25 SEP 2025

Opinion: Mike Fuge – Time to hit the restart button

Let’s face it, we can all agree the economy needs a confidence boost. 

There are many hallowed hall whisperings and keyboard warriors coming thick and fast on the upcoming Government Review and Frontier Report around the electricity sector.  

The Government has had the report for a considerable time, with announcements claiming the proposals could range from a surgical intervention to the most fundamental change to the energy market since the 1990s. And a cornucopia of views between. 

In the absence of detail, but with a surfeit of hyperbole, unfounded reckonings from across the sector have rushed to fill the vacuum. 

As an investor, one thing is crystal clear to me. This ongoing uncertainty is damaging confidence. I am impatient. Impatient to get the certainty we need. Impatient to accelerate investment. Impatient to build the renewable energy infrastructure the country needs to drive down prices. Impatient, as a proud Kiwi, to get New Zealand out of the “funk” the country now finds itself in. 

There are many, many reasons to be proud of the NZ electricity market, including the current multibillion-dollar investment boom, and how NZ’s energy system benchmarks well internationally on price, security and sustainability. 

NZ is investing just over $240 per year, per person in renewable infrastructure – the highest in the OECD, and Contact is leading the way. 

But this is cold comfort for homes and businesses struggling. So, while I believe the market is working and delivering, it isn’t working for every New Zealander. It is therefore our responsibility to play a larger role and support the economy during this challenging transition. 

While we don’t consider fundamental changes are needed (but you would expect me to say that) and put at risk the necessary investment, we do support any initiatives that accelerate electrification and explore every opportunity to manage the transition. 

I have worked in the energy sector for 35 years, here and internationally.  

In my view, the first thing we must urgently address is the moribund resource consenting regime the country currently operates under, including the fast-track process.  

This is less about legislation than it is about cultural change within our national and local bureaucracy to support development, rather than blocking renewable projects or suffocating them in onerous data demands, all due to an overarching risk aversion. Beyond resource consenting, there are two big challenges the energy sector and Government need to step into. 

The first is bringing more gas into the market. While ultimately much of NZ’s industry needs to electrify, the chaotic transition we see currently has the potential to erode our way of life, especially in rural NZ. 

I have challenged our team to step out of our comfort zone and look at what further role we can play alongside the rest of the industry and Government, including accelerating LNG imports to provide a backstop for commercial and industrial customers. 

The second is getting the infrastructure in place to practically enable widespread electrification. 

That means a massive build-out of the national grid. The current system is built (very successfully) around incrementalism.  That just won’t work when we need to grow electricity output by more than 10% in the next five years alone. 

We can’t afford to wait endless years for every new connection, or up to a decade to remove constraints. This is a looming bottleneck to unlock new electricity generation and is already the biggest barrier for many electrification projects our country's economy needs. 

Both changes require political courage, the likes of which are rarely seen in modern NZ.  

We are at a similar inflection point as broadband was in the early 2000s, when the ambitious ultra-fast broadband build-out began, turning a key bottleneck into a key enabler.  

We must look right back to transformational, economy-boosting innovations such as the first export of frozen meat from Dunedin to London in 1882, and the development of local electricity networks and generation starting in Reefton in 1888. 

Talking electricity, it is hard to imagine that the many smaller hydro schemes built by communities across NZ could be built today – and yet imagine the world without it? Similarly, the oil and gas exploration investment, which resulted in the cheap domestic gas that grew industrial development in heartland NZ and now supports export earnings. 

Times have changed. So should our approach. We need to look forward. Last week’s negative GDP growth is a trend we need to collectively change. 

As a nation, we can use NZ’s renewable energy advantage to attract new industry, to drive economic growth, and to help prosperity. This is worth us collectively weighing in to support. 

It’s time to hit the restart button.