It’s unfair we pay for those in the north

There’s an old saying about a change being as good as a holiday. I’ve always found this curious as people love holidays, but often find change confronting.

A changing world informs our actions and it’s amazing to see how our behaviours change depending on the technology available to us.

This was evident before and after the cruise I took during my two weeks’ leave in February.

In port in Auckland many people – predominantly the younger ones, but I can’t say I was innocent – were almost permanently attached to their mobile devices.

When we were far away enough from shore for normal service to fade, people were suddenly in a world without free or cheap Wi-Fi.

People actually had to talk to each other.

They were playing all sorts of games, watching movies together, talking at the bar, and just generally relaxing.

It was refreshing, but as soon as we were back within earshot of Auckland, our respective devices were turned back on and the ‘‘bing, bing bing’’ of digital notifications flooded in.

I have to admit I was one of them as I started to catch up on emails.

Older people tended to continue chatting back onshore but the younger ones were straight back into being engrossed with whatever was on their screens.

Sometimes I wonder if technology draws us closer together?

In many ways it does, but in other ways we’ve never been further apart.

Is this true of communities nowadays?

We live in an increasingly digital world.

All Southland district councillors have the option of receiving their agendas digitally – and most take this option.

As our world changes, we must adapt.

Accepting and adapting to change is something many of our North Island counterparts are trying to get their heads around in relation to proposed changes in electricity transmission pricing.

The Southland District Council was one of 202 organisations and individuals which made a submission on the Electricity Authority’s review of the Transmission Pricing Methodology.

Submissions closed in late February.

Southland District along with the Invercargill City, Gore District and others spearheaded a campaign encouraging people in the south to make submissions.

About 25 submissions from the south argued that at the moment the way transmission prices are spread out across New Zealand isn’t fair or equal.

We simply argued for the south to be given a fair go.

Here in Southland we shouldn’t have to pay more than our fair share in transmission costs.

We have a global competitive edge with hydropower generation on our doorstep – but a fair transmission pricing system is needed to maximise this potential.

We should not and cannot continue to subsidise costs for people living further north, especially when we pay more for other things such as roads because of where we live.

Consumers in Southland pay the same rates for electricity transmission that consumers further north pay.

North Island users consume 80 percent of New Zealand’s power, but are only charged for 66 percent of transmission charges.

The way costs are spread out doesn’t just affect residential

households. It also affects Southland’s industries.

When Southland is trying to attract more industries and people, the advantage we could have through a fair pricing system is lost.

The Electricity Authority’s Board, in whose hands our fate rests, expects to make its final decisions in April this year.

The submissions were made electronically, but for me you can’t beat a face to face conversation to get your point across.

I’ve been having plenty of these during the past few weeks at Community Development Area elections around the district.

Changes to community representation in Southland have impacted our towns and rural areas in different ways.

Some have embraced the vision of communities future-proofing themselves as populations vary and boundaries change, while other are still in the process of adjusting.

Councillors are one strand of representation but Southland district has long prided itself on bottom-up democracy through community boards and community development areas.

Next year’s representation review will be another step on that journey towards encouraging local decisions to be made locally.

Change can be confronting, but if we face it we’ll be better off in the long run.