The Insider

Raining money

The latest financial results from the electricity industry prove that the security and profitability of NZ’s power supply is inextricably linked to the weather. It’s another reminder that for the big gentailers, when it rains, it pours — into their bottom line. And when it doesn’t rain, up go wholesale prices, and pressure on electricity retailers who don’t have generation capacity. Some of the Government’s bigger brains are starting to think even more seriously about the impact of this weather dependency, and how it might affect their climate change targets.

Limbo-land

One short-term problem in the electricity business is that everyone is waiting to see what the promised review of the sector will do. It has been announced, re-announced, draft terms of reference circulated, but still no one knows who is going to do it or what direction it will take. The problem is that meeting the Government’s ambitious targets for the sector will take a lot of investment in new generation, and no one is going to contemplate spending anything like the amounts needed until they know what the rules might be.

Budget blues

The rubber is starting to hit the road as the new Government puts together its first Budget. Treasury officials have been making it very clear to departmental bosses that they will have to find money within their budgets to meet the “new priorities of new ministers”. Stand by for phrases such as “progressive implementation” and “staged management to build up capacity” — Treasury-speak for “there is not enough money to do that now”.

Counting Kiwis

Are Stats NZ officials getting nervous about the census? In the past, people were hired to knock on doors, deliver forms and follow up (pictured). This year, Stats NZ has gone online — a letter is sent out, people must open it, then log on to provide their information. If they don’t want to, or can’t, do it that way, they have to phone in and request a form, which must be delivered, opened, filled in and returned. There are some heroic assumptions involved in t hinking t he vast majority of people are motivated enough to do all these things. Could this census record one of NZ’s biggest-ever population drops?

Old dogs, new tricks

Retirement means different things to different people. Annette King has found herself running the Earthquake Commission as the new Government reaches out to old talent to fill emergency gaps. Meanwhile, Sir Michael Cullen is still fighting the good fight at ground level, with his re- election as chair of Labour’s Eastern Bay of Plenty branch.

Puppet show

The Backbencher pub’s unveiling of its latest parliamentary puppets shows that in politics, some things never change. While Jacinda Ardern made her first appearance, Winston Peters is in his eighth puppet incarnation, seeing off Bill English and Gerry Brownlee, both headed for the exit door.

Baubles of office

The whips from all parties appear not to be keeping a careful eye on new MPs, some of whom have been racking up fairly hefty travel bills in a short time. Some new junior Ministers also seem to be revelling in the Crown limousines, apparently not realising how much they charge, and how bad it can look to stand out from the pack.

Pipe down

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty (left) leapt to his feet when he saw a National MP using a phone in the House, to complain about it being inappropriate. In the Chair, Anne Tolley said McAnulty was quite right, but noted that he interrupted the speech of a Labour Minister in full flow to make his point. “I do suggest to the member that he might want to wait until his Minister has finished speaking in future. It’s career-enhancing.”

Open government

Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran has pledged to help create the most open government ever, but has been a bit more open than she wanted to be. Her proactive release of a Cabinet paper on setting up a committee to look at state-owned media included bits blacked out. Unfortunately, the blacking out was not very effective and revealed, among other things, that she was pushing for an extra $38 million annually for public media in Budget 2018, to be split between RNZ and NZ on Air. More such openness will be welcomed by the media, not so much by Curran’s ministerial colleagues.