Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Opinion

Covid 19 coronavirus Delta variant: Editorial: Why all of NZ needs a Winter Energy Payment and fast

Chris Hyde
By Chris Hyde
Editor, Hawke's Bay Today·Hawkes Bay Today·
19 Aug, 2021 02:43 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Many Hawke's Bay households are facing large power bills to heat their homes during lockdown. Photo / NZME

Many Hawke's Bay households are facing large power bills to heat their homes during lockdown. Photo / NZME

Chris Hyde
Opinion by Chris Hyde
Chris Hyde is the Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.
Learn more

EDITORIAL: When I woke to a new lockdown dawn on Wednesday morning the first thing I did was turn on my heat pump.

It's exactly what thousands of other Kiwis would've done too. This lockdown is different in one extremely obvious way.

It's cold.

By the end of the day my live readings from my power company showed I had used $4 more power in the day than I would have if I'd jumped in the car at 6.30am and headed straight to the comparative warmth of the Hawke's Bay Today offices.

I can live with that. It's a small price to pay for being warm. But if this lockdown continues for any length of time, and all signs are that it will, then I would call on the Prime Minister to extend her Government's Winter Energy Payment to everyone.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Henare O'Keefe.
Henare O'Keefe.

The payment of roughly $20 a week for single people and $32 for couples, which is currently only paid to those on benefits and over 65, would go a long way to easing the fears of vulnerable people stuck working from home.

If it's not clear to you yet why this sort of socialised response is needed, Flaxmere councillor Henare O'Keefe has described many houses in his community as "like igloos" and the inability to heat them in coming days "will kill".

"They are barely making ends meet now," he says of those in his community hardest hit through lockdown.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I've even heard of a couple who have broken pieces of their own furniture to burn to keep warm."

This lockdown is in place for our health. But there is nothing worse than sitting in a cold, poorly insulated house, not wanting to turn on the heater for fear of huge power bills.

And next month's bill could be huge. Transpower's supply woes in recent weeks have been well documented and earlier this week a generation fault in Hawke's Bay saw the spot price for electricity soar in the region to more than $230,000 for a short time on Monday morning. It usually sits between $150 and $300.

The RSV spread has been a reminder of just what other fallout can come from lockdowns. The last thing we need is a wave of bronchitis and emphysema and every other condition that comes with waking up in a house with ice inside its windows.

For the sake of our community's health and bank balances, the Prime Minister needs to put money in all of our pockets. Extend the Winter Energy Payment to all.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorbike rider seriously injured in Central Hawke's Bay crash

Hawkes Bay Today

'Far out': Napier ice swimmer's intense sensation after pushing himself to new limit


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning
Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning

'Quite persistent heavy rain' expected overnight Thursday and into Friday morning.

16 Jul 01:20 AM
Motorbike rider seriously injured in Central Hawke's Bay crash
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorbike rider seriously injured in Central Hawke's Bay crash

15 Jul 11:58 PM
'Far out': Napier ice swimmer's intense sensation after pushing himself to new limit
Hawkes Bay Today

'Far out': Napier ice swimmer's intense sensation after pushing himself to new limit

15 Jul 10:24 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP