New power rise 'highway robbery’

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 6

New power rise 'highway robbery’

South Island local bodies should get together and do something about the “vicious” rise in electric power charges, the Christchurch City Council said last evening.

The Mayor (Mr H G. Hay) South Island Local Bodies’

•To them, it smacks of higheven the Arabs to shame.” The chairman of the public utilities committee (Cr M R. Carter) said the rise could be from 40 per cent to 50 per cent for M.E.D. consumers. That was only a guess, but was the best that could be

Last week’s Cabinet decision seemed “almost purely political.” said Cr D. F. Caygill. It could be a case of raising charges in the Government’s first year, then holding them to the end of its three-year term.

Mr Hay said it was a regressive form of taxation, a move awav from continual

rises in income tax and into! indirect taxation through commodity prices. “It seems a very major,! sudden change in Govern-' ment thinking,” he said. The problem of paying! higher power bills was bad; enough for the ordinary con- i sumer. councillors said, but workers could be directly! affected if industries either! decided not to expand be-; cause of power costs, or de-: cided to move away from' Canterbury. Many consumers might I have to resort to wearing! long underwear to keep ; warm during the winter, Cr! !Clark said. She took a set, ' of red woollies from her drawer, and said that even ! they would be expensive. I She wondered if the Govern-. ment might consider a sub-! sidv for body insulation, as! well as the one for home insulation. ; The “vicious increase” was; 1 caused partly by the Govern-i

ment s reluctance to hold down interest rates, said Cr P. J. R. Skellerup. The Electricity Division of the Ministry of Energy faced an interest bill of SI73M in 1979. compared with a S3OM bill in 1968. “The public of the South Island should rise up one and all and protest, regardless of party affiliation,” Cr Skellerup said. “Power bills are high enough now, if not too high.” “The citizens of ChristI church and the South Island expect somebody to do ■ something,” said Sir Robert Macfarlane. “Surely someone is expected to stand up.” Cr Vicki Buck said the savings to the Electricity Division would be countered by spending in social, services. There was no way for some | families to budget for the increase, and more people would default on their power ;; bills through no fault of • i their own.