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Speaker 1: Disappointing, a damp squib, a real concern. This is what

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Speaker 1: the SECT is saying about yesterday's big energy announcement. The

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Speaker 1: big four gent tailor stock price shot up when the

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Speaker 1: market's opened. But what about the little guys who are

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Speaker 1: you Berts with electric key with the chief executive, who

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Speaker 1: are good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, good morning?

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Speaker 1: At most all going to plan we'll be saving what

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Speaker 1: a few bucks off of four hundred dollars a month

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Speaker 1: power bill?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, one of the key numbers that came out

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Speaker 2: yesterday was that there was potential for the wholesale energy

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Speaker 2: prices to come down by around two percent per annum

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Speaker 2: with the reforms that were announced, And that really does

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Speaker 2: amount to a few dollars off your power bill, whereas

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Speaker 2: bold reform would be talking about hundreds of dollars per year.

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Speaker 2: And that's just what's so disappointing for households and businesses.

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Speaker 1: The big problem is the new generation, right, getting these

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Speaker 1: companies to invest in new generation, and they've kind of

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Speaker 1: trying to address that by the government you getting involved,

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Speaker 1: But how do you explain contact, which is completely privately owned,

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Speaker 1: built more generation and faster than the partially state owned ones.

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Speaker 2: Well, it comes down to incentives really, and you know,

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Speaker 2: each of these each of these companies, they've got government ownership,

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Speaker 2: and they're really incentivized to you know, pay out those

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Speaker 2: those good steadies every year, and Contact does as well.

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Speaker 2: But the most commercially rational thing for these companies to

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Speaker 2: do is really to keep the market, you know, relatively undersupplied.

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Speaker 2: Because they've got market power, they can keep competition out,

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Speaker 2: prices can remain high, and then really that's the best

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Speaker 2: way for them to operate. So this incremental reform yesterday

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Speaker 2: that was beneficial to the share price of those companies

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Speaker 2: because it was saying, hey, it's actually the stattus quo.

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Speaker 2: Nothing's going to change here. You know, still record profits,

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Speaker 2: still lots of dividends, and you know, unfortunately not the

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Speaker 2: affordable abundance energy future that New Zealand needs.

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Speaker 1: Who we appreciate your time. Who are you Bert? Who's

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Speaker 1: the electric key? We ceoed? For more from early edition

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Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks at b

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Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.