An under pressure Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Government's announcement they will end future oil exploration permits.

OPINION: Nobody can say the Prime Minister isn't serious about clean energy – she's driving an electric car around Auckland – but yet again her Government is fighting fires in regional New Zealand because it got its delivery all wrong.

That expression "too many cooks spoil the broth" seems to be increasingly more fitting when it comes to the Labour/NZ First/Greens government, as all three parties continually butt heads over the best recipe for running the country.

NZ First voters will be starting to wonder what they signed up to after three recently announced policies resulted in a fairly sizeable kicking for regional Kiwis.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says time will tell whether he gets "hammered" by the regions.

First it was taking money out of state highway construction in the regions to pay for rapid rail in Auckland.

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Then it was winding down taxpayer subsidies for irrigation schemes and on Thursday Taranaki woke up wondering what it had done so wrong that meant future offshore oil and gas exploration permits were on the scrap heap.

Kevin Stent Minister for Energy Megan Woods,Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, and Minister for Climate Change James Shaw should have gone to Taranaki to announce a significant change to the oil and gas industry.

Full disclaimer here: I'm a born and bred 'Naki girl (my parents were in the white gold business) but living in Opunake you come pretty familiar with the darkest of nights being constantly lit up by the flames at Maui burning off gas 24/7.

That black and white gold is all that keeps Taranaki going and when there's a drop in price or supply in one or the other the whole region suffers together.

There's no argument that oil and gas exploration isn't the answer to a sustainable future and transitioning to renewable energy is a given, but if you decide to mess around with one, you sure as hell need a good plan for the other.

And that's where the Government got it wrong this week – the messaging about why New Zealand needs to do its bit domestically by moving away from oil and gas exploration was fine, but the explanation of what it was being replaced with was non-existent.

Business and local government leaders in Taranaki want to lead the way on renewable energy when the time comes, but there's a reason why New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom said the Government's announcement was a "kick in the guts".

Wanting to lead the way on the next big technology is one thing, but having a plan is another, and Holdom found himself in a situation not too dissimilar to being told we're moving you out of your house but we don't have another one for you to move into.

Yes the Government probably has about 30 years to work that out, but that's not actually the point.

Taking a significant step like this requires a game plan and that's something Jacinda Ardern has up until this point been very good at.

She understands optics and messaging and did a pretty decent job of both during their first 100 days.

But now that she's announcing policies where she's had to sit around the negotiating table with NZ First leader Winston Peters and Greens co-leader James Shaw both fighting to keep their own party relevant, the wheels are starting to fall off.

It's understood the initial plan was to deliver Thursday's announcement in Taranaki – that's a smart play because what better way to fight fires than to be right there on the ground with a hose?

For whatever reason that plan went out the back window and Ardern, along with Shaw, Energy Minister Megan Woods and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, fronted media at Parliament on Thursday with the news.

For about five seconds it looked like Jones wasn't going to front (I mean who would blame him) until he wandered into the press conference a few steps behind the other three.

Jones may have been saying what needed to be said as he fielded the bulk of the questions, but he managed to completely lose control of his facial expressions for a good half an hour as he rolled through very visible emotions ranging from ambivalent to exasperated.

This is the self-professed "Champion" and "First Citizen" of the regions who is pro-industry and only a few years ago was quoted saying: "Protesters need to bear in mind we are buying oil out of the Gulf of Mexico and other far-flung places when we should be focusing on making an industry in our own country".

That's some big dead rats being swallowed.

Jones then went with his colleagues up to Victoria University where the announcement was delivered to students lined up to get their selfie with Ardern.

And where was National Party leader Simon Bridges? In New Plymouth of course for a pre-planned speech at a business conference. The timing couldn't have been better.

Ardern and Jones were at a university with a bunch of students not too directly affected by the policy, while Bridges was visiting Fitzroy Engineering in New Plymouth and talking to industry leaders livid they hadn't been consulted.

Cries from the industry that they didn't know it was coming are a bit of a laugh after the whole announcement was made earlier than anticipated because of how many people it had leaked to.

The point oil and gas leaders are trying to make is they weren't officially consulted.

That's when the scrambling kicked in and Ardern got on the phone to her trusted senior Minister Andrew Little and presumably said something along the lines of, "mate, we've got a problem and I'm leaving the country for a couple of weeks and Jones doesn't want to go to New Plymouth, so do you think you could pop up there? Thanks".

Talk about drawing the short straw.

Little, who has failed twice to win the New Plymouth seat off National, had to suck it up and drive to Taranaki to face the music. Too little too late.

It's understood some in the Government executive are frustrated the announcement wasn't made in the region most affected and that there was no clear strategy for explaining what comes next.

Ardern has promised to visit Taranaki when she returns from her trip to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in a couple of weeks.

NZ First deputy leader Fletcher Tabuteau will front business and local government leaders in New Plymouth on Monday.

He was there with Jones a week ago when they delivered the Taranaki regional economic development action plan.

Tabuteau and Jones both maintained this week that they had signalled the transition process during their talks with leaders.

Woods says she spoke about the Government's future plans at a conference and Ardern herself signalled change was coming when she went out on to the Parliament forecourt last month and personally received a Greenpeace petition calling for an end to oil exploration.

But Ardern softened her language in the hours after that symbolic gesture and that would have left many with the impression that any significant change wasn't happening anytime soon.

The industry is being a bit disingenuous suggesting about 11,000 jobs will be affected by this announcement – the reality is it's more like 4000.

While none of those jobs will disappear today or tomorrow, they will be affected in the long term and once the regions start crying out it's Jones' $1 billion provincial growth fund that's going to be drawn on.

If the policy rolled out over the next two-and-a-half years continues to hit the provinces, Jones will find it's much easier to spend $1b than he first thought – just perhaps not in the way he initially intended.

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