General Debate 24 July 2026

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CJames

In the rush to virtue signal on “renewable” energy, NZ political parties are not learning the lessons of overseas. No doubt they will say it is different here. Reality says otherwise. New York State had rolling blackouts earlier this month because they had run out of generation. They had closed down fossil fuel and nuclear plant, then the unreliables couldn’t deliver. Those problems were very underreported – I wonder why?
Then there are rooftop solar schemes being promoted here that will cause the subsequent midday glut, turning the duck curve into a duck canyon. https://www.powermag.com/epri-head-duck-curve-now-looks-like-a-canyon/ We are getting near zero pricing here already on windy and sunny days so the issue is having an impact that will get worse.
Australia still offers big subsidies for rooftop solar https://www.energy.gov.au/solar/financial-benefits-solar/government-rebates-and-loans-solar that can’t be used. They then offered interest free loans and subsidies for domestic batteries, so all the rich people got the biggest batteries they could and the budget has blown out – now $8.5B. They subsidise household generation, grid wind and solar, and the coal fired stations to stay on because the others don’t provide system strength and are unreliable and unpredictable. Then they subsidise large industrial consumers because all of the generation subsidies have made power too expensive. Why do you think the areas with the most wind/ solar have the most expensive power? Could it be the cost of making it reliable is a lot more than they admit?
With the grid batteries, Australia is finding there are so many that their economics have been destroyed https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2026/04/is-a-battery-correlation-penalty-looming/ but they still want to install more. And they don’t do what the advocates claim, provide generation when the wind dies. That was the recent experience in South Australia when the batteries were empty at the start of the lull and gas turbines needed for generation. https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2026/06/24june-bess-operations-retrospective/ SA has got so bad that they are warning people that they won’t guarantee continuous power because it will cost too much. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/sa-power-prices-hike-reliability-gold-plating/106937396 And they have electricity near twice NZ prices.
Transpower is already shutting down wind/ solar plant at times because there is too much unreliable power threatening system strength & stability. The unreliables are on at an effectively zero cost ($.01/MWh) so bringing on replacement will be more expensive. This instability in pricing will get worse, destroying the economics of all power generators, so nothing new will be built. That won’t make power to consumers any cheaper.
We know the Greens are economically stupid in promoting these schemes that screw the average person, but why did National have to have a “hold my beer” moment? Or is this just yet another case where the feelz outweigh the facts?
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July 24, 2026 8:00am
- peterwn
  
  I have wondered that myself. I suspect it is politically expedient to be effectively two faced with this. There is political capital to be made by threatening to rein in the gentailers like splitting retail from generation etc, knowing the gentailers will ignore the threats and just keep carrying on providing additional generation within the parameters set.
  A figure I would be interested in, is if the gentailers stopped making a profit then how much the price of electricity would actually reduce. My guess is 5% or less which would come nowhere near the significant reductions the airheads talk about.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:30am
  - CJames
    
    As they pay for new stuff out of the profit and only give a 3-5% return to shareholders, I suspect not even that Peter.
    
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    July 24, 2026 8:33am
Cassandra

The Nash fiasco: good riddance, he had no political sense. But there’s an even bigger issue – the email which undid him was a private one to former National MP Christopher Finlayson, who promptly released it publicly.

Finlayson is the nastiest person I’ve ever come across and now he’s demonstrated that he’s the nastiest person that Nash has ever come across.
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July 24, 2026 8:01am
- peterwn
  
  I do not see that had anything to do with it. Nash cooked his own goose and Winston recognising the political the comment was dynamite moved to control the damage. He did not need prompting from Chris Luxon. Now Chris Hipkins is going around blaming all and sundry for the debacle making out that he was the hero by booting Nash out of Cabinet.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:44am
  - Cassandra
    
    If Finlayson had not publicised the email then it would have remained private, wouldn’t it?
    
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    July 24, 2026 8:47am
    - mike
      
      And Nash’s toxic opinions would have been concealed till the inevitable next incident.
      
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      July 24, 2026 9:04am
- pdm
  
  Cass – have you ever watched the Finlayson/Goff podcast called Cross Party Lines which appears on You Tube every Tuesday?.
  
  Finlayson never misses an opportunity to lay into anything that involves Peters/Jones or NZFirst.
  
