Mike's Minute: Here's why we need the LNG facility

I don’t blame Chris Hipkins and Co. for a moment, calling it a gas tax. 

That’s politics when you are in Opposition, especially when you have no policies yourself. 

What I despair about is yet another chapter of myopic nonsense around dumb words for cheap points. 

The truth is comparatively simple and most of it is indisputable: we need more power supply than we have. 

We need more reliable power supply than we have. We got caught dangerously short in the winter of 2024. 

Labour, in turning off the gas, wrecked the industry and caused untold damage. 

The Huntly coal deal is part of the solution. 

An LNG importation facility is another part. We need a power supply tap because hydro, wind, and solar isn't it. Even if it's the bulk of supply, it's reliant on things we can't control. 

So far so good, we all agree. 

The cost of LNG is a billion-ish. Someone has to pay. The Government could pay by borrowing more but, wisely, they choose not to. 

The industry could pay through a levy. That is what we have chosen. 

Will they pass it on? Yes, why wouldn’t they? 

Do you like that? No, why would you? 

But at all times we come back to the basic issue: do you want heating in winter, every winter, like a first world country? 

Do you want business to be able to operate at full capacity like a first world country? 

So it isn't a tax. A tax is a forced payment by Government, that’s not what this is. 

It's an increased power bill to eventually get a power bill that wouldn’t have been as high if we hadn't built a back stop for supply. 

It's the cost of rectifying an embarrassing wrong. You might want to remember that when you vote. 

Fixing broken stuff costs money. It's human to want others to pay for stuff but that’s not how life works. 

If you want a spot price of $800 in the dead of winter, the highest price in the world, then doing nothing will work well. 

We need more emphasis on the future, and on improvement, and less on the petty and the political point-scoring. 

I wouldn’t have thought any of that is complicated. 

You might not be thrilled, but it's not complicated. 

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