New Zealand First MP Shane Jones believes geothermal energy is the best natural resource for ensuring energy certainty.
Resources and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he will be imploring his Cabinet colleagues to agree to the Crown facilitating access to geothermal energy to address the country’s energy woes.
Jones, speaking at the New Zealand First conference, also promised an imminent announcement that would“force” fuel companies to store reserves at the decommissioned Marsden Point oil refinery.
The announcements came from an engaging speech from the so-called “veteran of vocabulary” which closed day one of the Hamilton conference, during which an Australian senator warned of the nasty debate the Treaty Principles Bill would provoke and party members battled through contentious policy proposals.
Addressing more than 250 party delegates at the Distinction Hotel, Jones decried a broken energy system that had recently led to New Zealanders paying the most in the world for power, prompting the closure of pulp and timber mills.
“We are going to find the money to go to a new frontier of development and use the geothermal energy in our country to ensure that the cost of energy sinks to a low level that you and I can afford as Kiwis.”
Jones later told journalists he believed it was the Crown’s responsibility to safeguard the security of the nation’s energy provision.
“I don’t think that it’s reasonable to expect the [energy companies] to spend $60 million, $80m, $100m, whatever it might be, for the initial well drilling, they don’t seem to be motivated to do that.”
The speech from Shane Jones was lapped up by more than 250 party delegates. Photo / Mike Scott
Asked whether a Crown entity would be erected to manage the drilling and how that would be funded, Jones said the details would be confirmed at a later date.
In his speech, Jones also promised a “future for the Marsden Point refinery” in Northland, claiming it was possible the site could be “turned into a new source of power generation with importing diesel”.
He rounded out his energy-themed announcements by hinting NZ First would campaign in 2026 on consolidating the energy companies.
“I respect the fact that we couldn’t get everything we wanted when we formed the Government with the National Party and the Act Party, but one model I’m going to pursue through the party is putting Humpty Dumpty back together.
“[The company chief executives] don’t really take me seriously [but] we’ll campaign on it and if we’ve got a mandate, be very aware.”
Jones’ speech was a flamboyant signoff of the first day of the party’s 31st conference, featuring all of his greatest but well-used hits criticising Te Pāti Māori and environmental groups who would supposedly halt his mining efforts to save “Freddy the frog”.
He followed an earlier address from Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price, an indigenous Australian who had been a vocal opponent to last year’s referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to Parliament.
She had been invited by NZ First leader Winston Peters to speak at the conference and told journalists she had come to learn about the Treaty of Waitangi, given Australian states and territories were currently negotiating potential treaties of their own.
NZ First leader Winston Peters and Australian senator Jacinta Price speak to media at the NZ First conference in Hamilton. Photo / Adam Pearse
In her speech, Price claimed Australia’s referendum had caused division among citizens – a concern raised in New Zealand regarding Act’s Treaty Principles Bill that sought to redefine the Treaty’s principles.
Price said she was aware of the bill and was quick to state she agreed with Peters’ position, which was not to support the bill into law.
She recalled the “nastiness” of the Voice referendum and said it was a warning for those wanting to progress Act’s bill, which ultimately proposed a referendum on the new principles, that it would create that same division.
Asked whether he shared Price’s concerns, Peters believed the bill wouldn’t create division because it was “going nowhere”.
Earlier in the day, the enthusiasm of party members was obvious to see as they rejoiced at NZ First’s return to Parliament and into Cabinet.
It had clearly fired them up for the first of the conference’s remit sessions where future party policy was debated.
Party president and session moderator Julian Paul struggled at times to maintain order within the motivated audience, energised by a butter chicken lunch and afternoon scones.
NZ First minister Shane Jones listens to the remit discussions at the conference. Photo / Mike Scott
Faulty microphones plagued initial discussions of the first remit that proposed to ditch the final year of high school and replace it with a year of preparatory school.
It ultimately failed but not before a member suggested the school year be replaced by mandatory military service, described as “spicy” by Paul. The amendment was not accepted.
NZ First MP and former Wellington Mayor Andy Foster found himself opposing several of the proposed remits, including making an impassioned plea for party members not to return decisions concerning water fluoridation to local councils as he believed they weren’t resourced to do so.
He was unsuccessful and an adapted remit was passed to consider repealing Labour’s legislation taking decisions away from councils and enabling referendums on the matter.
NZ First Minister Casey Costello’s proposal to investigate giving police officers involved in a fatal incident automatic name suppression ahead of a full incident inquiry went through unopposed.
Jones concluded the remit discussion on day one by successfully shepherding through his desire to investigate introducing up to a 50% royalty on mined Crown minerals that would be invested in the region where they came from.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
