Who Benefits is a year-long Newsroom project examining lobbying and influence.
Our current investigation – Power Play – into the electricity industry’s influence will show over the next five days:
- The electricity industry helped formulate the National Party’s Electrify NZ policy
- Lobbying of government officials through a gentailer-heavy industry group, began just days after the National-led coalition Government was formed
- The industry worked on policy proposals with officials for months before other parties, including Māori/iwi, were invited to targeted consultation
- Initially, ministers ordered officials to work specifically with the energy sector
- Central and local government officials pushed back
- Under direction from ministers, policy changes made were strongly directive and enabling of renewable power stations, including re-consenting, but the industry didn’t get everything it asked for
- And Who Benefits? Faster, easier consents for power stations give greater certainty to generator-retailer companies but they’re under no compulsion to build them until demand increases and they stack up financially
- A steep drop-off in investments by majority government-owned electricity companies led to huge dividend payouts being dished out to the state and private shareholders
- Those high dividend levels have continued as power prices rise to levels not seen since before the Bradford reforms in the 1990s
In March 2023, two months after the shock resignation of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, National Party leader Christopher Luxon released an ambitious plan to “Electrify NZ”.
The policy would, according to the party’s press statement, “cut red tape and drive a surge of investment in renewable electricity generation”. The announcement, at the Chapter Zero Climate Forum in Auckland, made National the first political party to announce a climate policy ahead of October’s election.
Luxon said: “Electrify NZ will help double the amount of renewable energy available and put New Zealand on track to reach its climate change goals.”
In announcing the policy, Luxon, now Prime Minister of course, said: “Under National, New Zealand will play its part in the global effort to combat climate change through massive investment in renewable energy.”
Post-election, the policy survived coalition talks.
National’s agreements with political partners Act and New Zealand First specifically mentioned changing the Resource Management Act (RMA) to make it easier to consent new infrastructure, “including renewable energy”.
The National-New Zealand First agreement noted additional policies “which are a priority for the National Party”. One was to deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050, “including by doubling New Zealand’s renewable electricity”.
Fast forward to January this year, and the amended national policy statement (NPS) for renewable electricity generation came into force – a bookend to two years of work, including the fast-track regime and RMA changes, under a policy-driven Government trying to notch up wins before the next election.
(National policy statements are important because they set high-level direction for council plans, that then cascade down to decisions on resource consent applications.)
The draft NPS, put out for public consultation last year, was largely adopted, but slipped under the radar, perhaps, because the limelight was hogged by a new NPS on infrastructure, and changes to make it easier to build granny flats.
‘It’s always useful to consult regulated parties in the changes to the law, and they should never be excluded from it, but they also shouldn’t have primacy. Public interest should have primacy.’
Marie Doole, Mātaki Environmental
Building more renewable energy power stations is uncontroversial – governments of either stripe have made noises about it for years.
In light of rocketing oil, petrol and diesel prices because of the war on Iran, electrifying the country is arguably more important than ever.
A business ministry analysis says electricity generation needs to grow between 35 to 82 percent by 2050 to meet future demand, and boost economic growth. Almost a third of the country’s required emissions reductions by 2050 could come from electrifying the energy and transport sectors.
(A big problem in a system dominated by hydro-electric power is the ‘dry-year’ risk, in which lower-than-expected rainfall and snow melt leads to less full hydro lake levels – which is why the previous government embraced the ambitious idea of a pumped hydro scheme, and the current coalition has promised, controversially, to build a liquified fossil gas terminal.)
The Electrify NZ policy gives rise to important questions, however.
With electricity prices on the rise – up 12 percent in the year to July – and the promise of more price hikes to come, why hasn’t more been done to date?
How much of a handbrake is consenting to building power stations? In other words, is there likely a direct relationship between easier consenting and more renewable electricity generation?
If there’s evidence of a problem how bad is it?
Most importantly for this series, who benefits? Is there a payoff for delaying construction of new renewables? (Spoiler alert: Yes, critics claim.)
Putting those questions aside for a moment, Electrify NZ is a slam dunk, right? Fast-tracked consents that cost companies less and can help reduce power prices. Sounds good, move on, look away?
Well, not quite.
Much of the policy formulation for the NPS for renewable electricity generation occurred out of the public eye.
This five-part edition of Who Benefits tells the behind-the-scenes story of the reforms and the industry’s influence over them.
That’s not to say the electricity companies got everything they asked for in the amended NPS. (With replacement legislation looming for the Resource Management Act, this might have been pragmatic.) But it shows how industry figures have a direct channel to power – one reinforced by ministers, who, in this case, told officials not to consult anyone else until later.
You can learn a lot about a government’s – and by extension, officials’ – intentions from who it’s talking to, at what point in the process, and for how long. It’s also telling how involved the industry is in refining policies when officials, on behalf of the public, are supposed to run the process.
To tell this story, we’ve read nearly 100 documents – letters, emails, ministerial briefings and Cabinet papers, as well as industry reports, presentations, and submissions.
