Christopher Luxon's 'ghost data centres'
PM says NZ 'open for business again' & all about 'growth, growth, growth'; Then announces $7.5b data centre plan that was initially announced in 2021 & is actually stalled due to surging power prices
Briefly in my Picks ‘n Mixes of news from our political economy this morning:
PM Christopher Luxon repeated yesterday that ‘New Zealand was open for business again’ and his Government was all about going for ‘growth, growth, growth.’ The comments came as he promoted a $7.5 billion data centre plan from Amazon that was first announced by the-then Labour Government in 2021 and is actually stalled because of a surge in power prices. Newsroom
Luxon’s ‘growth, growth, growth’ proclamation came as Christchurch-based appliance chain Smiths City closed its doors and was put into voluntary administration. RetailNZ also released the results of a survey in the June quarter showing 62% of its members didn’t meet their targets for the quarter and nine percent doubted they would survive the next quarter.
Adding to the Government’s cost-of-living woes ahead of next year’s election, The Electricity Authority formally warned yesterday wholesale prices were likely to surge because of a shortage of rain and not much snow to melt. EA statement.
The polling continues to sends warning signals to the Government. The August poll results from Roy Morgan showed the Opposition on 50% support, 3.5 percentage points ahead of the governing coalition parties.
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