Hon Tariana Turia

Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector

Wednesday 15 December 2010; 4pm

Launch of the Community Energy Network

Turnbull House, Wellington

Delivered on behalf of the Minister Speech

Your Worship Celia Wade-Brown, Mayor of Wellington;
my parliamentary colleagues; tena koe Kevin (Hague)
Mike Underhill, Chief Executive of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority;
distinguished guests;
and all of the Network members who have travelled from across the country – from the Community Business and Environment Centre of Kaitaia to Awarua Synergy in Bluff.

I am delighted to be here with you all to celebrate the launch of the Community Energy Network.

The writer, Samuel Johnson, once said that “Genius is that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates”.

Today’s launch is a perfect example of that genius at work.

Together you have reached out hands across the nation, to establish a collective of community organisations.

Your origins are sourced in the solid foundation provided by the Energy Efficiency Community Network. Today your project grows even stronger, transforming into the Community Energy Network, creating a new identity and a new incorporated society.

As the Minister responsible for the Community and Voluntary Sector, I want to share with you my great enthusiasm, and my support for the service you are providing. I witnessed this for myself, when I visited one of your housing projects in Rotorua earlier in the year.

I think one of the things that appealed to me most was the self-help, self-driven nature of your project.

You have made the transformation so easy – the opportunity to carry out your own makeover project from a cold, damp house to a warm and healthy home is only a phone-call away. Over the last two years, through the use of 0800 phone calls, emails, visits and community events to you have been able to provide advice to over 3,000 people; high quality advice which really makes the difference.

Just how effective your home energy advice pilot centre has been is evident in your recent success in taking out the Community category for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority 2010 annual awards. For this, I congratulate you and, on behalf of all our communities, I thank you.

I want to really emphasize the transformative aspect that you bring to communities.

And I am reminded that Community is in itself a word which is essentially about common-unity; bringing the people together.

Mä te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai tatou – in unity we have strength.

Your network includes groups from all over New Zealand which have championed the ‘healthy homes’ concept for low-income, high-need households in communities.

And so I want to just publicly acknowledge you all:
He iwi tatou trust in Moerewa
Community Environment Business Enterprise Centre in Kaitaia
EcoMatters Environment Trust in Auckland
Huntly Energy Efficiency Trust
Energy Options in the Bay of Plenty
The Waitara initiative for sustainable employment
Sustainability Trust in Wellington
Community Energy Action in Canterbury and
Awarua Bluff

Even just from your organisational names, we know that while energy efficiency is your primary driver, there are a whole lot more benefits happening as a result of your mahi.

You are contributing to local economic development by supporting employment opportunities.

Any profits you reap are being returned back to the community through initiatives such as curtain banks – where recycled curtains are provided at no cost to members of the community who might not otherwise be able to afford them.

Some of you have very strong links with local whanau, hapu and iwi and are working together on sustainable community development. Some of you are focusing efforts around protection and preservation of freshwater.

And through it all you are continuing to provide independent expert and unbiased advice to householders about how to mange their budget, to reduce their energy bills and how to stay warm without excessive cost.

I want to congratulate you on the practical help that you offer families on the best insulation and heating options for homes. And I am of course aware that a large number of the people you support come from lower-income families – families who may not otherwise have the means they need to make their homes warmer and healthier.

Of 860,000 houses in New Zealand that have no insulation, or are under insulated, 235,000 of these are occupied by people on low incomes. As a result of your assistance, many of these householders benefit from warmer, more comfortable and healthier homes.

What you have realised of course – is what has also been reinforced by a combined universities study, which found that a relatively modest investment in insulation per house of around $1,500 results in:
fewer hospitalisations for respiratory conditions;
a lower risk of children having time off school;
fewer adults in the workforce having sick days off work;
reduced energy bills; and
an improved sense of comfort and wellbeing in the home.

It has been a key concern to me, that even with the Warm Up New Zealand initiative, we might still be missing out on supporting our low income households to be warm, safe and saving energy and income.

I know that the requirement for households to be able to front up with even a third of the funding has been a struggle, and that is a key concern for me that I want to address to the Minister of Energy and Resources.

I understand that there has also been a recent move from some of the more commercial organisations to indicate interest in the tenders for retrofitting and insulating houses.

My hope would be that they uphold the same sense of corporate social responsibility – that sense of supporting communities to support themselves – by working with and alongside of community organisations.

Finally, I want to encourage you to continue in the amazing work you are doing.

Good health – of our people and our environment - is crucial if we are to thrive as a nation. We cannot underestimate the importance of the work you are doing to make both the houses and the environment we live in healthier. Everyone benefits – children, their parents, and grandparents, as well as the wider community through better health, environmental and economic outcomes.

Householders benefit from warmer, more comfortable and healthier homes.

Families have reduced energy bills and fewer illnesses.

And community organisations thrive on outcomes that they can own for themselves

I want to congratulate Sally Blackwell – your extremely impressive executive officer who as your one and only employee has had the enormous task of coordinating the collective of communities that are seeking to come together to forge a new way ahead.

The establishment of the Community Energy Network will give you the ability to grow and include new organisations. You can now look to the future, using what you have learned as a network over the past years, to continue to pursue your vision of community enterprises working together towards affordable and equitable energy options for all New Zealanders.

I come back to the statement I began with: Genius is that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates”.

I am delighted to launch the Community Energy Network, and in doing so to thank you for all your initiative in collecting experience, combining skills, amplifying the importance of these issues and animating our communities into action.

ENDS

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