Editorial: A lost opportunity

OPINION: If Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee came to Nelson expecting a frightful roasting on Monday night he must have gone home feeling that he had got off lightly, while the members of his audience were left with little to rejoice in.

Nelson Grey Power, which has long campaigned against the steady and unjustified climb in electricity prices, worked hard to persuade the minister to come. It booked a 600-seat venue and invited not only its 12,000-plus Nelson membership but the wider public too.

Instead of a hall packed with people bristling with anger about their power bills, Mr Brownlee was faced by an audience numbering little more than 100 – and some of those were National Party members there to lend him support. He was asked searching questions and not left in any doubt about the dismay caused by power bills which rose 72 per cent between 2000 and 2008 when the Consumer Price Increase went up just 29 per cent. But this was a far cry from a demonstration of a community in revolt, and to that extent it was an opportunity lost.

Mr Brownlee didn't have much encouragement to offer, either. His message – that he wants to see price increases flatten out – is the same one he has been putting out for months. It isn't what power consumers want to hear. A captive market, they know that the electricity industry, particularly the power generators, are guilty of legally-sanctioned overcharging on a massive scale – $4.2 billion over seven years. It's a faint hope that any of that money will be paid back but the people of New Zealand are surely able to expect that a stop will be put to this sort of exploitation.

The minister, however, is not dishing out any such assurances. Allowing lines companies back into the business of power retailing is a step in the right direction, and he says that a long list of recommendations from his ministerial taskforce will be implemented, without promising the greater price controls that power users want. There is no comfort to be taken in his suggestion that New Zealanders should switch electricity companies more often to encourage them to treat their customers better. That hardly looks like an appropriate government response to a problem which is of real concern to many people – even if most of them stayed at home on Monday night. Mr Brownlee has some way to go before convincing anyone that he's giving the cost of power the attention it deserves.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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