“The Government’s Energy “Security” Package: A Corporate Welfare Scam Wrapped in Economic Fear-Mongering” - 1 October 2025

Kia ora koutou,

The Coalition Government has just delivered what they’re calling an “energy security package” - but strip away the spin and what you’ll find is the most brazen transfer of public wealth to private shareholders since John Key’s asset sales disaster of 2013.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has written letters to Genesis, Mercury, and Meridian promising unlimited taxpayer funding for their “major new investments,” while Energy Minister Simon Watts pushes through a $200 million LNG import terminal that will lock us into decades more fossil fuel dependency. Meanwhile, they’re approving massive coal stockpiles at Huntly and opening the door to every mining extraction project Shane Jones can dream up.

This is neoliberalism dressed up as national security - a deliberate strategy to privatise profits while socialising the risks, all while tangata whenua and working whānau bear the environmental and economic costs.

Background

To understand this corporate handout, you need to know how we got here. In 2013, John Key’s National government sold 49% of our electricity companies - Genesis, Mercury (then Mighty River Power), and Meridian - raising $4.2 billion. They called it the “Mixed Ownership Model,” claiming it would improve efficiency while keeping the Crown in control with 51% ownership.

The reality? Those shares are now worth $11.4 billion - meaning private shareholders have gained over $3 billion in value plus $580 million in dividends that should have stayed with the public. The asset sales were a disaster for taxpayers but a goldmine for the property developers, finance sector parasites, and foreign investors who donated over $2.5 million to National, ACT and NZ First between 2021-2023.

Now, with winter 2024’s energy crisis as their excuse, Willis and Watts are doubling down on this failed model - promising to throw even more taxpayer money at these part-privatised companies while refusing to address the fundamental structural problems their own neoliberal ideology created.

Coal trade data reveals New Zealand’s increasing reliance on imported coal while our own production is exported for profit

The so-called “energy security package” is built on three interconnected lies designed to extract maximum profit for private shareholders while locking New Zealand into fossil fuel dependency:

Lie Number One: The “Investment Gap” Myth
Willis claims these companies can’t raise capital because investors think the government won’t contribute to equity raises. The Frontier Economics report - a consultancy with deep ties to World Bank privatisation programs - conveniently recommends exactly what these companies want: unlimited government backing with no public control.

Lie Number Two: The “Dry Year” Emergency
Watts is fear-mongering about dry years requiring massive coal stockpiles and LNG import terminals, when the real issue is that his government has systematically undermined renewable energy development while opening the door to new oil and gas exploration.

Lie Number Three: The “Market Solution” Fantasy
Watts claims the market approach has “worked in large part” while New Zealand imports over 1 million tonnes of coal annually and households face rising power bills. The market has worked perfectly - for shareholders. For everyone else, it’s been a disaster.

This matters to Māori because these policies directly violate our tino rangatiratanga over natural resources while imposing the environmental and economic costs of fossil fuel extraction on our communities.

The government maintains 51% control while private shareholders profit from essential public infrastructure

The Corporate Welfare Scam Behind Energy “Security”

Let’s be crystal clear about what Willis has actually promised these electricity companies. Her letter commits the Crown to participate in “any equity raise required for major new investments” with no caps, no conditions, and no public oversight - as long as the projects “stack up”. But who decides if they “stack up”? The same private shareholders who profit from every dollar of taxpayer investment.

This is the privatise-the-profits, socialise-the-risks model perfected by neoliberal governments worldwide. When these companies want to build profitable generation assets, they get unlimited government backing. When they want to pay dividends or executive bonuses, they operate as private entities. It’s corporate socialism for the wealthy, rugged individualism for everyone else.

The Frontier Economics report that supposedly justifies this giveaway is a masterclass in neoliberal manipulation. Frontier Economics has deep connections to World Bank privatisation programs and has consistently recommended market-based solutions that benefit large corporations at public expense. Their recommendation that the government “divest its shareholdings” entirely shows where this is really heading - complete privatisation of our electricity system.

The Fossil Fuel Lock-In Strategy

While promising green rhetoric, this government is systematically locking New Zealand into decades more fossil fuel dependency. Watts is pushing through an LNG import terminal that will cost between $80-180 million and tie us to global gas markets controlled by exactly the kind of multinational corporations that have captured our political system.

The coal stockpile scheme is even more damaging. Genesis, Mercury, Meridian and Contact have agreed to stockpile up to 1.1 million tonnes of coal - mostly imported from Indonesia - supposedly for “energy security”. But as the data shows, we’re exporting over 1.1 million tonnes of New Zealand coal annually while importing similar amounts. This isn’t about security - it’s about profit margins and keeping the Huntly units running past their economic life.

Shane Jones, meanwhile, is using the Fast Track Approvals Act to ram through mining projects that were pre-selected during coalition negotiations, including coal mines and gold extraction projects that will devastate local environments while providing minimal local benefit.

