Media Release, Monday 8 October 2012
‘Your Power Team’ attacks misleading advertising in AECT election campaign
The YOUR POWER TEAM contesting the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust (AECT) election has slammed billboard advertising by
the C Group who are claiming credit for the $320 dividend recently paid to electricity consumers in the old Auckland Electric
Power Board area.
Spokesperson for the Team, former Auckland Royal Commissioner David Shand, said that in reality the dividend was due to
the good management of the Vector lines company of which the AECT owns 75%. It is quite misleading for the C trustees to claim credit for this. The C group are well aware that, given a recent decision by the Commerce Commission requiring Vector to reduce some of its
prices, it is most unlikely that the dividend can be maintained at this level. C group is not being honest with the public, he said.
Mr Shand said that the current trustees add little value to the operations of Vector but nevertheless pay themselves
exorbitant trustee fees totalling $350,000 per year for the five trustees. If this work is so complex and demanding it
is curious that the AECT’s most recent annual report to its members is only one page in length. It has got to be time
for a change at the AECT, says Mr Shand.
ends