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Speaker 1: Marsden Point could become New Zealand's first Special Economic zone

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Speaker 1: in a bid to boost fuel and energy security for

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Speaker 1: Kew's The Resources Minister Shane Jones says turning it into

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Speaker 1: an energy precinct could protect against supply chain disruptions that

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Speaker 1: could support the economy. Shane Jones is with me now,

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Speaker 1: High Minister.

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Speaker 2: Hi, greetings folks.

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Speaker 1: What is a special economic What does that mean to

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Speaker 1: your special economic zone? Does that mean tax breaks for

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Speaker 1: this area? Does that mean faster regulation?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean the idea flows from the fact that

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Speaker 2: this is a site of great strategic importance. Seven to

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Speaker 2: sixteen billion dollars to rebuild the refinery according to the analyst,

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Speaker 2: So that's certainly beyond the spending capacity that I have

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Speaker 2: any influence over. One of the ideas that has come

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Speaker 2: forward is that if Marsden Point is really of significance

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Speaker 2: to energy transition, energy innovation, let's have a bespoke precinct

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Speaker 2: with distinctive planning laws and identify with my colleagues Nichola

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Speaker 2: Willis and the Minister of Revenue what additional what additional

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Speaker 2: incentives can be built into such.

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Speaker 1: A zone, like tax breaks. You're looking at that now

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Speaker 1: I campaigned.

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Speaker 2: I campaigned on that. Sadly, we've got six and a

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Speaker 2: half percent of the vote, so that didn't get very far.

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Speaker 2: But there's given. If indeed you do think that climate

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Speaker 2: change is this all enveloping existential issue, then what are

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Speaker 2: we actually going to do in New Zealand other than

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Speaker 2: try and tax cows. What are we actually going to

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Speaker 2: do to enable industry, to enable investors to accelerate the

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Speaker 2: accelerate the pace of change. So are you talking about.

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Speaker 1: Are you talking about biofuels only here at Marsden pointery?

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Speaker 1: Are you actually talking about oil?

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Speaker 2: Of course, I'm talking about gas and oil. I'm not

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Speaker 2: part of this naive club who believes that the internal

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Speaker 2: combustion engine is going to go anytime soon. But we're

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Speaker 2: talking about all fuel.

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Speaker 1: But the oil refinery is obviously been shutted, right, so

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Speaker 1: you're talking about bringing the oil refinery back as part

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Speaker 1: of this is that the goal no.

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Speaker 2: The zone hopefully will encourage investors who are looking at fuel,

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Speaker 2: not only innovation but diversifying our fuel types. Obviously, in

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Speaker 2: New zealand's very keen to see if it can get

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Speaker 2: a blended fuel so it can play the game when

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Speaker 2: it goes and lands in other countries that have onerous

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Speaker 2: climate obligations.

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Speaker 1: So biofuels, you're talking about biofuels, you're not talking about oil.

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Speaker 2: Well, it currently is a site of importation of oil

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Speaker 2: and that's not going to change anytime soon. But having

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Speaker 2: said that, you're not going to that. There's biofuels as hydrogen,

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Speaker 2: there's a variety of other things, and it's up to

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Speaker 2: the market to establish how such products can be delivered

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand. And let's try and find a spot

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Speaker 2: where people are incentivized to deliver them rather than suffering

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Speaker 2: the depredations of Nimby's minister.

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Speaker 1: Is this idea actually going to happen? Is this just

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Speaker 1: another kind of headline grabber from you.

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Speaker 2: I'm disappointed you've characterized them Matua in such a rhetorical way.

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Speaker 1: All right, No, no answer to the question either. What

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Speaker 1: about Mercury putting up their prices ten percent? They say

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Speaker 1: it's transmission cost lines costs have gone up, but also

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Speaker 1: the dry winter.

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Speaker 2: The electricity system not unlike the Shakespearean phrase, is something

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Speaker 2: rotten at the core of the electricity sector. You know that,

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Speaker 2: I know that they are that powerful and they have

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Speaker 2: been that impervious to change that until such time there's

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Speaker 2: significant recalibration of the electricity settings. I don't imagine that

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Speaker 2: much of anything is going to change. I'm confident that

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Speaker 2: the reviews will give some decent options for the government

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Speaker 2: to look at. But the bottom line is we will

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Speaker 2: not have manufacturing, we will not have an industrial competitiveness

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand if we do not tame the profit

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Speaker 2: excesses of the electricity sector.

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Speaker 1: They didn't make a profit, I beg your pardon, they

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Speaker 1: didn't make a profit.

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Speaker 2: Well, Genesis made a huge profit.

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Speaker 1: But I've asked you about me. They haven't. That's all

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Speaker 1: I'm saying.

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Speaker 2: No. But if you look at the period of time

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Speaker 2: that mercury has been around and the inverse relationship to

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Speaker 2: how far how quickly their value has grown and the

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Speaker 2: pitiful amount of money that that sector is actually put

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Speaker 2: into boosting supply, you'll find that I'm right and you're wrong.

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Speaker 1: Minister. Thanks so much for your time. Shane Jones, the

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Speaker 1: Minister for Resources and Regional Development, with us from the

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Speaker 1: Solomon Islands. Of all places today. For more from Heather Duplessy,

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, Or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio