Welcome aboard Peter - better late than never

The National Party's welcoming the support of United Future Leader Peter Dunne as it pushes for action on the looming energy crisis.

"Welcome aboard Peter, better late than never," says the National Party Energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee.

"United Future has finally woken up to the fact that New Zealand is facing an energy crisis this winter - just today we've seen Contact Energy push up prices for its Wellington customers.

"It's taken months, but Peter Dunne's finally asking questions about what the Energy Minister's doing to limit looming power shortages and inevitable price rises.

"It's now clear that industry considers the shortfall in our future generation capacity to be a hurdle to economic growth.

"That should be of huge concern to a Government which has thrown its stated economic growth targets into the too hard basket.

"The Johnny come lately Mr Dunne also suggests this issue raises 'significant' questions about the Government's ability to manage the crisis - the same Government that Peter Dunne supports.

"At last he's realised the Government's PC focus on sustainable, renewable energy will not deliver the dividends required in the short term.

"There needs to be more urgency to solve the problems and I welcome Mr Dunne's support for National's efforts to get the importance of this issue recognised," Mr Brownlee says.

© Scoop Media