Consumer NZ today delivered its biggest-ever petition to Parliament, with 82,085 people backing its four-point plan to bring down power bills.
“More than 82,000 New Zealanders have sent politicians a message: the electricity market is not working for households, and power prices must come down,” said Consumer chief executive Jon Duffy.
“Power bills have risen about 20% in the past two years. Soaring power prices are untenable. People want change.”
Research from the not-for-profit shows 55% of people say energy issues will influence how they vote at the upcoming election.
“This is an election issue. People are struggling to pay for an essential service while the dominant power companies report record earnings.
“In the past year, one in four households struggled to pay their power bills and more than 30,000 households were disconnected because they could not afford to pay. Against that backdrop, Genesis, Contact, Mercury and Meridian have announced more than $3 billion in annual earnings and close to $1 billion in net profit.”
Consumer’s report Power. At what cost? identified four drivers keeping prices high: the dominance of the big four power companies, a mechanism in the wholesale market where expensive fossil-fuel generation can set the price for cheaper renewable power, inadequate investment in homegrown generation, and the absence of a durable cross-party energy strategy.
“People signed our petition because they backed our practical plan to tackle those problems and bring down power prices,” Duffy said.
Consumer presented the petition to Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones. Energy spokespeople from the other major parties attended the handover.
“We urged every party to commit to fixing the sector and put affordable power ahead of politics and vested interests.
“Today, tens of thousands of people delivered a clear challenge to those seeking their vote: fix the electricity market to bring power prices down.”
