If a Government's going to intervene, they need to think very, very seriously about the consequences; not just be focused on next year's elections or the next opinion poll. The last time a Government tried to take direct control of and direct and influence the energy sector in this way was in the 1980s, when a former Prime Minister—the Rt Hon Robert Muldoon—ignored the advice of Treasury, ignored the advice of his own Ministers, some of whom went on to become founders of the ACT Party because they knew about good economics, and insisted that direct Government investment and involvement in electricity generation was the way to go. 