National pours cold water on Government campaign telling people to take short showers to save on power bills in cost-of-living crisis

National is ridiculing Labour over a new Government-funded advertising campaign that urges people to take five-minute showers and do cold washes to cut their power bills during the cost-of-living crisis.

Energy Minister Megan Woods launched the advertising campaign this morning – on the same day the Reserve Bank announced a further lift in the Official Cash Rate (OCR), a move that is likely to push interest rates up further. It is part of a promotion of Budget funding to extend a programme for retrofitting homes with insulation and heating.

Called “Find Money in Weird Places”, the campaign by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and Consumer NZ sets out five tips to trim $500 off a power bill.

They include taking five-minute showers, washing clothes with cold water, setting the heat pump at 21C maximum, switching off appliances at the wall when not in use, and checking whether you can get a better deal with another electricity supplier.

Woods said the ideas were not new but small changes could make a big difference. However, National MPs and Act were quick to mock the campaign on Twitter.

Chris Bishop, who chairs the party’s election campaign, said it was risible that the Government had resorted to telling people to take short showers as a solution to the cost-of-living crisis.

“Kiwis need some leadership, not a lecture. The Government has called its campaign ‘Finding Money in Weird Places’. Clearly, this campaign shows one weird place Labour could find some savings would be its own bloated bureaucracy.”

However, Labour has hit back - sending a link to a 2009 press statement from then Energy Minister, National MP Gerry Brownlee, launching a “new and large scale” television advertising campaign by EECA called Energy Spot. That set out similar measures to cut power bills. In the statement, Brownlee said he had “championed this project because I believe New Zealanders are hungry for good and authoritative information.”

Woods said EECA had regularly run campaigns to help people be more efficient with their power and save on the bills. “It is their job. This is nothing new and is strikingly reminiscent of National’s Energy Spot campaign.”

The launch coincided with the Reserve Bank’s decision to lift the OCR by 0.25 points to 5.5 per cent – and while the bank is not expecting to make further increases, it is expected to remain high until well into 2025 while inflation eases.

Bishop said the hike was needed only to counter “wasteful spending” by the Government – and the ad campaign was further evidence of that spending.

Act leader David Seymour said the campaign and its timing was “condescending.”

“Grant Robertson just cost a family with a half million dollar mortgage $2,500 over the next two years and his colleague Megan Woods is now handing out tips on how to save $500.

“It’s like a burglar coming back to a house they’ve robbed to tell their victim how to stay safe.”

It is not the first time showers have seen Labour ridiculed in an election year. In 2008, it came under fire for a proposal to restrict high-flow shower heads – a move that was dubbed nanny state.

The latest campaign will include television ads, as well as posters at bus stops and malls, in social media and in print throughout winter. A brochure will also be sent to the 500,000 homes that collect the Winter Warmer Payment.

Woods also highlighted the $403 million allocated in the Budget to expand the EECA’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme to June 2027. As well as insulation and heating, it will now cover hot water heating upgrades and energy-efficient LEDs.