Political Power: Qiulae Wong, The Opportunity Party

Описание: Qiulae Wong recently became leader of The Opportunity Party and, as she tells Mike Casey in the second episode of our new series Political Power, she has been on the electric bandwagon for a while now.

Check out the full interview here⚡https://loom.ly/lPbGwfA

When she and her partner returned from London, they looked a getting a hybrid but instead bought a Tesla with an assist from the Clean Car Rebate; they upgraded their electric heating to a more efficient heatpump with the help of a green loan; and the next step is getting solar - although, as she says, being the leader of a political party doesn't leave much time to go through the quotes.

Her dad is pretty pro-gas, something she says is common in Chinese circles, but she showed him how their induction cooktop worked last Christmas and he was amazed at how responsive it was.

When it comes to getting New Zealanders off gas, she says it's an equity issue. That's why the Government needs to help those who are least able to afford the electric upgrades and will eventually get stuck with the rising costs and why she's also supportive of the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme, which would offer low-interest, long-term loans to homeowners.

While she thinks we need significant reforms of the energy market, she says we also need to stop the flip flopping between Governments and, in a similar way to places like Ireland, build a vision that Kiwis can believe in.

"This is where we're going. We could be the most electrified, cheapest renewable energy country in the world. And that's in our DNA. It's kind of what we're built on and people know us for. But we're starting to lose a bit of that reputation internationally."