Electricity is farm critical, Select Committee told

At a hearing on the Electricity Industry Bill this morning, Federated Farmers sought more transparency in the sector and recognition of landowner property rights.

“Keeping the lights on and power prices competitive are key objectives for the Electricity Industry Bill but they must not trample over the property rights of landowners or on industry transparency,“ says Federated Farmers Chief Executive, Conor English.

“With electricity prices up 64 percent in the past five years alone, an emissions trading scheme due to kick in on 1 July and a possible hike in GST, we need to knock the upward spiral of electricity prices on the head.

“Federated Farmers wants effective market mechanisms balanced with appropriate regulatory instruments to provide security of supply and competitive prices. We need industry transparency especially when managing monopoly providers.

“The Bill needs to ensure the regulator fully takes account of landowner issues. Transmission lines can’t be built from the sky, so it isn’t helpful if landowner issues are ignored. As we have seen with Maori treaty issues, sweeping grievances under the carpet only builds tension.

“Getting rural representation on the Security and Reliability Council is important. Having the Commerce Commission address landowner’s concerns will be a major step forward. That includes issues of land access, compensation, liability for outages, restrictions on surrounding land use and potential ‘injurious affection’.

“Having lobbied for continuance of supply beyond 2013, Federated Farmers is very happy to see this included in the Bill. It’s a major win for our rural communities,” Mr English concluded.

In answer to questions from Select Committee members, Mr English said farmers had fewer issues with regional lines companies building infrastructure on their land opposed to the national grid operator.

The Federation submitted that the Bill should not in any way prevent water storage projects getting underway. It specifically urged the Committee to include provisions to ensure the Waitaki Catchments Water Allocation Regional Plan be implemented and not disrupted by the proposed asset swap for some Waitaki river power stations.

To view the submission, please click here.