Friday 1 June 2012
Death by disconnection: ‘Fuel poverty’ issue missed in Muliaga case
An analysis of hundreds of print media stories on the death of Auckland resident, Mrs Folole Muliaga, after her power
was cut off by Mercury Energy in 2007 has found that the wider issue of ‘fuel poverty’ was largely ignored.
The University of Otago, Wellington study by Kimberley O’Sullivan, Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman and Dr Geoff
Fougere looked at how the print media reported this case, and the themes of 368 stories from metropolitan papers.
“This is an interesting study as it shows how the print media covered a controversial and tragic case over a long
period, and the key angles followed by journalists and editors,” says Kimberley O’Sullivan.
The study concludes that while newspapers concentrated on four key themes, they largely ignored the economic and social
factors which may cause power to be cut off to low income families when they can’t pay their bills.
These structural issues result in an inability to afford enough power for domestic use, and households slipping into
‘fuel poverty’. This has been defined internationally as where a family or individual needs to spend more than 10% of
their income on energy to have a warm home.
“Newspaper stories focused on the health of Mrs Muliaga and the personal tragedy for her family, conflicting evidence
about why power was cut, institutionalised racism, and who was ultimately responsible for the power being disconnected;
the Muliaga family or Mercury Energy,” Mrs O’Sullivan says.
However, the study says fuel poverty is a developing health issue resulting in cold damp houses which can make people
chronically sick. It has been previously highlighted by University of Otago, Wellington research published in the
prestigious UK British Medical Journal in 2007 and 2008.
The study concludes that public health advocates and energy NGOs missed the link between Mrs Muliaga’s death and the
wider social and health issues relating to poor housing, low income and fuel poverty.
Regulation changes following this case now require electricity companies to only focus on maintaining supply to people
with medical problems, rather than addressing the issue of security of supply to people on very low incomes.
This contrasts with countries like the UK where there have long been subsidies and assistance to avoid people falling
into the ‘fuel poverty trap’.
“The 40% increase in real power prices (or an 80% increase in the nominal price) since 2002 by government-owned
utilities and private companies is now a health issue, causing some low income households to ration power usage and live
in cold, damp and unhealthy homes,” says Professor Howden-Chapman.
The study appears in Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online and was funded by the Health Research
Council of New Zealand.
ends