When North Sea oil was discovered, about the same time as Māui gas was on the horizon, (unlike Norway’s United Kingdom neighbour, who shared the same fields), a fierce political debate ensued in Norway on how best to utilise that resource.
The choice was between the state managing the resource or letting the private sector manage it, providing returns via the tax and royalties for economic uplift.
The Norwegians decided to take a more socialist perspective, setting up a sovereign wealth fund and managing that resource themselves.
Statoil and the country’s sovereign wealth fund are now some of the world’s largest and most profitable of their type.
The difference is the Norwegian economy and the modern functioning infrastructure it supports is funded from that political decision. Comparisons with the dysfunctional UK economy are inevitable and stark.
In New Zealand’s case, equally, the windfall of Taranaki oil and gas faced the same political choices and the road we took was like that of the UK relying on the private sector to hand back the returns.
It has in fact been a squandering of the assets with wasted investment in a fanciful gas-to-fuel misadventure and inefficient use of the resource to make methanol that has left us now proposing to import natural gas to keep our industry stutteringly alive and our house lights on in winter.
Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.
Dear Air NZ
Regarding the Air New Zealand loss in profit, here’s a way to save:
Abandon the valueless Koru lounges and rent the spaces to professional hospitality operators who can make coffee hot and beer cold.
Abandon the valueless safety videos that nobody over 9 years old finds even slightly amusing.
I’ve got a few other more complex but easy-to-deliver cost-savers if you, Air NZ, would like me to pop in for five minutes at your next board meeting.
Graham Wall, Ponsonby.
Competence and criticism
It’s easy for former Air New Zealand chief executive and now Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to be critical of his previous workplace but in reality, he rode a strong tailwind left by his predecessors.
It was just as he left that the engine issues began and then the fuel price increased.
Given the recent slips and apologies he’s had to make, you’d wonder if he could do any better – and I’d doubt it.
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
Opposition optics
If Chris Hipkins wants to be PM in November, he needs to be seen and heard constantly. This is not happening. Time is running out and he needs to get a move on.
Simon Gilmore, Kohimarama.
Licence to hold seniors to ‘ransom’
It is completely unacceptable that senior citizens in their 80s are being held to ransom by medical centres charging between $80 and $160 for a mandatory driving licence medical.
While ensuring older drivers are safe on our roads is a necessary public safety measure, the financial burden should not fall so heavily on retirees living on fixed incomes.
For many seniors in Auckland, a driver’s licence is their only lifeline to independence, medical appointments, and groceries.
Paying up to $160 just for the right to apply for a renewal is extortionate.
If the Government insists on mandatory testing at this age, these medical assessments should be fully subsidised.
We must stop penalising our oldest citizens for trying to stay independent.
James Watson, Bayview.