  So he was never going to let the opportunity Nash handed to him slip away.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:45am
  - Cassandra
    
    Precisely, pdm. He seems to me to be quite nasty. The question must be: why did Nash engage with him?
    
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    July 24, 2026 8:49am
- MCōs
  
  If, as you allege, Finlayson is a nasty, two timing backstabber, what was Nash thinking sending him such a ridiculous text.
  It wouldn’t have mattered who he’d sent the text to in the National Party it would have come to light.
  Nash is an idiot
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:52am
CJames

The Climate Change Commission is very concerned that NZ is not reducing its emissions fast enough. https://www.climatecommission.govt.nz/reports-and-evidence/publications/2026-monitoring-report-emissions-reduction/ They still promise nirvana if we move to a new low emissions economy. Yeah Right. If it was so good, we would have already moved.
The organisation certainly can’t read the room. Almost all the politicians may say they support the aims but does the population? In Australia, pollsters three quarters of the population were not prepared more than $1 a week to get to Net Zero by 2050. https://ipa.org.au/research/poll-attitudes-towards-net-zero Why would NZ be any different? Why hasn’t a similar poll been done here? Though I suspect it has been but the results haven’t been published because they are so bad.
But to prove the CCC are right-on, they published a summary of their report in Maori. Shows where their priorities are. Another counterproductive quango to chop perhaps?
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July 24, 2026 8:04am
Nukuleka

I see ex- footballer Gary Lineker is one of 120 rich Britons who have written to newly crowned PM Andy Burnham telling him to tax them more. Lineker has been employed as the highest paid BBC commentator for 25 years, feeding greedily from the taxpayer- funded public trough, and espousing his woke social and political ideology as a sideline. Of course all 120 are free to make personal donations of cash or stocks to the British Treasury should they so desire but it would seem public virtue signaling is far more to their tastes.
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July 24, 2026 8:16am
- CJames
  
  Yes in the letter, they set the limit that that the 2% wealth tax cuts in as ten million quid. What is the bet that most of the signatories are worth just under that. I wonder if it is a coincidence?
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:20am
- peterwn
  
  In NZ there is a Westpac account where you can pay voluntary taxes if so inclined. It was publicised on Kiwiblog a few years ago. No doubt Treasury or IRD will soon let you know the account number if you are interested.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:54am
Tomtoddy

Senator Rand Paul is one of the more effective and persistent politicians in the US, This week he released papers showing more support for the proposition that Covid came from the Wuhan Lab.

They also showed very senior scientists lie through their teeth even when facing Senate Committees under oath. Money and pride appear to play a big role.

It doesn’t take much of a stretch to think of other lying scientists and another major international incident costing the world a packet. Same factors involved.
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July 24, 2026 8:18am
mike

52 years ago – a decision today’s Supreme Court would not make.
In United States v. Nixon, the Court unanimously ordered President Richard Nixon to deliver tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials related to the Watergate scandal to a federal district court. Decided on July 24, 1974, the ruling was important to the late stages of the Watergate scandal, amidst an ongoing process to impeach Richard Nixon. United States v. Nixon is considered a crucial precedent limiting the power of any U.S. president to claim executive privilege.
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July 24, 2026 8:29am
- Cassandra
  
  And it was wrong then and wrong now. Politicians are entitled to keep there thoughts, discussions and decision making confidential.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:52am
  - mike
    
    No. The president should not be able to claim a privilege to conceal evidence of his own criminality.
    
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    July 24, 2026 9:01am
Tomtoddy

Mamdani is the very socialist Mayor of New York. He had to struggle to get elected. Amongst a heap of promises he made was free buses across the city.

He had no ability to deliver on such a promise – something he must have certainly known as a recent state assemblyman – because buses are controlled at state level – not the city. That didn’t stop him.

Now he is elected he is fudging the promise by suggesting its still to happen.

He made other promises on housing, after school programmes and a publicly owned bank that havent been delivered. All socialist crap that doesn’t work and ends up hurting the low paid as well as Joe Citizen.

The US is a slow learner when it comes to socialism.
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July 24, 2026 8:37am
- Cassandra
  
  The limits on his powers were well publicised at the time. NY voters knew what they were getting. And there’s more coming. DSoA are on a roll.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:54am
- mike
  
  He had to struggle to get elected.
  
  Why tell such an obvious lie? Mamdani won his primary handily, and the general election won over a million votes, over 50% of those cast.
  
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  July 24, 2026 8:58am

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