone charging a price higher than the market will not sell. You think he would still remember his 5th form economics.

Peter you need to do a bit more research into how the energy industry works.

1) if you distributed the salaries of all the directors and ceos of all the network cos and energy companies into every power bill evenly in NZ you might get a $50 discount of your annual power bill. Their salaries are small in comparison to the big picture.

2) the retailer sets their price based on what the Network company sell the power at, and in turn the network pay the generator for the power used, all 3 of these entities control the price, not just the retailer.

Network \ infrastructure costs determine the bulk of the price, and fair enough, youve got millions of dollars of aging equipment to maintain (years of government under funding to thank), so why shouldnt the consumer pay ? after all were the ones that use it.

Electricity and Gas are products like anything else, the comnpanies that sell it arent charities and shouldnt be expected to operate like one.

As for council rates, break it down into a daily cost then tell me its not good value for money ? $5 a day for rates get you water, sewage taken away, roads to drive on, footpaths, clean streets, recycling in some places, rubbish collection, all that costs money and lots of it.

In responce to #30 , i find it very hard to understand the electricity costs in NZ you say there is little profit at residential level . Where is the money going ? . NZ has 75% hydro electricity output not the highest in the developed world but not far from it . We read where directors of the energy companys are on multi million dollar salarys , wouldnt you think 1 miliion a year would be enough , no its not its multi millions . I am now an ex-pat but spent last summer in NZ our monthly electricity bill was the same as what we pay in australia for 3 months . 3 times the cost of australian electricity . Because NZ is 75% hydro it should have the cheapest electricity or close to it in the developed world its only commonsense. Its greed & mismanagement and no gov control or not enough govt control . The same thing is happening with food & many other areas including local councils are all jumping on the band wagon and you wonder why the most beautifull country in the world is going belly up . one word GREED.

So how far away is the business tax cut? In the current climate the retailers will squander it away in no time to out do the guys down the road ...

Peter if you read Marks post you would see that those large profits are being made from large businesses not the poor down trodden residential customers (who are the ones who complain).

People might say well make prices lower for residential customers, but when youre talking $50 a year maximum profit from a residential customer is it really worth it? is it good business practice ? no.

Funny how people dont complain to oil companies and the government when they fill up their car every week, (I bet they make more than $50 a year) yet are first to moan at power prices which have very low profit margins (for residential).

well said Mr Bollard, result what??

Banks make 4.8 billion minimum every single year and then cut jobs, thats a helluva lotta Milk we need to produce just to cover that, every single year! Cant see banks contributing to the environmental mess producing milk alone creates, probably lend us some money for the clean-up at wicked rates. All banks have done for us is to provide unlimited credit to get us into the bubble, which when it pops makes everything cheap to scoop up. Lets see 4.8billion * 24 years (1984) is approx 100 Billion.(for??) I suspect when the time is right, these aussie Banks will be able to purchase a very large slice of NZ, and do it with our very OWN MONEY!!!

Roger Douglas, I hope you wake up to yourself before you pass on, may God forgive you.

"New Zealand has become a country who bows to shareholders first"

So become a shareholder.

Now if wages had kept pace with these increases there wouldn't need to be a call to reduce prices, but alas New Zealand has become a country who bows to shareholders first.

Alan Bollard has the power to make the banks behave. He should start setting the OCR at 2% below the floating home mortgage rates of the banks.

In response to #24 , Mark may i suggest you read the profit margin that energy companys in NZ are making , it is scandlous to say the least .