Energy Hardship Update - special issue

September 2021

Energy Hardship Expert Panel announced

“Turning on the power is as essential as having a home to live in and putting food on the table. Energy hardship is real with many children affected.”

Those are the words from Keri Brown, a Hutt City Councillor, DHB board member and the chair of the newly appointed Energy Hardship Expert Panel, which was announced on Friday last week.

Keri is passionate about working for better outcomes for communities and families, and prior to becoming a councillor worked as a senior national advisor for the Family Start programme, which helps whānau support the development and education of their tamariki.   

The other members are Pacific health leader Dr Amanda-Lanuola Dunlop, beneficiary advocate Kay Brereton, former electricity executive Kevin Angland, and Helen Leahy, head of Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency for the South Island.

The members have experience working directly with households in or at risk of energy hardship, and collectively have insight into the lived experience of energy hardship, particularly of Māori and Pasifika, disabled people, low-income families and other groups at higher risk.

The panel members are also leaders in their field or community, and as a group have insight into the broader societal issues that contribute to energy hardship.

You can find their short biographies below.

Why an Energy Hardship Expert Panel?

The Electricity Price Review (EPR) found that energy hardship is a pressing problem, and children are over-represented in affected households. The causes of energy hardship extend beyond the electricity sector, and the solutions require joint action by government, regulators and the industry. Reducing energy bills is as much about improving housing quality, consumer information and education, and energy efficiency, as it is about lower prices.

Following a recommendation to government by the EPR, Ministers have appointed this panel to recommend policy priorities and actions to government.

What will the Panel do?

This panel will have a key role in advancing the government’s initiatives to alleviate energy hardship, and the five members have been appointed for their specialist knowledge and expertise across a range of areas.

The Panel will also provide impartial, evidence-based expert advice and identify where existing energy hardship initiatives can be improved or better leveraged.

Their work programme will in part be drawn from the Electricity Price Review’s energy hardship findings and the government’s response to its recommendations, and will be refined when the Panel convenes.

The Panel has been appointed until 30 June 2023 and it will work alongside the soon-to-be-established Energy Hardship Reference Group that is being set up to provide a forum to share information and encourage coordination across industry, NGOs and government agencies.

Panel members

Keri was previously a senior national adviser for the Family Start programme, which works with whānau to improve children’s health, education and relationships.

Dr Amanda-Lanuola Dunlop

Dr Amanda-Lanuola Dunlop (Samoan, Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui) is chief executive of Vaka Tautua, a charitable trust that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Pacific peoples. She has more than 25 years’ experience working in health policy development, relationship management, research and evaluation. Amanda-Lanuola has held a variety of roles spanning central government, academia, a district health board and not-for-profit organisations. She holds a PhD in Community Health.

Helen Leahy

Helen Leahy is the pouārahi/chief executive of Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency for the South Island. She has extensive experience working with Māori communities and whānau, and has a long history of community and regional involvement in areas of children, health, hardship, education, vulnerable communities and welfare, and as a senior ministerial and policy advisor.

Kay Brereton

Kay Brereton is the manager for the Beneficiaries and Unwaged Workers Trust and co-convenor of the National Beneficiary Advocacy Consultative Group. Kay has been a beneficiary advocate for more than 16 years and has extensive experience on focus groups in areas such as welfare, housing and service alignment. She received a Queen’s Service Medal last year for services to welfare of beneficiaries.

Kevin Angland

Kevin Angland has several years’ governance experience as a director of the Electricity Retailers’ Association of New Zealand where he oversaw strategic work with an emphasis on supporting vulnerable communities. He also has executive experience with electricity gentailer Mercury that included working on programmes to reduce energy hardship. His leadership in the technology and digital sector was recognised in 2014 when he was named New Zealand CIO of the year.

The Energy Hardship Reference Group

Thank you to all those who submitted nominations for the Energy Hardship Reference Group. This process was temporarily paused until the Energy Hardship Expert Panel appointment process was completed. We will now be working to continue to assess all nominations and to form this group.

Read more about the Energy Hardship Reference Group

Stay tuned for more updates

Our regular e-news, the Energy Hardship Update, has been interrupted due to COVID-19 but will be resuming. We look forward to sharing more with you soon.
 

Find out more

See the Energy Hardship webpage for more information about our work and progress updates.

Contact us

We welcome any thoughts or questions about this area of work, and any interest you might have to be involved. For further information, please contact the Energy Markets Policy team by emailing energymarkets@mbie.govt.nz.

This update is brought to you by the Energy and Resource Markets (ERM) branch, part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. ERM is the steward of two regulatory systems, the energy system and the Crown-owned mineral and petroleum system. These systems are connected – we need resources to make energy and we need energy to extract resources.