A soliloquy for the week to March 2

The Electricity Authority has proposed forcing the big four gentailers to offer the same hedging contracts and prices for wholesale electricity to their smaller competitors as they offer their own retailing arms internally. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

Long stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the week to Sunday, March 2 were:

1. Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop proposed replacing council-set development contributions with a suite of new tools for councils to fund infrastructure for housing, including development levies regulated by an unnamed Government regulator, and targeted rates on new and existing residents to help pay for pipes and roads, including motorways.

2. In an effort to encourage more competition and reduce inflation for households and businesses, the Electricity Authority proposed forcing the big four gentailers (Meridian, Genesis, Contact and Mercury) to offer the same hedging contracts and prices for wholesale electricity to their smaller competitors, as they currently offer their own retailing arms internally.

3. The Principals Federation wrote to Assistant Education Minister David Seymour demanding he cancel the national contract for the cut-price and centralised school lunch system provided mostly by Compass, and instead fund schools to deliver lunches locally again.

4. Another batch of councils, the Government and Government-controlled firms with market power¹ announced double-digit price and rates increases this week, adding to an inflation shock from capital costs being shifted into consumer price increases by the Government as it moves to shift costs on to consumers and councils, and debt to councils and others, instead of increasing its own debt.

5. NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking clashed with PM Christopher Luxon repeatedly in their weekly Tuesday morning interview after Luxon refused to say whether or not he would have sacked Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly (See quote of the week below), raising fresh questions about Luxon’s leadership and style.

6. Without the usual formal days-in-advance warnings, submarine-supported Chinese warships fired live rounds under the flight paths of passenger jets flying between New Zealand and Australia this week, demonstrating China’s ability to shut down trade. cut cables and block movement anywhere in our respective shipping lanes, airspace and sea floors, especially now New Zealand only has enough diesel and jet fuel to last 18 days since the closure of the Marsden Point refinery.

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the video and podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

---

Substack essentials elsewhere this week