Grey Power: Rising Power Prices

In today’s NZ Herald there is an article on rising power prices, what is new?

If it is not the retailers of electricity increasing their prices it is the lines companies, the price rises contained in this article are clearly the responsibility of the lines companies, it seems to be a matter of whose turn it is this time, lines company or retailer.

Who has the responsibility to control lines company prices? It is the Commerce Commission? What are their criteria which allows these increases one wonders?

Grey Power condemns these actions and asks what is the purpose of these rises and who are the beneficiaries of them? It is certainly not the long suffering consumer.

The Electricity Authority has the responsibility of controlling the retail prices of electricity, but rather than regulating they prefer to sit on their hands and hope that competition will do it for them, to date there has been no evidence that this strategy is working. In the mean time those on fixed incomes such as the elderly are continuing to suffer.

Could it be that the elderly, those on benefits or the low wage worker are expendable?

Electricity is an essential service which the government fails to recognise and it is about time they did and did something to contain the price of this essential product.

ENDS

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