It's thirty years since the Electricity Industry Task Force laid out a blueprint for the transformation of New Zealand's electricity sector.  Deregulation, corporatisation (including expropriation of local authority assets), privatisation, and forced separation of lines from energy businesses -- all these were promoted as the path to greater efficiency and "long term benefit of consumers".

The outcome? Falling productivity, rising prices, massive profits, and perverse incentives to perpetuate the use of fossil fuels. Geoff Bertram discusses the lessons that policymakers might learn from this application of neoliberal ideas to an essential public service.

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