“Treasure it,” Woods said when host Patrick Gower marvelled at the rare sight of bipartisanship.
It was also one of the first glimpses of Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong footing it with some of Parliament’s heavy-hitters: Woods, Seymour, National’s Simeon Brown, New Zealand First’s Shane Jones, and the Green’s Chlöe Swarbrick.
Wong was good enough in the debate for Gower to ask Brown, National’s campaign chair, whether he liked what he was hearing.
“What I like is a good party vote for National,” Brown responded.
National is already losing votes to New Zealand First.
The last thing Brown would want is to send a signal to soft National supporters that voting for Opportunity – still shy of the 5% it needs to enter Parliament but pushing 3% in some polls – could still be supporting a National-led Government.
Political lines between more likely governing partners were drawn on the question where you’d think there’d be consensus: do you support the concept of a national energy strategy?
Woods, Swarbrick and Wong raised their hands. The Cabinet ministers disagreed.
“Depends what it is,” Brown said in justifying his lowered hand.
Seymour added that the electricity market (meaning the energy market) was delicate and complex.
“We’re not doing this policy topic justice with this sort of rubbish.”
The danger of inertia lay in the next exchange, when Jones said he would “cut you in half [the four gentailers Contact, Meridian, Mercury, and Genesis Energy], I don’t care what Seymour says”.
Seymour had said he’d veto such a move in a Government he’s part of.
If they all end up vetoing each other, what can an MMP environment deliver to a sector which, in times of high prices and high uncertainty, needs action?
On voters’ minds
Energy is at the centre of what remains the most pressing issue in voters’ minds: the cost of living.
Prices rose 13.2% in the year to April, as crunch factors continued to bite including domestic supply crunches – especially in relation to gas, where proven reserves are about 25% lower than last year – and the war in the Middle East, which has seen the largest monthly fuel price increases in over a decade.
These compounding issues have seen mills and food factory closures across the country, from Hawke’s Bay to the Ruapehu district to, in the case of Heinz Wattie’s, main city centres.
Not that no action is happening.
The Government has, for example, a four-phase plan for the current fuel crisis, a $200 million plan to co-invest in new gas fields, and an LNG terminal plan for energy security by winter 2028.
The big four gentailers have also agreed to stockpile up to 1.1 million tonnes of coal at Huntly Power Station.
Seymour, Brown and Jones also strongly hinted that the $350m-a-year moving from fees-free into trades training – to be revealed in detail on Budget day next week – will benefit electricians, including for solar.
Everyone at the debate wanted more renewable generation, but there isn’t enough at the moment if Mother Nature doesn’t come to the party for our hydro, wind, geothermal, or solar generation.
Brown talked up fast-track, and the four consents given to renewable energy, asking to muted silence if the legislation would be scrapped under a Labour-led government.
‘Wrong direction’
When the subject turned to subsidies, Swarbrick highlighted the hundreds of millions of dollars for supporting gas exploration, and a planned $1 billion on an LNG terminal.
“The Government can find this money to move us in the wrong direction.”
This sentiment was shared by Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who gave a short speech before leaving the debate to Woods.
He pledged that the LNG terminal would be scrapped under Labour. “There’s no future for gas but that is what the current Government is trying to tie us to.”
Brown retorted that the LNG proposal and the stockpiling of coal was a response to a need to “be realistic”.
“We need back-up generation.”
He was open to subsidies but there was a high bar, given the need for fiscal support in health, education, or law and order.
Seymour was against subsidies in general and said the energy market is working, pointing to falling ASX futures prices.
He hinted at campaigning on lowering line charges, calling them a “missed opportunity, both because of recent increases in weighted average cost of capital, and the role of transmission and distribution in supporting new generation”.
Wong said Opportunity would ring-fence the $500m a year in Crown dividends from its majority ownership of three gentailers, for decarbonisation and electrification.
Jones wanted to “refine” fast-track, arguing that the inevitable environmental trade-offs would be worth it.
He had no issue if the energy the country needed came from renewables.
“But I’m not going to buy into writing fossil fuels out of the script. If you disagree, meet me at the ballot box.”
Like Jones, Swarbrick also wanted to break up the gentailers, pointing to a member’s bill in the ballot that would do just that.
“It’s not a silver bullet,“ she conceded, but had been raised by small players to enable more players in the market.
She also pushed for expanding the Ratepayer Assistant Scheme for loans for solar, and supercharging home insulation.
Jones said he was wary of offering solar subsidies to those who “largely should be doing that themselves”.
He added he’d be open to subsidies for businesses that were finding it hard to transition away from fossil fuels.
At this point, his phone rang.
“It’s Winston,” he quipped. “I didn’t have authority to announce that.”
It’s not surprising that there isn’t stronger political consensus in the energy space. They’re different parties. They’re meant to have different ideas on how to improve energy prices.
Multiple reports over the years, however, have lamented how governments undo what the previous Government did, and how short-termism and a lack of bipartisanship have hindered long-term planning in critical sectors like energy.
And any voters watching would be forgiven for thinking there wasn’t much on display to convince them their power prices were about to start falling.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.