Power plan ‘beyond commission resources’

Press, 24 February 1986, Page 2

Power plan ‘beyond commission resources’

Preparing a proper plan tor amalgamating New Zealand’s electricity supply authorities was beyond the Local Government Commission’s resources, according to the Supply Authorities Action Group. The commission’s seven staff could not produce a properly researched plan to deal with power boards within two years and amalgamate the country's 200 local authorities at

the same time, said the action group’s spokesman, Mr Maurice Dimock. “By requiring the commission to produce a plan to reduce the present 61 power boards to 20 or fewer within two years, the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, has virtually doubled an already impossible workload,” Mr Dimock said. Without a proper plan, the Government was rushing the commission into

disrupting an established, smoothly working system,' without first finding out what benefits there would be for power consumers, the action group said. The action group formed last week when 11 North Island power authorities against forced amalgamation banded together. Each council has pledged $5OOO to fight its campaigh, and it is supported by the national Electrical Supply Authorities Association executive.

Its purpose was to tell the public how people’s rights would be eroded by badly planned amalgamations.

Its membership was likely to increase as all other power boards had been Invited to join it, and the Port Hills Energy Authority in Christchurch had discussed joining it.

The Government’s call for amalgamating power authorities was based on “a bureaucratic theory that bigger is better,” Mr Dimock said.

This was “nonsense,” as Ministry of Energy statistics showed seven small power authorities were selling electricity to their consumers more cheaply than either the Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department or the Auckland Electric Power Board, he said. Mr Tizard had apparently been fed “misleading information” by Wellington bureaucrats to justify forced amalgamations.