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Speaker 1: The government is winding down Green Investment Finance, saying it

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Speaker 1: invested almost four hundred million dollars but only had very

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Speaker 1: limited results. Green Investment Finance gave one hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: five million dollar loan to Solar zero. Remember that that

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Speaker 1: was put into liquidation last year. The Climate Change Minister

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Speaker 1: Simon Watts is with me now to talk about it.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, minister, yea evening, Ryan, thanks for having me. Yeah. Good.

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Speaker 1: So the four hundred million dollars, what was what return

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Speaker 1: did we get for that? What did we get?

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Speaker 2: Well, look at it across of the four hundred only

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Speaker 2: two hundred million of that was invested across twenty different organizations,

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Speaker 2: one of which you were right to point out was

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Speaker 2: Soldar zero. The major portion was about there was one

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Speaker 2: hundred million totality. But look, you know there's quite a

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Speaker 2: mixture of returns across the board, but you know, not

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Speaker 2: large returns. You know, to twenty twenty three about one

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Speaker 2: point eight percent return on equity. Twenty twenty two and

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one were negative for return uns in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four forecast was just under five percent, So you know,

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Speaker 2: not not at all significant returns in terms of taxpayer investment.

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Speaker 1: Did you say twenty twenty four was five percent forecast.

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Speaker 2: Five four point nine? Correct? Right?

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Speaker 1: And did and that obviously did that happen.

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Speaker 2: It is still finishing through, but it's it's that's an

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Speaker 2: estimate position.

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Speaker 1: Right, right, So we don't actually know yet what the

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Speaker 1: result was. Is it premiature to cut it?

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Speaker 2: No, I don't think it's premature to cut it. We've

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Speaker 2: been pretty clear that the government has decided that, you know,

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Speaker 2: this type of stuff isn't core government business. We need

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Speaker 2: to be selected around how we invest taxpayer money. We've

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Speaker 2: seen the impacts of the Solar zero decision, which went

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Speaker 2: positive for the taxpayer, and you know, the decision made

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Speaker 2: that this is no longer core business. I think it

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Speaker 2: also reflects that actually the market, the private market, has

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Speaker 2: evolved in many of these funding and financing services are

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Speaker 2: now provided by banks and other players in the market.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I don't think that there is a

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Speaker 2: need for government to be involved in this market going forward.

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Speaker 1: How much because obviously so how much has actually been

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Speaker 1: paid out. Two hundred million dollars has been paid out,

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Speaker 1: so we won't it's correct what happens with that money.

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Speaker 1: They just continue, those contracts continue, those investments continu Well.

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Speaker 2: Basically the organization is going to stop any new investments

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Speaker 2: and it's going to manage down that portfolio. Obviously, the

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Speaker 2: big chunk is sold a zero and that's for that's

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Speaker 2: an liquidation proceedings, So I sort of can't get into

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Speaker 2: too much detail. But the other investments, the other nineteen

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Speaker 2: will in effect be loans that they'll manage through to

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Speaker 2: maturity or any of the equity stakes that they have,

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Speaker 2: and they'll be looking for buyers for those in a

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Speaker 2: managed process.

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Speaker 1: Right, So does that mean that there's two hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollars that otherwise would have been linked that's not been lenked.

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Speaker 1: I mean that's the upside to the Crown accounts is

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Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, it was sitting on term depozzle.

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Speaker 1: Interesting. Is there anything else that Nicola is taking a

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Speaker 1: sledgehammer too that you've got purview.

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Speaker 2: Over Look, I've only got purview as I'm a shielding

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Speaker 2: minister for this entity. But you know, at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, we've had to we are making calls

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Speaker 2: across the board around what government's investing in and what

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Speaker 2: we're not and the reality is this is not an

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Speaker 2: area which we see as core government coment business. And

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Speaker 2: as a result of that, you know, we've made a

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Speaker 2: decision and we'll manage it down. That investment and that

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Speaker 2: money that is available go back into the center and

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Speaker 2: will be available for us to invest in other priorities

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Speaker 2: for the government. So I think that's a sensible decision, all.

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Speaker 1: Right, appreciate your time, Simon Wat's Climate Change Minister. For

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