How many members saw Grey Power Federation president, Gayle Chambers of TVNZ’s Breakfast Show last month?
While on an advocacy visit to Parliament, Gayle was interviewed by Breakfast presenter, Ali Pugh regarding the impact of rising electricity costs on New Zealand seniors.
For those who missed it, Gayle addressed the implications of a predicted 5% rise in electricity this year on top of the 12% increase last year, particularly for seniors (and others) on fixed incomes.
She said that many seniors were adept at budgeting but the new power pricing meant there were no more dollars in seniors’ budgets to stretch.
She pointed out that over the next five years the electricity industry was predicted to earn some $6billion from price rises.
“[Therefore] Shareholders should contribute up to half the costs of upgrades yet lines companies and Transpower don’t want to absorb any costs; instead, they are putting them on consumers.”
Gayle also questioned why upgrades had not been budgeted for over the past five years thus easing the burden on consumers. Asked if the Winter Energy Supplement would assist seniors to manage the price hike, she conceded it would if used wisely but said already stretched budgets often ate up the payment in other ways.