Hon Roger Sowry MP National Party Energy Spokesman
26 May 2004
Hodgson haunted by hysterics and history
"Pete Hodgson should apologise and resign over false accusations levelled at the National Party when it first raised the
prospect of power black-outs in the South Island," says National's Energy spokesman Roger Sowry.
In a media statement on 04 October, 2002 the National Party warned of 'brown-outs and black-outs' in the upper South
Island after reviewing page 130 of Transpower's own System Security Forecast.
"Mr Hodgson responded with a stream of abuse, accusing the National Party of 'scaremongering', of 'making blatantly
untruthful claims', of 'making grossly misleading claims', of 'making demonstrably false claims', of 'an appalling
readiness to mislead' and of being 'desperate and dishonest'. "Mr Hodgson said of National's then Energy spokesman,
Gerry Brownlee, that 'his leader must sack him'.
"Time has shown us who should be sacked for showing 'ignorance of how the electricity system works'.
"National's worst fears are proving to be absolutely correct. Transpower predicted these problems.
"It's time this Minister and his Labour Government faced up to the real threat posed to our electricity sector by the
nonsensical Resource Management Act," says Mr Sowry.
ENDS