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Speaker 1: Good morning.

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Speaker 2: Your sense of price gouging real or not?

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Speaker 1: Well, it's something that we need to have the EA,

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Speaker 1: which is the ultrist authority, look into. No one accepts these

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Speaker 1: high prices. We need to have confidence that price gouging

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Speaker 1: is not happening. But we also need the ultrist authority

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Speaker 1: in ComCom to do their job and publicly report that

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Speaker 1: so the New Zealanders can have the confidence that they deserve.

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Speaker 2: The fact they haven't reported anything so far, are they asleep?

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Speaker 1: Well that's why I've asked them to get on and

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Speaker 1: do their job, which is to publicly report on this

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Speaker 1: information with a level of urgency. The first report will

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Speaker 1: be next Friday. They're collecting data now, but this is

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Speaker 1: something which we need a level of urgency on and

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Speaker 1: that's what I've asked them to do.

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Speaker 2: What's your sense of it. Is it simply lack of

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Speaker 2: rain and hydro and when it rains it'll get fixed.

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Speaker 2: Or is this bigger and we need to deal to

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Speaker 2: it this time round.

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Speaker 1: Well, there's two things here. Firstly, we are facing a

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Speaker 1: dry year. We have had low wind this year. But

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Speaker 1: the compounding and major factor here is we have had

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Speaker 1: a significant downgrade in our gas reserves, and that's because

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Speaker 1: of the last six years of demonizing gas. We haven't

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Speaker 1: had the production, we haven't had the investigations, we haven't

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Speaker 1: had the exploration, we haven't had the drilling that's needed

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Speaker 1: in order to give confidence to the gas market. So

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Speaker 1: the last government demonized gas, we're now reaping what they sowed.

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Speaker 1: And so that's why we're now having to look at

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Speaker 1: other options such as importing LNG to fill the gap.

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Speaker 2: Right will we know about when? Will we know about

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Speaker 2: l and G?

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Speaker 1: By the way, well, we've got a piece of work

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Speaker 1: underway at the moment around that. The governments are urgently

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Speaker 1: looking at what's required to make that happen. But there's

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Speaker 1: some pretty key decisions that need to be made, and

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Speaker 1: we also need to think about what the impact that

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Speaker 1: has on our domestics supply and also the ultrusting markets.

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Speaker 1: Some big decisions that the government's going to have to

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Speaker 1: consider on that issue.

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Speaker 2: What about and I know what the power companies will say,

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Speaker 2: especially the gent Taylors. When Onslow was on the scene,

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Speaker 2: they didn't see the need to invest in any more capacity.

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Speaker 2: Is that a fair argument or not?

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Speaker 1: Well, that was an absolutely fair argument from them at

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Speaker 1: the time, but we've taken that off off the table.

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Speaker 1: We've made it very clear that we're not going to

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Speaker 1: be building a big, massive onslow. But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: we need to see these guys investing. We need to

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Speaker 1: see investment in that and that's why we've got fast

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Speaker 1: Track coming down the line, so that we can make

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Speaker 1: it easier to build the generation New Zealand needs. And

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Speaker 1: for the short, medium and the long term.

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Speaker 2: Why would they they're making money like this no tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Well, ultimately, that's why we also need to make it

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Speaker 1: easy for other people to enter the market too, and

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Speaker 1: that's what fast Track's all about. Make it easy to

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Speaker 1: get consensy enter the market so that you can have

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Speaker 1: more competition and more supply into the New Zealand ultricity

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Speaker 1: market for.

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Speaker 2: The here and now. Having heard you, having heard Jones,

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Speaker 2: having heard Peters, are you guys actually going to do

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Speaker 2: something right here, right now or are you just jaw

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Speaker 2: boning this.

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Speaker 1: We're taking this incredibly seriously. We're working very hard in

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Speaker 1: terms of the range of options. We're also working closely

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Speaker 1: with the gent tailors because ultimately they do have the supply.

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Speaker 1: We're working with Transpowers just come out last night saying

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Speaker 1: bring the consulting now and bringing forward contingent supply in

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Speaker 1: the lakes. That will be a big relief. And there's

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Speaker 1: other commercial negotiations underway at the same time which could

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Speaker 1: provide further relief. So there is a range of things

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Speaker 1: happening in the short term. There's also decisions we're making

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Speaker 1: around the medium term, and of course we've got fast trap,

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Speaker 1: which is around actually freeing up their ability to build

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Speaker 1: the generation this country desperately needs. Now.

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Speaker 2: Put another hat on Palmerston North Mari Wards. They're already

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Speaker 2: consulting lawyers.

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Speaker 1: You say, what, Well, the law says they have to

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Speaker 1: hold a referendum, and actually we thought this might happen,

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Speaker 1: so we actually put in the law that if the

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Speaker 1: council doesn't make a resolution, then the Electoral Officer is

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Speaker 1: required to hold that referendum. If the council decides to

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Speaker 1: refuse to bay the law, well.

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Speaker 2: They had a vote and they're going to keep the ward.

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Speaker 2: So that means presumably they're going to go to a referendum.

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Speaker 2: They want to a referend them, yeah, they want to

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Speaker 2: avoid going to a referendum. So you are saying they

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Speaker 2: are literally wasting time and money on lawyers.

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Speaker 1: Correct, and we foresaw this. The law actually says, even

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Speaker 1: if they try to stop at the electoral officer quant

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Speaker 1: to do it. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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