The Green Party says today's inflation figures show power prices are once again a key driver of the cost-of-living crisis, and reinforce calls for a National Electrification Plan.
"Stats NZ has today confirmed what households are feeling, with the cost of keeping the lights spiralling out of control," says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
"Electricity rose 12.5 percent in the year to March, four times the overall rate of inflation, and for the third quarter in a row power has been the single biggest contributor to annual inflation."
"Too much of our inflation is imported, as New Zealanders can feel every day with petrol prices soaring. Every time global fossil fuel markets spike, New Zealanders pay the price with this imported inflation."
"When the biggest drivers of inflation are electricity and petrol, Government has the power to put its hands back on the wheel of the economy, getting us off fossil fuels and powering Aotearoa with the cheap, renewable, homegrown energy abundant all around us."
"A Plan to electrify our economy would insulate households from the imported inflation of volatile global fossil fuel markets, drive down power bills for good, and cut climate pollution at the same time. The Greens know a more affordable country is possible, and this is how we do it," says Swarbrick.
