Concession for S.L promised

Press, 27 February 1980, Page 2

Concession for S.L promised

PA Invercargill The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) has promised South Islanders a price concesson on electricity for industrial and domestic use under a Labour government. This could be done in a number of ways, he said. One was providing power at the cost of production. Another was a substantial reduction in the heavy interest charges paid on the generating account. Mr Rowling, who was addressing the Labour Party’s Otago-Southland regional conference, told delegates: “Let me remind you that 50 per cent on average of your personal power bill goes out in interest charges.” There was no way under a Labour government that domestic users would be asked to subsidise cheap power for industry or to pay for “irresponsible election bribes,” Mr Rowling said. Overseas interests had been talking recently about cheap power here, he said. “There are National Party cabinet ministers who talk about cheap power. Let me make it quite clear that

..there is no such thing as cheap South Island power. “That power is not cheap. Generations of New Zealanders have invested in its development, have gone without, and in some cases had paid for it with their homes and their livelihoods.”.

A Labour government would sell power at the top of its true market value, Mr Rowling said. “In addition, the right to renegotiate on .that value must remain in our own hands,” he said.

There would be no more deals in which energy was sold off without regard to its future changes in value. A Labour government would not accept any project in which New Zealand did not nave the final control firmly in its own hands. “But I emphasise here that control does not have to mean total ownership,” he said.

“It does not in any way mean purely a State operation. It does not mean that we turn our backs on what overseas interests may have to offer in terms of investment and know-how.”