Christmas is coming and so is the bill from Lines Co.Press Release 23.10.11

Address to constituents by Dr Peter Cleave, Mana candidate for Rangitikei.23.10.11
Christmas is coming and so is the bill from the Lines Power Company.
The metering policy of the Lines Company in the Central Plateau area is outrageous and unnecessary. I have earlier described the smart metering policy as smart gouging. The way this works is that the bill for the month of highest power use is applied to every month of the year. Fair Go has done some excellent critical work on this.
There has to be a better way to charge for power.
If we were to take a hypothetical case of a family with a major event like Christmas and a whole lot of relations turned up from Australia, say and needed accommodation and in so doing consumed power then the Lines Company metering policy of taking this, the highest billing month, and applying it to the rest of the year is wrong and reprehensible.
The most dangerous aspect of all this is that precedents are being set. If one power company does this so will others.
That could mean that the forgotten communities that I am trying to reach and represent in the Rangitikei found in other areas will be affected in the same way. In New Zealand our population is spread out. If you live a long way from anywhere, say in the Urewera or on the East Coast then your friendly power company might not be such a good mate when it comes time to send you an account.
I am Peter Cleave and I am standing for the Mana movement in the electorate of Rangitikei.
Christmas is coming and so is the bill from the Lines Power Company. Anybody got any candles?