There’s an article by Jo Moir in the Fairfax press today that is based around a Green Party press release from Gareth Hughes. This is the commie propagandist who spent thousands of taxpayer dollars running around NZ telling lies about the fracking industry.

The article gives some credence to Hughe’s shallow complaint that the Nats spent over $100,000 promoting the lease of NZ exploration areas.

The promotion failed. Only one company, Todd, took up an offer on the blocks.

The real story here is not the hypocritical whining of the Marxist Hughes, its the destruction of the independent oil industry in NZ at the hands of the incompetent Nats, who are basically just a larger version of the Green Party anyway.

A few years ago now, the Nats through the disgustingly superfluous taxpayer ripoff organisation the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment virtually killed off the oil industry in NZ. For small players especially.

(Note the Soviet name? Like all such left wing names, it totally belies the MBIE’s main function, which is to drain the taxpayer coffer with high salaries and do all it can to stifle industry.)

The MBIE introduced health safety and environmental regulations based on the UK model which made it too costly for most independent operators to bother. One thing we should know readers, that if the UK did something, we don’t need it in NZ.

That’s why they only got a bid from Todd. Todd is a big operator, and is glad the Nats cut out the competition for them, so the least they can do is bid on a block on offer. Otherwise the new regs might be exposed as a bad idea.

Sources tell me Todd had half a dozen petroleum consultants working for six months (at around $2500/day/consultant) completing the paperwork to satisfy the Nat’s regulations. No small petroleum operator can afford that expense. They need to drill, and drill quickly. Not be bogged down by high cost paper work.

Sure, the price of oil is way down, and this is the main factor in the drop off in exploration, but even when the price does rise, the Nats have made sure there won’t be much interest in exploring for and discovering oil in New Zealand.

The Nats have killed that off as well as the Watermelons would have done if they were the govt.

Remember this stinking betrayal of small business when its time to cast your vote in this year’s elections.