This is edition 2025/177 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. The Energy Gamble: New Zealand needs stability, not partisanship
Ani O'Brien
- ⚡ New Zealand’s energy system is in crisis, with record-high household power bills, shaky supply security, and stalled investment.
- 📑 A 270-page Frontier Economics review warned that without bold reforms, dry-year risk could drive industry out of the country.
- 🏛️ The Government responded by strengthening the Electricity Authority, boosting Transpower’s role, planning an LNG import facility, and seeking input from industry — but avoided deeper reforms like divesting gentailer shares.
- 🏭 Huntly Power Station is being positioned as part of a new “strategic energy reserve,” an overdue recognition that renewables alone can’t guarantee reliability.
- 💰 Businesses argue high prices stem from years of underinvestment in new supply, with political risk being the main deterrent.
- 📝 Finance Minister Nicola Willis offered capital support for gentailer investments but rejected calls to sell down Crown stakes, prioritising political control over investor flexibility.
- ⏳ Long lead times for energy projects mean clarity and certainty are crucial — something past Labour governments failed to provide.
- ❌ Labour’s ban on offshore gas exploration sent shockwaves through the sector, signalling political instability and deterring investors.
- 🔥 Prime Minister Luxon called for bipartisan stability on offshore exploration, but Hipkins dismissed it as “desperate,” undermining confidence further.
- 🌍 Labour’s stance risks exporting emissions by forcing reliance on imported coal and LNG, making New Zealand less green in practice.
- 🟢 The Greens’ ideological influence has turned energy into a morality play, leaving Labour chasing applause instead of stability.
- 📉 Consequences of political brinkmanship include higher energy prices, weaker competitiveness, stalled investment, and household hardship.
- 🚨 Energy uncertainty equals economic, social, and national vulnerability — stability is essential for sustainability.
- 🧱 Without cross-party agreement, reforms are built on political sand and risk collapse after one term.
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand needs bipartisan, long-term, pragmatic energy policy — not ideology, political games, or short-term optics.
