An estimated 100,000 New Zealand households struggle to pay their power bills, yet our energy industry isn't set up to service vulnerable consumers, says Ezra Hirawani.
He is doing his best to combat energy hardship with Nau Mai Rā - a kaupapa Māori electricity retailer he co-founded in 2019.
"As long as people are willing to work with us, we won't ever disconnect their power," he tells Kim Hill.
Ezra Hirawani Photo: Supplied
Ezra grew up outside of te ao Māori and connected with his heritage after a life-changing conversation in China.
"I was having a kōrero over there in Mandarin, and my teacher asked me to speak in my native tongue so I started speaking English. She looked at me a little perplexed and said 'can you speak your native tongue?'"
"I said: 'In New Zealand, we speak English.'"
She then asked Ezra if he was Māori. He said yes, but then had to say he didn't know how to speak te reo when she asked him to.
"You probably shouldn't be over here learning about who we are if you don't quite understand who you are," his teacher said.
"I didn't really fancy her for an hour there … but then I realised there was this void in my life that needed to be filled that I didn't know was there."
The Chinese approach to creating services that reflect their specific cultural values makes sense to Ezra.
"[China doesn't] have YouTube, they don't have Google, they don't have Facebook. They have their own versions that reflect the values of their people.
"When I came home and reconnected with [Nau Mai Rā co-founder Ben Armstrong]. We were kind of like 'how can we invent different offerings for New Zealanders?
"What if we could use power consumption as a way to do good for whānau and community?
"There's a problem here - over 100,000 households suffering energy hardship - that no one was willing to touch.
"Yes, there are studies going on about it but in terms of getting into the trenches and solving it, it's been hard to find support in working out a solution that would be viable for these people."
Nau Mai Rā operates on the basis that energy is a right and not a privilege, Ezra says.
Customers are empowered by a business model that forgoes credit checks and promises to never turn the lights off, he says, and only very rarely do people "abuse their kindness" by not paying bills.
"If you can build a really strong relationship with your whānau where you really try to understand what they need, generally they'll repay the aroha by supporting us in that way. It's pretty good."
Nau Mai Rā customers are encouraged to switch to another power company if they can get a better deal.
Māori people exercising the right to choose is "mana mohutake in action", Ezra says.
"We will always choose to support whānau over and before our own profit margins. We've had to do that multiple times in our journey and will continue to do so."
Electricity consumers fall into two tiers, he says - people who can afford to pay for electricity and people who can't.
"It's our goal and ambition to move as many people as possible from tier 2 into a position of greater power where they can move freely between power companies as they choose."
People who don't struggle to pay their bills can support the Nau Mai Rā kaupapa by choosing them as an energy supplier, Ezra says.
"With those who can afford to pay their power, if they switch over to us, we use the portion of your power bill that would generally make a retailer really rich and we put it into our whānau fund at no extra cost to you, as well as charging you less than what you're paying now. And then we use that whānau fund to support those vulnerable consumers.'
"I would ask: 'when was the last time you checked your power bill?' and if you're sitting there thinking 'I don't check it' you are in a position of power. Because those in poverty check it every single day to make sure that the lights don't go off."
Ezra Hirwani is one of three finalists for 2022 Young New Zealander of the Year.
