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Speaker 1: So Transpower has released the full investigation into how the

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Speaker 1: Northern Power pylon fell over back in June, causing widespread

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Speaker 1: electricity outages that cost sixty million dollars in lost business.

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Speaker 1: The report finds it's because of insufficient supervision of an

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Speaker 1: inexperienced worker. Too many bolts were then removed from the tower,

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Speaker 1: causing it to topple over which we all knew we

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Speaker 1: saw the photos. Now there will be numerous calls for

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Speaker 1: Transpower to provide compensation as the outage cost that sixty

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Speaker 1: million dollars to the Northern economy. So were they or

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Speaker 1: weren't they? So I'm joined now by Transpowers Acting chief

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Speaker 1: Executive John Clark. Hello John, Hello Andrew.

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Speaker 2: Gee.

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Speaker 1: This was a beginner's mistake, wasn't it?

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Speaker 2: As we said, well, you weren't able to comprehend how

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Speaker 2: our mix on a contract We've used a lot and

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Speaker 2: good work for us could end up the situation with

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Speaker 2: the crew without sufficient training or supervision that resulted in

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Speaker 2: a worker removing more nuts on pretail. Next.

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Speaker 1: It's incredible. I mean, do you provide you know, before

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Speaker 1: the contractors start doing the work, do you provide a manual?

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Speaker 1: This is how you actually do this. Did you ever

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Speaker 1: provide any written statement that said, whatever you do, don't

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Speaker 1: do that.

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Speaker 2: Mut We don't specify how many nuts should be removed

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Speaker 2: or the order they are removed in We set out

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Speaker 2: the high level requirement that we want the service provider

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Speaker 2: to achieve, and then we lead them to plan the

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Speaker 2: work in a way that is both safe and efficient.

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Speaker 2: So they and that's practice for a lot of things.

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Speaker 2: We employee meet them and other service siders because they

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Speaker 2: are experts and how to deliver work.

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Speaker 1: All right, So omic Tom is an independent contractor. They're

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Speaker 1: actually quite a big company. Their owned overseas are worth

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Speaker 1: about five billion euros apparently, so they've got a bit

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Speaker 1: of ing. They're doing work on behalf of you. You've

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Speaker 1: got a contract, you've asked them to do the work.

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Speaker 1: The one thing that this report does not include is

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Speaker 1: who may or may not pay compensation. So whose responsibility

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Speaker 1: would it be to pay compensation to the good people

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Speaker 1: of Northland who had to shut down for the day.

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Speaker 2: Well, firstly, apologize again to people of Northon for the

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Speaker 2: disruption that happened as a result of the salvage. They

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Speaker 2: have had a tough time and this was just another

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Speaker 2: thing as part of the experiences they had had, and

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Speaker 2: we really appreciated the way that our partners up there

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Speaker 2: and others collaborated to help us use the backup supply

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Speaker 2: for about two and a half days to get people

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Speaker 2: before we could get people uprom running properly. Utilities like electricity, water, gas,

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Speaker 2: there is no arrangement where we guarantee supply to be

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Speaker 2: able to. These utilities are subject to things like storm

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Speaker 2: floods or manner of environmental challenges. The infrastructure spread out

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Speaker 2: of a wide area, there will be occasional equipment failures

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Speaker 2: and rarely but sometimes human errors. The frameworks we work

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Speaker 2: in today do not provide for reinvestment when full service

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Speaker 2: is not available. So that's the model that we have

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Speaker 2: at AP prices. I say to not hony to electricity,

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Speaker 2: to water, guess other utilities even available here roading.

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Speaker 1: Well, that may be what's in your contract, but that

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Speaker 1: doesn't win you any friends. I know that north and

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Speaker 1: MP Grant McCallum says providing compensation for the incident is

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Speaker 1: the least you could do. So what do you say

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Speaker 1: to him and the good people of Northland.

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Speaker 2: We've met and talked with Grant McCallum. I'm not sure

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Speaker 2: if he's made comments about compensation, but we certainly talked

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Speaker 2: with him about what we can do in the Northland community,

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Speaker 2: and we will be talking with other leaders services and

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Speaker 2: may make an announcement of how we can commut support

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Speaker 2: the community in some way given the challenges that they

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Speaker 2: have taste.

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Speaker 1: He says. The MP says it's good to see you

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Speaker 1: accepting the findings of the report on your power pile

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Speaker 1: on failure and acknowledging the harm it does to Northernders,

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Speaker 1: but he says we're left waiting for Transpower to take

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Speaker 1: responsibility for their actions. Do you feel you're taking responsibility

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Speaker 1: for your actions?

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Speaker 2: As noted, we've apologized for the inconvenience and said this

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Speaker 2: event should not occur. We've taken a number of actions

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Speaker 2: to make sure it does not occur again, including requirements

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Speaker 2: around our service providers before this work begins again, because

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Speaker 2: we want to make sure they can do it safely

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Speaker 2: and in a way that does not put the power

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Speaker 2: system at list well.

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Speaker 1: Amixem is, as I say, a big international company with

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Speaker 1: deep pockets as well, and they made a critical mistake

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Speaker 1: which screwed up the business of a lot of northenders.

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Speaker 1: Have you thought about heading them up for providing some

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Speaker 1: compensation for the bad work that they did.

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Speaker 2: Well, We've completed our review which gets does identify the

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Speaker 2: actions of the workers I met are doing their review,

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Speaker 2: which we'll go a little bit further, we hope into

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Speaker 2: just understanding what may have gone wrong in terms of

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Speaker 2: processes and controls and even behaviors that got to where

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Speaker 2: they are. In addition to that, we have a separate

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Speaker 2: review by the Electricity Authority requested by the Minister of Energy,

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Speaker 2: and I think when we look at all those reviews,

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Speaker 2: we may know more about just how the event came

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Speaker 2: to be and what the consequences are.

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Speaker 1: All right, John, thank you so much for your time today.

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Speaker 1: John Clark has transpowers acting chief Executive. And how do

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Speaker 1: you feel about that? There is no compensation Northern time?

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Speaker 1: So sorry the power off. Some fool forgot to put

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Speaker 1: in the things. No one's taking responsibility, No money, no money.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel The word weasel weezer, weasel weasel

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Speaker 1: comes to mind?

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio,