While our community safety may not be threatened, the financial reverberations have quickly reached our shores, with the fuel price at the pump being a daily scorecard of the impact on personal finances.
The magnitude of impact on our national finances is emerging but certainly significant.
Presciently, New Zealand First has long been a champion for national fuel security. My colleague Shane Jones is the Minister in charge of developing a National Fuel Security Plan, an outcome of our coalition agreement with National.
The reckless actions of the previous Labour government and the Greens left us in an incredibly vulnerable position leading into these tumultuous supply chain disruptions. They allowed the closing of the Marsden Point oil refinery, the banning of new oil and gas exploration permits, progressed the Lake Onslow white elephant, and perversely, led us to become more dependent on Indonesian coal imports.
Thanks to New Zealand First and Minister Jones we have recently mandated fuel companies to store more fuel onshore. We have a Fast Track RMA process to get a wave of new renewable energy projects consented expeditiously. We are investing heavily in geothermal via the Regional Infrastructure Fund and lifted the oil and gas ban to incentivise exploration.
In short, we’re throwing the kitchen sink at energy generation and supply.
And we must go further.
At the ‘State of the Nation’ address last weekend, our leader Winston Peters outlined a bold energy policy platform that New Zealand First is taking to the election; putting an end to New Zealanders being rorted by the gentailers. We will campaign on splitting the retail and generation businesses to create genuine competition within a regulated price mechanism.
The Bradford reforms of the ’90s have failed and we are calling time on them. Households and businesses can no longer afford to carry the cost.
Individual energy resilience in the form of solar will also be rewarded. We will regulate to guarantee a fair price for energy exported to the grid — sensible, bold and impactful interventions.
The 1000-plus crowd at the State of the Nation address loved it. We hope long suffering residents of Dunedin will as well.