The Ministry for the Environment, now merged into the super-ministry, Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport, released 78 documents to Newsroom under the Official Information Act, spanning December 2023, the very beginning of the coalition Government, to May 2025, when public consultation started.
“Targeted engagement”, including with iwi/Māori, on Electrify NZ was held in mid-to-late 2024.
While the environment and business ministries were opening the door to certain groups, what those groups found, metaphorically, was the electricity industry already sitting, rather comfortably, at the policy-making table.
By that time, industry representatives, including a specialist lawyer, had taken part in workshops with officials, circulated several versions of its own draft NPS, and pushed strongly for changes to the law, especially the soon-to-be-overhauled Resource Management Act (RMA).
The electricity generator-retailers (gentailers, for short) – some of the country’s biggest companies – were represented in lobbying discussions by the influential Electricity Sector Environment Group.
The group comprises Genesis, Mercury, and Meridian, (51 percent government-owned, and listed on the stock exchange, NZX), Contact (the NZX-listed company that bought rival Manawa Energy in 2024), as well as the Wind Energy Association.
Officials weren’t making a leap of faith about who to talk to.
In February 2024, ministers Chris Bishop, Simeon Brown and Penny Simmonds told officials to work through policy proposals specifically with the energy sector, and, at that stage, not anyone else. This was despite warnings to ministers that consultation with iwi/Māori had been inadequate.
The public wasn’t consulted on changes to national policy statements (and the new statement on infrastructure) until May 2025.
Marie Doole, a researcher of environmental strategy and regulation, says closed-door, highly targeted consultation focused on vested interests is “a pretty classic red flag”.
“People will say the industry has a lot to offer those processes – I don’t disagree.
“It’s always useful to consult regulated parties in the changes to the law, and they should never be excluded from it, but they also shouldn’t have primacy.
“Public interest should have primacy.”
Who Benefits is a project tracking and disclosing lobbying and influence. If you know where influence is being brought to bear, email us in confidence at: trublenzOIA@protonmail.com
The power of the farm lobby
Part 1 A deep dive into proposed changes to freshwater policy
Part 2 Is a former farm lobbyist driving freshwater policy valuable expertise, democracy at work or a compromise to the public interest?
Environmental Defence Society
Part 1 examines a change of fortunes for one of the country’s most successful advocacy groups
Part 2 asks how a small team led for decades by one man has achieved outsized influence
Free Speech Union
Part 1 The rise and rise of the Free Speech Union
Part 2 A lobby group’s charm offensive and a doubting Thomas
Part 3 Seymour steps in and directs officials to consult
New Zealand’s gambling market
How monopoly money bought NZ’s gambling scene
Power Play: The influence of the electricity industry
Part 1 How energy-rich NZ became so expensive for electricity
Part 2 A new hope for renewable electricity
Newsroom emailed individual members of the Electricity Sector Environment Group – Hamish Cuthbert and Humphrey Tapper, of Meridian, Genesis Energy’s Alice Lin and Karen Sky, Chris Drayton of Contact Energy and Shirley Chamberlin, of Mercury – as well as the companies’ media teams.
We asked: Did the industry get all it wanted in the Electrify NZ policy programme? We also asked if it was appropriate the industry had early access and regular meetings with officials, as well as meetings/correspondence with ministers, before targeted consultations occurred, including with iwi/Māori.
Interestingly, comment arrives from the Electricity Retailers’ & Generators Association – an industry body we didn’t email.
The response quotes Cuthbert, Meridian’s head of environment, who convenes the Electricity Sector Environment Group: “The ESEG provides a collective perspective on environmental policy that impacts the sector. For New Zealand to meet demand projections and climate change obligations it is important that our environmental regulatory settings can enable that.
“Resource management legislation settings and national direction provide direction to decision makers on how different values are to be reconciled.
“Consenting and planning costs, uncertainty and delay are major impediments to bringing forward new projects, and for the re-consenting and re-powering of existing renewable generation. This can be seen in the material released under the official information law, and there are further examples of this happening now.”
Separately, Cuthbert’s boss, Mike Roan, says Meridian welcomes the Government’s commitment to improving consenting through the Electrify NZ policy but it’s yet to see the effect of overhauling the national policy statement and resource management reforms.
Last month, an expert panel, appointed under fast-track legislation, approved Meridian’s application to operate the Lake Pūkaki scheme, part of the Waitaki hydro-electricity scheme, below the current minimum level for three years.
Days after the coalition Government was formed in November 2023, the industry briefed officials from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on its “priority concerns”, and pushed for policies that were strongly directive and enabling for renewable power projects.
Over the following months, electricity company bosses met key ministers Chris Bishop (RMA reform), Simeon Brown (who was energy minister and is again now), and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones.
Malcolm Johns, Genesis Energy’s chief executive, was the first to get a ministerial handshake, meeting Brown and Jones on the same day – December 19, 2023.
Correspondence released to Newsroom under the Official Information Act paints a picture of firm-but-friendly policy workshopping between officials and industry.
Within weeks of the coalition being formed, some industry suggestions were included in advice to ministers.
