{"id":283988,"date":"2026-02-14T14:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283988\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T14:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:59:24","slug":"greg-dixons-another-kind-of-politics-luxon-to-nz-your-power-bill-your-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283988\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Dixon\u2019s Another Kind of Politics: Luxon to NZ: your power bill, your problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

PM Christopher Luxon. Photo \/ Getty Images. Illustration \/ Greg Dixon<\/p>\n

Greg Dixon\u2019s weekly satirical column Another Kind of Politics runs a sharp eye over local and international politics.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the beginning of an election year is the \u201cperfect\u201d time to tell struggling New Zealanders you\u2019ll soon be jacking up their power bills. <\/p>\n

\n Luxon
\n and Energy Minister Simon \u201cLess Than 40\u201d Watts announced this week the government is planning a \u201clevy\u201d on electricity users to pay for the $1 billion-plus cost of a cargo terminal for the bulk importing of the fossil fuel Liquified Natural Gas.\n <\/p>\n

Luxon claims the \u201cdry year\u201d scheme will lead to lower power bills in the future. However, the brilliant plan would cost households an extra $15-$30 a year in the meantime. <\/p>\n

In the year to September, power charges rose by a whopping 11.3%, while Consumer NZ is warning prices could rise at least another 5% this year. Meanwhile, a recent poll showed that public concern about the cost of living is at its highest level since May 2024. Additionally, the government has done nothing to rein in huge profits from power generators and retailers during its two years in office.<\/p>\n

One political commentator said the \u201clevy\u201d plan seemed to suggest the government thought the country was populated by brain-dead morons. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tax on already struggling New Zealanders, pure and simple,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the real question is whether anyone in their right minds would believe the government\u2019s wild promise that putting up power bills now will magically bring down power bills at some unspecified point in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealanders should ask themselves this: when was the last time their power bill went down? Unlike Luxon\u2019s popularity, power bills never go down.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of sticking it to ordinary New Zealanders to pay for this terminal, why doesn\u2019t the government take windfall taxes from the enormously profitable power companies instead?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tone-deaf sales job by Luxon and proof the government really does think the country is full of idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luxon rejected the claim the levy was a tax. He also said forcing up power prices at the beginning of an election year, in the middle of ongoing voter concerns about the cost of living and with polls showing National was losing support was \u201csmart politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, everyone knows I have an astute political brain. And that brain has told me the beginning of election year is the perfect time to announce a new tax on struggling New Zealanders. Besides, what\u2019s an extra $30 a year? If you can\u2019t afford that, tough luck: it\u2019s your power bill, so it\u2019s your problem, not my government\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto \/ Getty Images. Illustration \/ Greg Dixon<\/p>\n

Nicola Willis announces investigation into John F Kennedy assassination<\/p>\n

Minister for Old News Nicola Willis has announced a surprise investigation into the 1963 assassination of US President John F Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Willis said yesterday that on top of her cynical election year inquiry into the Reserve Bank\u2019s response to the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago, she had also ordered officials to probe the Kennedy murder in Dallas and discover whether it was the result of a conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CIA. The mafia. Fidel Castro. Cuban exiles. Grassy Noel. Any one of these could be responsible for the huge waste of New Zealanders\u2019 tax dollars during the fake Covid-19 pandemic. They\u2019re certainly all in the frame for the killing of Kennedy, so it makes sense to investigate both cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

One political commentator said the inquiries stank of desperation but were entirely understandable. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, it\u2019s an election year. You have a National party that\u2019s been slowly fading in support for two years, with quite a bit of that support apparently drifting to New Zealand First, a party which unashamedly woos conspiracy wing nuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kennedy assassination and the Covid-19 \u2018plan-demic\u2019 are the biggest conspiracies in living memory, so it makes sense to drum up votes from the conspiracy loons with headline-generating inquiries into both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just surprised Willis hasn\u2019t also announced inquiries into the Canterbury panther, the Kaikoura lights-UFO thing back in \u201978 and Moehau, the Bigfoot of the Coromandel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s secret campaign plan: \u201cIndecision 2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Dithering on big issues could be the secret to a Labour-led government, party insiders believe.<\/p>\n

One Labour operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the party\u2019s stance on National\u2019s draft free trade deal with India was a great example of how Labour intended to spend election year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, first Chris Hipkins seemed relatively keen to support this important deal through parliament. Then he announces this week National should have come to Labour sooner about the details of the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all part of our cunning plan to confuse voters. If we keep blowing hot and cold on big issues then it\u2019s hard for people to object to our position, because voters have no clear idea of what our position is.\u201d<\/p>\n

One political commentator said it wasn\u2019t a cunning plan because the overall impression was Hipkins was just dithering. \u201cHe looks like a child vacillating over which ice cream flavour to pick. Who wants a child as prime minister?<\/p>\n

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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PM Christopher Luxon. Photo \/ Getty Images. Illustration \/ Greg Dixon Greg Dixon\u2019s weekly satirical column Another Kind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9526,16574,91651,15209,16099,16427,111,43,139,69,1118,1642,2847,135,10112,21311,61,1959],"class_list":["post-283988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-another","tag-bill","tag-dixons","tag-greg","tag-kind","tag-luxon","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-online","tag-only","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-problem","tag-to","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}