Shane Jones says NZ First will campaign on breaking up big power firms
Tuesday, 10 February 2026
NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones has made clear the party will campaign at the next election to split the country’s big gentailers into separate generation and retail businesses.
“I’ve taken this matter to our New Zealand party conference and with the blessings of our AGM we will be campaigning to split the gentailers in half. They represent a major reason why energy prices are so unsustainable,” he said this afternoon.
Earlier in the day, speaking at an energy industry event co-hosted by Energy Resources Aotearoa, Jones said he would also campaign on giving ministers the power to decide on fast-track approvals.
That was after an expert panel signalled it would decline consent for the proposed Taranaki seabed mining scheme.
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But Jones signalled energy policy would be at the top of his agenda at the election, saying the pricing decisions of the electricity gentailers would “represent about 99% of my election campaign”.
In the coming weeks, the big four power firms — Meridian, Contact, Mercury and Genesis — are expected to report a record combined operating profit for the six months to the end of December, after a year in which power prices rose on average by 12.2%.
Broker Forsyth Barr is tipping that the firms will report a 45% jump in their interim operating profit to $1.85 billion for the half-year, with all but the possible exception of Genesis Energy, likely to report record earnings.
Appearing alongside Energy Minister Simon Watts at the industry event this morning, Jones said NZ First’s mission was to turn the party into a “15% to 20% party”.
“We know that it’s extraordinarily difficult to further emulate the scale that National and Labour have.
“I do think, however, that the country is finally balanced and every vote is going to count. A cursory analysis would show that NZ First tends to gather most of its votes in the provinces and regions, and whoever — out of the big parties — holds Auckland will form the Government,” he said.
Jones said he had doubts about the fast-track regime in the wake of an expert panel’s draft ruling on Thursday to reject an application by Trans Tasman Resources to mine iron sands in the South Taranaki Bight.
The five-person expert panel is chaired by former High Court judge Kit Toogood.
The other members are Commerce Commission associate commissioner Loretta Lovell, consultant Hilke Giles, who has a doctorate in marine biology, planner Gavin Kemble, who is a former environmental manager of Trustpower, and economic consultant Natalie Hampson.
Jones said he had always wanted ministers to be making the decisions. As elected parliamentarians, they were best placed to serve as the proxy for the national interest, he said.
“I won’t say anything about the High Court judges, because they’ve got mana in our society, as far as I’m concerned.
“But why on Earth are four nondescript individuals more morally fit to make those calls than politicians? And I’m going to campaign on that.”
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop made clear he saw no need for the change, noting the existing regime had been agreed by Cabinet and saying he thought it was working well.
Jones had a view that was well-articulated publicly that ministers should have the final say, Bishop said.
“New Zealand First may choose to campaign on that and … good luck to them.”
Jones embraced the label he gave himself two years ago as a “doubting Thomas” on climate change and made clear he saw the opportunity for US investment in the critical minerals sector as “a great opportunity”.
“I’m not going to be naive and pretend that there aren’t elements in our community that are very nervous about New Zealand being seen to be too close to that regime,” he said, referring to the Trump administration. “I’m not one of them — absolutely not one of them,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, Watts said Cabinet’s decision to procure an LNG import terminal, funded by a levy on electricity, would protect about 2000 jobs, as well as bring down power prices overall.
“Not every industry in this country can run on electricity or coal,” he said.