This government's running into similar problems Jacinda's one did on energy - they're getting too much 'official' advice and reports.

The problem when you ask 'the experts' for advice on every thought that pops into your head is that they tend to agree with it. And if they don't. you tend to ignore them.

And what does that tell you about the need for the advice in the first place?

Latest case in point is the LNG terminal in Taranaki. A billion bucks. We'll be paying a levy on our power bills to fund it.

Big announcement at the beehive theatrette yesterday.

The 'official advice from MBIE and the rest was that this is the way to go. This will save us all, on average, apparently, $1 a week on electricity.

If we're lucky. Because remember, as with all advice, there are caveats. The caveats are 'depends on this" and "depends on that".

So, we've got an announcement and we hope for the best and this thing will be built, come hell or high water, bar a change of government, by 2027.

When the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, we'll import LNG and keep the lights on.

BUT.

Last year we had the Frontier Economics report. Same issue but different set of 'advisors'.

They're an independent global consultancy crowd.

What they said was quite different.

They told us it would basically be a dumb idea to build an import terminal because you've got a massive, fixed cost spread over a relatively small amount of output - because you're only using this as a back-up.

You can't sell an LNG terminal once you're finished with it. These particular advisors made the point that it's quite a specific piece of kit and could well turn it one of this country's biggest white elephant investments.

Yet here we are less than a year later with a different set of advice and another vague plan.

There's no doubt this country needs a plan to deal with energy security. But depending on who you ask, this is either brilliant or batshit.

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