S.I. power bills ‘hurting elderly’

Press, 4 July 1979, Page 6

S.I. power bills ‘hurting elderly’

PA Wellington A 25 per cent reduction in bulk electricity prices for South Island domestic consumers has been demanded in Parliament by Mr N. P. H. Jones (Nat., Invercargill). Elderly people in the South Island were going cold because they could not afford to pay their bills, he said during the Budget debate last evening. Pointing to the Cabinet benches, Mr Jones said it was blatantly unfair and discriminatory that South Islanders had to pay the same price for electricity as people in Auckland, who had access to alternatives such as natural gas and did not have

to put up with such cold weather. Mr Jones said that his last power bill for two months was more than $B3. While he could afford that much, there would be many more who could not.

He painted a bleak picture of conditions in Southland. It rained there an average of 157 days a year, the average temperature day and night for the last 15 years was 9.5 deg., the wind blew 34 knots or better 48 days a year, and on 32 days a year Southland suffered hail and sleet and sub-zero temperatures.

“You can’t exist on the same amount of electricity that you can exist on in Auckland,” he said. “We expect to get at least a 25 per cent reduction in bulk electricity charges for domestic consumers in the South Island.” Mr Jones said he was not going to join the campaign for a separate South Island government. “But I can well understand the concern of those who say, ‘Well look, we are being disadvantaged’.” Not many people in Auckland would be paying an average of $lO a week for their power, he said.