Electricity inflation fears growing as Z Energy shuts Flick

Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, May 13:

1. Monopoly nation just struck again. Flick Electric is shutting, making the electricity market even more dominated by the big four gentailers: the 51% state-owned Meridian, Genesis and Mercury, and the privately owned Contact.

2. Consumers increasingly fear another winter of power price inflation in an uncompetitive market short of generation after decades of shareholders, mostly both Labour and National Governments, choosing dividends over investment.

3. Then-Energy Minister Simeon Brown emphasised the Government’s disinterest in encouraging more renewable energy generation outside of the big four by ignoring the suggestions of his Climate Change Minister Simon Watts to encourage household solar panel installations. See more below

4. Annual concrete production fell another 1.5% to 2007 levels in the March quarter, thanks largely to the Government’s freeze on housing, hospital, rail and school building investment over the last year. See more below in chart of the day

5. Nicola Willis lashed back angrily at an Andrea Vance column about pay equity yesterday, accusing her of childish and sexist slurs, but doubling down by saying the regime she abolished “had become a Trojan Horse for a multibillion-dollar grievance industry driven by public sector unions.”

6. The US and China signed a deal to jointly cut their reciprocal tariffs from 125% to 10% last night, although that still leaves the 20% ‘fentanyl’ tariffs on China from before ‘Liberation Day’. Container bookings to Los Angeles have already halved. See quote of the day below

(This is a news summary email and podcast I do for paid subscribers. There is more detail and analysis below the paywall fold and in the podcast above.)

The big six this morning