Who Does Shane Jones work for? "Woke" Banks have $132m exposure to risky petrol stations

Plus - the polls, landlords on the up, and our huge fossil fuel problem

Feb 11, 2025

December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)

Those Polls

For hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.

According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.

The left bloc could form government were an election held today.

But of course - it’s not.

It’s still a far way off.

One month is a long time in politics so variability is natural.

But it’s the trendline that is of interest here.

In December 2024, in “Luxon’s Polling Takes a Beating”, I noted that all current polls - Freshwater The Post, Roy Morgan, Talbot-Mills - except Taxpayers Union - Curia - had the left bloc able to form government.

Today, Curia came in line, with Anna Whyte (The Post) reporting:

The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll…had the Opposition with enough support to form a government.
…. the first time in that poll since March 2022 that they have garnered enough support to govern.

Thomas Coughlin for NZ Herald wrote:

If [that] poll reflected the eventual election outcome, National would lose 10 MPs – many of whom might be inclined to back a challenger.

But he’s optimistic for Luxon:

Luxon has some reason to be hopeful, mainly the fact that he can expect an improving economy to lift the Government’s polling.

And then shovels in some right wing talking points:

Given how hard National campaigned on fixing the economic mess it alleged Labour created when the facts were more mixed, it’s hard to feel too sorry for voters’ taking out their current economic angst on the coalition which is equally as culpable or inculpable for this malaise as its predecessor.

Coughlan remains optimistic for Luxon and the National Party - and has been with this August 2024 article

This morning, Luxon is standing strong - telling media he works “20 hours a day” to "make sure we are delivering for New Zealanders".

The 20 hour a day claim somewhat mirrors an anecdote Amanda Luxon told the National Party conference a few years ago about her husband:

“Living in Chicago, he would put [the children] to bed at night, take a late flight to Argentina, work all day, and take an overnight flight back in time to wake the children to go to school the next morning.

It’s all very endearing - except a keen Redditor pointed out that would mean Luxon has 34 hour days - i.e what Amanda referred to is physically impossible.

Maths just might not be the Luxon family strongsuit.

“Woke Banks” and Fossil Fuel Haven

Shane Jones is on a rampage to revolutionise New Zealand - but not for the better.

First, he wants to stop the New Zealand government from going after previous drilling permit holders for oil & gas decommissioning costs.

Jones argues he wants to “strike a balance” for mining entities.

Yet RNZ’s climate change correspondent, Eloise Gibson, notes:

Official advice says [this] chain of liability matters because larger, more stable companies tend to sell oil fields near the end of their lives to smaller companies with higher risk appetites.

And it was that situation that left New Zealand with a $443 million clean up cost for Tui oilfields after it was deserted in 2019 when then operator, Tamarind Taranaki, declared bankruptcy.

NZ creditors were also owed $600mn, making that a $1bn loss for our country.

Newsroom’s Jonathan Milne also pointed out last year:

The same executives who ran Malaysian-owned firm Tamarind Resources into the ground, leaving the government with a half-billion dollar clean-up, are back operating its oil and gas permits in Taranaki again – just under a new company name

These are the types of people Shane Jones wants to help and “entice” to New Zealand.

Significantly, recent costs for decommissioning oilfields in NZ have ranged from $2.145 million to $1.028 billion per oil field.

That’s a lot of dough - and could be used on much needed areas: our healthcare system, education, productivity, science, climate, housing.

But it’s a risk both Jones and the Coalition Government are prepared to take - for us.

Second, Shane Jones is upping the ante on “woke banks” - a misnomer if I ever saw one.

Dan Bruskill reports:

A law proposed by New Zealand First [Financial Markets Amendment Bill] would require banks to lend to fossil-fuel sectors and could imprison employees for denying loans on environmental or governance grounds.

It sounds preposterous, but Luxon was also on the rampage for fossil fuels as well, telling Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hoskings it’s “utterly unacceptable” that some banks were withdrawing banking services from businesses like petrol stations and mines.

The daughter of a former oil and mining executive, Nicola Willis also piled on, telling banks that they needed to “explain themselves” before a Parliamentary inquiry.

As comical as it all sounds, it’s really just the right wing junk tank interests at work - working for fossil fuel interests appears just par for the course.

i.e. It’s an obvious global playbook, and we’re not exempt.

Still - given oil royalties are 5% of net revenues, I have to ask:

Who is New Zealand First, and Shane Jones, working for?

EXTRA -

Climate Change - Vehicles:

Today Rob Dickinson points out that New Zealand had a high EV uptake of all light vehicles before Luxon took office: 20-40% penetration - maxing at 50%

The graph below shows the Coalition government’s cancellation of EV rebates crashed EV sales effectively (green = EV & Plug-in hybrid)

And registrations of new, full battery electric vehicles were down 55% in the year to November 2024 compared to the same time a year earlier, while sales of plug-in hybrids were down 51%.