So, New Zealand's electricity situation is urgent, eh?
Well it's not surprising at all. Thanks to Max Bradford's electricity industry stuff-up, er, sorry - "reforms" in 1998, the power industry was "deregulated" and broken up into privately owned lines companies, privately owned retail companies and a mix of state owned and privately owned generator companies.
Now, to have one organization to plan for expanded use and expansion of the electricity network would be logical. But apparently that's not, according to Mr Bradford and his party! No, it's more logical to have the "market" (which is an entity in itself, apparently) control the electricity industry. The market is meant to fix all of our problems. The market is meant to be able to plan for expanded use and expansion of the electricity network. But... oops, little Max forgot to realize that: 1. Fragmenting the industry would result in the duplication of effort, 2. These privately owned companies would screw their customers the first chance they got, ie, with things like "line charges" (there goes that little fantasy of his that power prices would "go down". LOL), and 3. Because state owned enterprises, such as Genesis, Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy are obligated by law to behave like private businesses, they're perfectly entitled to buy up the customer bases of struggling power companies. (No, they're not "distorting" the market. They're merely players in the market, like every other company - so don't go complaining about renationalization. It's not.)
Because of the stuff-up, er, "reforms" started by Mr Bradford, we're now in the situation where the country can't effectively plan for the future, energy wise, and power prices have gone up. We're looking at a future where electricity is going to be unreliable, which means that homes and businesses will suffer, eventually driving us into third world status (What business would want to invest in a country that has an unreliable electrical supply? How will people be able to heat their houses and cook their meals if the power is constantly going out?). The only way to fix the situation is to reverse the reforms, nationalize the electricity companies and consolidate them under ONE organization, as in the days of ECNZ. Or, of course, we could go further down the same path, as advocated by National and ACT, and further privatize the industry, leaving it fragmented and unable to save itself (and the country), so to speak.
Way to go moron.