The Atlas Network Connection: Following the Money to its Source

None of this is happening in a vacuum. David Seymour’s connections to the Atlas Network - a US-based fossil fuel and tobacco lobby masquerading as a think tank - reveal the international forces driving these policies.

Atlas Network, chaired by New Zealander Debbi Gibbs (daughter of ACT godfather Alan Gibbs), operates over 500 “independent” organisations worldwide to promote deregulation, privatisation, and extraction-friendly policies. The Taxpayers Union, a key Atlas affiliate in New Zealand, has been promoting exactly the kind of policies we’re seeing implemented: asset sales, deregulation, and attacks on Indigenous rights.

Seymour’s laughable denial of Atlas connections, despite documented evidence of his employment at Atlas-affiliated Canadian think tanks, shows how these networks operate - through plausible deniability and front organisations that obscure the real funding sources. The same playbook was used in Australia’s referendum campaign, where Advance Australia (an Atlas member) ran a well-funded racist disinformation campaign that turned a 75% “Yes” vote into a 60% “No” result.

The pattern is always the same: use “independent” research organisations to create policy justification, fund political parties and think tanks to promote the agenda, then implement policies that benefit extractive industries and multinational corporations while imposing the costs on Indigenous peoples and working communities.

The Māori Dimension: Tino Rangatiratanga vs Corporate Rangatiratanga

For Māori, this energy package represents a fundamental assault on tino rangatiratanga - our inherent authority over our lands, waters, and natural resources. Te Tiriti o Waitangi guaranteed Māori “te tino rangatiratanga” over our taonga, including the rivers used for hydroelectric generation and the lands being opened for mining extraction.

Research shows Māori want more rangatiratanga over power generating assets, not less. Whānau interviewed for MBIE’s energy wellbeing research consistently talked about “mana motuhake” - self-determination over energy systems - and supported Māori-owned energy initiatives like Nau Mai Rā. Instead, this government is transferring more control to private shareholders who have no connection to or responsibility for the environmental and social impacts of their decisions.

The mining expansion is particularly offensive to Māori values. Jones is targeting DOC land for extraction, including areas of cultural significance to tangata whenua. His “dig baby dig” rhetoric shows complete contempt for kaitiakitanga - our responsibility to protect the environment for future generations.

A mere 2% reduction in wholesale electricity prices could add $3 billion to New Zealand’s economy - if corporate profits weren’t the priority

Implications

The Broader Corporate Capture Project

This energy package is just one piece of a comprehensive corporate capture strategy. The Fast Track Approvals Act removes environmental and cultural protections to fast-track extraction projects. The Treaty Principles Bill aims to extinguish Māori rights that might interfere with resource extraction. The RMA reforms will gut environmental protection. All of these policies serve the same corporate interests while imposing the costs on Māori and working communities.

The Economic Colonisation Continues

Just a 2% reduction in wholesale electricity prices could add $3 billion to New Zealand’s economy, according to the government’s own figures. But instead of pursuing policies that would actually reduce prices - like re-nationalising electricity generation or implementing a windfall profits tax - they’re subsidising private shareholders and locking us into fossil fuel dependency.

This is economic colonisation: extracting wealth from our natural resources and our people to benefit foreign shareholders and local elites. The pattern is always the same - socialise the costs, privatise the profits, and use cultural and environmental destruction as externalities that don’t appear on any corporate balance sheet.

The Climate Emergency Hypocrisy

While signing international climate commitments, this government is systematically undermining renewable energy development and locking us into fossil fuel infrastructure that will operate for decades. The LNG terminal alone will commit New Zealand to importing liquefied natural gas until at least 2050, exactly when we need to be achieving net zero emissions.

The Māori Green Lantern Fighitng Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

The Coalition Government’s energy package is corporate welfare disguised as national security policy. It transfers billions in taxpayer wealth to private shareholders, locks us into decades of fossil fuel dependency, and systematically undermines Māori tino rangatiratanga over our natural resources.

This isn’t incompetence - it’s the deliberate implementation of a neoliberal agenda designed to benefit the extractive industries and multinational corporations that fund National, ACT and NZ First. The Atlas Network connections, the Frontier Economics recommendations, and the Fast Track mining projects all serve the same master: maximising corporate profits while imposing the environmental and economic costs on tangata whenua and working whānau.

We need to expose this scam for what it is and demand real energy security based on renewable generation under public control. That means re-nationalising our electricity system, investing in community-owned renewable projects, and recognising Māori rangatiratanga over energy development.

The choice is clear: corporate rangatiratanga that serves overseas shareholders, or tino rangatiratanga that serves our people and our taiao. As our tīpuna knew, you cannot serve two masters. It’s time to choose whose side we’re on.

Nā Ivor Jones, Te Māori Green Lantern
Kaitiaki o te taiao, kaiwhakakē i ngā kōrero huna

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Mauri ora.