Matt McCarten: Now's the time to vote to keep power in the hands of the public

I got a cheque for $310 at home the other day from my electricity supplier, and when I got to work, there was another cheque for the same amount.

The only other time I got a cheque like this was three years ago, when there was an election for the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust, the majority owner of Vector.

Funnily enough, there is indeed another election on at the moment for the same body. The cheques went out to a quarter of a million homes in Auckland City, Manukau City and Papakura District.

If you got a cheque, you and the rest of the voters in your household will get a postal ballot on Wednesday asking you to vote for five trustees who will control and determine the future of Vector. Now before you yawn and nod off, let me tell you why it's really important.

Some right-wing politicians have been moving for some time to sell off our electricity supply to multi-nationals. The results of this election will determine whether we keep Vector in public control or not.

Even if you don't particularly care who owns our electricity supplier, you should know that if it's sold, the cheque you just got will be your last. Instead of the profit coming back to us, it will go to whatever corporation grabs it. And power prices under private owners will go through the roof. This election is about public ownership of Vector.

There are three slates of candidates in next week's ballot, all professing to be acting in our best interests.

I know the record of most of these candidates, and there is only one group I believe will hold the line against privatisation: the Powerlynk candidates.

It was a crime against future generations when the old publicly owned Electric Power Boards were given away to local governments or specially created Trust by the National Party in the 1990s.

The Waitakere and North Shore cities quickly hocked their new assets for a short-term cash windfall (no one remembers what was done with the money), and their residents now pay a multinational for the privilege of using the asset they once owned. These new owners don't give their profits back to the community but whip them offshore.

I have no doubt at all that if the right-wing politicians grab control in this election, it won't be long before Vector assets of nearly $6 billion go on the international auction block. Of course, the corporation that buys Vector then ups the price to a captive customer base to pay off the loan raised to buy it. The new foreign owner makes a bomb, the foreign bank makes a bomb, and the local people pay the bill.

Fortunately, for those of us who want to keep Vector under public control, we have a real chance, because this time the right-wing politicians have fallen out and are running two tickets that will split the centre-right vote. This should allow the centre-left Powerlynk ticket, led by lawyer Shale Chambers, to win, if enough of us vote.

The right-wing split has been a messy affair. Former National Party president John Collinge, a current trustee, has fallen out with former National Party MP Warren Kyd, also a current trustee. Collinge has formed a Just Power ticket because he claims that the C&RN ticket led by Kyd is controlled by Act ideologues. But Collinge's critics say there are Act and National Party activists in both camps.

This leaves Chambers' Powerlynk ticket, backed by the Labour and Green parties, a real chance to gain a clean sweep. Although Chambers was the only centre-left candidate to win a place on the Trust last time, the distrust between the other four right-wing trustees has meant they have elected him as deputy chair and a director of Vector, instead of electing one of their own. Mind you, he is very talented in his own right, and I concede that may have something to do with it, too.

The trouble for voters is that all three tickets are saying they will keep Vector safe. Collinge and Kyd pledged during the last election that they would "Keep Vector in public hands". We now know that within nine months of being elected last time, they sold off a quarter of the Vector. The only trustee to vote against the privatisation was Chambers. The other four trustees who voted for selling a share of Vector are running again and tell us once more they will keep Vector in public hands.

The three tickets all talk about other issues, like more under-grounding of power lines and the role of Vector directors. Non-Vector residents found out that once their power company had been sold, the undergrounding work ceased. That's because the new owner wanted to milk its new asset, not make the community look better. Undergrounding in Auckland, Manukau and Papakura will stop, too, if Vector is sold.

Only one in five of us bothered to vote in the 2003 Trust elections, and the right-wingers got four of the five places. They then sold off a quarter. If enough of us don't take a moment to vote for the Powerlynk candidates, then I believe the rest of Vector will be sold to a foreign buyer within a year.

Make sure your ballot is returned by Labour Day, otherwise it won't count. This election we really do have a choice that matters.