Simeon Brown has written a letter.
It's this sort of thing, I think, that frustrates a lot of potential and actual National Party voters.
There is an argument to be made, and power prices is one of them, where you can say that National talked a big game, but I don’t see any real results.
The letter is to the Electricity Authority (EA). They oversee the power market and whether everyone is playing by the rules.
Simeon wants them to check on the forward pricing for power, which is down, and why it is we aren't seeing our prices tumble.
We have already covered this so Simeon is a bit slow out of the box. Renewables are in play, it's rained a lot so there's plenty of resource and the cost of making power is going down. Large commercial users are already seeing prices drop.
In our houses though? Not so much.
As always there are a myriad of excuses, some of which will be legit and some of which will be polished up for PR spin.
But we're at the stage of electricity reform where our patience for the so-called "dividends of the renewable age" are not really appearing as were promised.
Obviously, Simeon wants an answer because he also wants your vote.
But ask yourself – why does he need to write to the EA? If their job is to oversee this stuff either there is nothing to see, and therefore they are doing their job, or they are useless and need sacking.
My guess is their rules of engagement mean the system is actually working, so the rules of engagement are the problem, and/or the gentailer problem, which has been jawboned to death, is really an issue holding back better competition hence lower prices.
Either way writing a letter is not delivering and this is from a party that has jawboned supermarkets, petrol stations, electricity companies and banks.
And for what real, in-my-back-pocket result?
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