Electricity Sector Environment Group representatives offered to help officials with drafting a new NPS, while, on the other hand, they warned officials that if certain issues weren’t addressed the programme would be “weak and ineffective”.
The electricity industry provided case studies of projects not being progressed because of “significant environmental challenges”.
In November 2024, the collaborative familiarity between industry and officials was exemplified by an email from Meridian’s head of environment Hamish Cuthbert, who signed off an email to officials and industry figures saying the following year would be “busy and mission critical”.
What the correspondence also shows is the industry group’s willingness to go over the heads of officials to RMA Reform Minister Bishop if it didn’t get its way.
Within the public service, the Department of Conservation stands out for providing the most frank advice, warning the evidence didn’t necessarily support the proposed changes. (We’ll discuss this in part four of our series.)
There was pushback, also, from the Ministry for Primary Industries over policies seen as “very permissive” that threatened to trample on “rural landowners’ private property rights”.
Real game ‘certainly not in western Southland’
Southland’s Claire Jordan, a planner who’s part of Southland’s Waiau Rivercare Group, has first-hand experience of Meridian’s attempts to protect its massive hydro-electric station at Manapōuri. (Manapōuri powers the country’s biggest electricity user – the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.)
In 2018, Meridian tried, unsuccessfully, to knock the river care group – which advocates for more water to flow down the Waiau River – out of an Environment Court appeal.
Jordan isn’t surprised by the electricity lobby’s access to officials and ministers over the NPS for renewable electricity generation. It’s similar to what was revealed in documents her group was released under the Official Information Act.
“Very similar – workshops and drafting assistance and using very, very collaborative language.”
Her group thought going to the Environment Court, exercising its democratic right, was the right move.
“But then it became very apparent that we were actually on the wrong field. The real game was being played in a place that we didn’t even have access to.”
Does Jordan mean Wellington? “It’s certainly not in western Southland,” she says, drily.
(For the record, the substantive Environment Court case was settled.)
Let’s get back to the targeted consultation on the NPS for renewable electricity generation in 2024.
A group of “local government practitioners” were given a 90-minute briefing by officials on July 25.
By that time, the influential Electricity Sector Environment Group had spent nine hours with officials from the environment and business ministries. There had also been a flurry of correspondence.
By the end of August that year, officials had held pre-consultation briefings with environmental groups, the Independent Electricity Generators Association, the NZ Planning Institute, and Te Waihanga/Infrastructure Commission.
The first meeting with Māori was an August “webinar” with representatives of some post-settlement governance entities. Specific online meetings were held with Ngāi Tahu on October 29, Te Tai Kaha on October 31, and Tairāwhiti and Te Matau-a-Māui on November 8.
By Christmas, members of the industry’s Electricity Sector Environment Group had met officials for a further eight-and-a-half hours, on top of those initial nine hours.
Flicking forward to January of this year, the amended national policy statement for renewable electricity generation says consent decision-makers “must” enable renewable electricity generation assets and activities “in all locations and environments”. That’s tempered by having this policy read “alongside”, not prioritised ahead of, other relevant national direction, including environmental matters of national importance.
The policy for re-consenting, upgrading and repowering existing renewable power stations says they form part of the existing environment – probably making it harder for environmentally focused groups, like Southland’s Waiau Rivercare Group, to claw back water for river catchments.
Will the new NPS make a difference?
Mike Roan, chief executive of NZX-listed and half-government-owned company Meridian, says renewable energy projects will be built more quickly if consents are easier to secure, and then “faster downward pressure can be applied to power prices”. (Note, he didn’t say prices would drop.)
Forest & Bird’s group manager of conservation policy and advocacy, Richard Capie, says its concerns remain – that renewable energy “isn’t automatically good everywhere”.
“You don’t try and solve a climate crisis and, say, a national security energy crisis, by exacerbating a biodiversity crisis.”
Environmental Defence Society chief operating officer Shay Schlaepfer also supports renewable energy power stations in the “right location”.
“Putting it on wetlands or in areas where threatened species live is not good planning. We should instead be targeting land with low environmental value.”
There’s a head-scratching question of timing here: Why would the Government fix national direction for the planning system, when it’s overhauling the whole thing?
(Last month, the environment select committee reported back on the replacement legislation: the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill.)
But there’s a logic to it.
A campaign promise was made in March 2023, officials were tasked with crafting policy, with industry and others, and the public was consulted. Promises made, promises kept, you could say. And that’s important in election year.
In January this year, in his home town of Christchurch, Prime Minister Luxon announced the general election would be held on November 7. But neither the announcement speech, nor his state of the nation address earlier that week, mentioned climate or emissions.
The National Party leader was quick to mention its work on Electrify NZ.
“We’re a Government that’s actually said, through fast-track provisions, through the work that we’re doing on the RMA, that we want to accelerate renewables, energy investment.”
As we’ll cover in our next Who Benefits piece, the electricity industry contacted officials within days of Luxon’s coalition Government being formed to ensure it was involved in shaping policy.
