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Speaker 1: We are apparently about to hear about major electricity sector

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Speaker 1: of form. This is coming from the minister. Final touches

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Speaker 1: apparently being sought of. But the announcement set, he says,

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Speaker 1: before the end of the month and given today is

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Speaker 1: the twenty second that means pretty much this week. I

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Speaker 1: guess we'll will inquire with the Prime Minister shortly. A

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Speaker 1: couple of things Simon Watts calls them fundamental. He refers

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Speaker 1: to the last time it was this major as being

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Speaker 1: in the nineties. So the question I would have thought

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Speaker 1: is are they going to split the gent tailors? I mean,

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Speaker 1: the government's history would suggest no. They've been talking big

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Speaker 1: on banks and supermarkets. They've made plenty of announcements, of course,

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Speaker 1: but little has actually happened. Why would this be any different?

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Speaker 1: So the government has also argued rightly that business likes consistency.

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Speaker 1: When the last lot talked about onslow, for example, in

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Speaker 1: the lake and the hole in the ground, the industry

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Speaker 1: stopped investing. So would splitting the big players not cause

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Speaker 1: the same sort of trouble. But in the report that's

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Speaker 1: driving the government's thinking, we have seen an astonishing increase

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Speaker 1: in your basic power bill. Now in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: collectively we spent four point four billion dollars on power

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Speaker 1: any year four point four billion. Next year, it was

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Speaker 1: four point five. The time we got to twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: it's four point eight. By last year it was five

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Speaker 1: point two. So it's gone from four point four to

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Speaker 1: five point two billion dollars, and you wonder why we

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Speaker 1: don't have any spare cash. On average, the basic household

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Speaker 1: power bill since twenty twenty three has gone up four

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars each and every year, So we can explain

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Speaker 1: some of it renewables. Obviously we need investment, but we

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Speaker 1: still haven't closed that gap. We still panic in winter,

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Speaker 1: and that's before you get to all the AI and

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Speaker 1: the data centers that are presumably going to suck astride.

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Speaker 1: By the way, on the renewable front, Contact Energy are

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Speaker 1: looking at pulling more water out of Lake Harwire Well

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Speaker 1: that so then get past the locals who of course

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Speaker 1: hate it, and in that is part of the New

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Speaker 1: Zealand problem, isn't it nimbiism? You can't moan about the

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Speaker 1: bills and also moan about the solutions. Everyone wants utopia

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Speaker 1: but doesn't want to pay for it or have any

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Speaker 1: of it happen in their backyard, so stand by. Maybe

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Speaker 1: it's fundamental, maybe it's a government looking to spin some

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Speaker 1: more pr I don't know. We'll find out shortly. I

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Speaker 1: think though, what we all agree on is we need

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Speaker 1: more power and the damage the current scenario is doing

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Speaker 1: to the economy cannot go on. For more from The

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Speaker 1: Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talk Set B

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