Alliance calls for public control of power after Transpower revelations

Alliance Party media release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday 1 February 2006

The Alliance Party says revelations about price gouging by State power company Transpower have only one solution: the return of electricity to full public control.

The Commerce Commission says in a report released yesterday that Transpower has breached its price "thresholds" by about $110 million since 2004.

Alliance Party co-leader Paul Piesse says electricity must be returned to real public control and run in the public interest.

Mr Piesse says the failed "market model" of electricity is behind the corporatisation and privatisation of power, and is simply a "vampire like scheme to drain the purse of ordinary working people."

"It is simply bizarre that a State owned public company is operating in a way that is against the interests of the public."

Mr Piesse says price controls would be a good initial step.

He says the same problems affect both corporatised State and private owned power companies, both models which are aimed at benefiting the business, rather than the public.

The Alliance Party is campaigning to make electricity a public good, controlled by the public through democratic structures, with a goal of supplying affordable power to New Zealanders.

ENDS

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