Grey Power President in Napier

The new Grey Power Federation President, Southlander Terry King, spoke to a crowd of over 100 local members at the Napier and Districts Grey Power association meeting in Tamatea yesterday. On his first tour since being elected to lead the 67,000-member Federation in early May, Mr King told the meeting that a major concern is rising electricity prices affecting vulnerable elderly people especially during the winter period.

“The last census told us that there are 147,000 pensioners who do not own their own homes, and 73,500 of them live below the poverty line. So rising power prices mean they have to make the hard choice between eating or heating,” he said.

“The domestic electricity consumer is being ripped off, as senior staff chase higher and higher remuneration and successive governments bleed more and more money from the electricity market. In Parliament in March this year it was revealed that the government itself had extracted $610 million in dividends from Transpower alone since 2011.

“The electricity industry has turned into a gravy train at the expense of the public,” Mr King said.

A big step forward for Grey Power last year was the announcement in September of Grey Power Electricity, which offers reduced electricity charges to Grey Power members.

“There has been a tremendous response throughout the country,” he said. “In many areas, savings big and small have been made.”

However, Mr King said the Federation wants to see electricity reform to reduce the exorbitant line costs which companies cannot control.

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