Ministers on power trips

“It’s true!” a smoke signaller writes. “Te Aponga charges for substations and cables at costs so high that in some cases, not all, it forces people to leave their ipukarea. But don’t count on the CEO responding with the truth – that he can’t manage to run the power station as a standalone entity, even if it’s a monopoly– because PM Henry Puna and his Finance Minister Mark Brown need every cent to maintain their overseas trips and big government budgets. Big budgets to produce more and more environmental or energy paper policies so they can handshake and be photographed with every global leader and hope that they remember them. What for? Because they will be left with not a single legacy in their own country worth remembering except the type that people would most like to forget, like sovereign debt and empty homes. Instead, CEO Apii Timoti will respond that costs are going up and Te Aponga is facing hardship. Anything other than the truth and he’ll be looking for a new job. But spare a thought for those who can’t leave. Those who have no choice. They would have to borrow more money to get that substation built so Puna and Brown get an overseas trip on an interest free loan to Te Aponga.”

“It’s true!” a smoke signaller writes. “Te Aponga charges for substations and cables at costs so high that in some cases, not all, it forces people to leave their ipukarea. But don’t count on the CEO responding with the truth – that he can’t manage to run the power station as a standalone entity, even if it’s a monopoly– because PM Henry Puna and his Finance Minister Mark Brown need every cent to maintain their overseas trips and big government budgets. Big budgets to produce more and more environmental or energy paper policies so they can handshake and be photographed with every global leader and hope that they remember them. What for? Because they will be left with not a single legacy in their own country worth remembering except the type that people would most like to forget, like sovereign debt and empty homes. Instead, CEO Apii Timoti will respond that costs are going up and Te Aponga is facing hardship. Anything other than the truth and he’ll be looking for a new job. But spare a thought for those who can’t leave. Those who have no choice. They would have to borrow more money to get that substation built so Puna and Brown get an overseas trip on an interest free loan to Te Aponga.”