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Speaker 1: Obviously Power and Water working through the night to try

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Speaker 1: and get everybody's power back on, and in the studio

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Speaker 1: with us again this morning is Mike Beselink, the executive

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Speaker 1: general manager of CORP Operations with Power and Water. Good

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Speaker 1: morning again, Mike.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and thanks for having us on.

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Speaker 1: Mate. You may as well just stay in here just about. Well,

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Speaker 1: you've got a regular sport every day.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's actually been very good as an ability for

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Speaker 2: us to actually communicate with people out there, so we

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Speaker 2: really appreciate it anytime.

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Speaker 1: Well, how are we going? How many people are still

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Speaker 1: without power?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're down to the sort of low five hundreds now,

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Speaker 2: so I think yesterday it was somewhere around about eight hundred.

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Speaker 2: As I've been saying over the last few days, these

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Speaker 2: are where we now go to the individual places, so

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Speaker 2: you know, each of these jobs is longer than when

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Speaker 2: we're actually trying to get the bulk of people back on.

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Speaker 2: But we are working through this now and going quite

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Speaker 2: well with the ones that we're connecting.

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Speaker 1: Are you finding as Screws arrived to some of the

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Speaker 1: those houses that are still offline that they've done everything

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Speaker 1: that they sort of need to from their side in

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Speaker 1: terms of getting an electrician out in that kind of thing.

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Speaker 2: In the majority of cases that is happening, and we're

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Speaker 2: really grateful that people are actually taking the time to

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Speaker 2: actually get that done because that works well. We have

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Speaker 2: unfortunately had a couple of cases where we haven't been

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Speaker 2: able to connect because the certificate of compliance hasn't been available.

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Speaker 2: So I do implore that people do go ahead and

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Speaker 2: do that. And as I said yesterday, if you are

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Speaker 2: someone who is a renter, make sure that your landlord

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Speaker 2: is doing this job for you and that you let

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Speaker 2: them know so if you go through that. If you're

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Speaker 2: in public housing, again make sure that that's done. And

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Speaker 2: if they're not aware, there is the public housing number

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Speaker 2: which is if you don't mind, you you go for it.

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Speaker 2: Yeap one eight hundred one zero four zero seven six.

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Speaker 2: If you're in an apartment or a large complic that

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Speaker 2: has things, you need to talk to your body corporate.

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Speaker 2: And again, if you're a rural property owner that has

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Speaker 2: multiple poles in their property, we're not responsible for the

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Speaker 2: poles all the way to your house. We generally the

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Speaker 2: responsibility we have is the connection to the first pole.

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Speaker 2: So if you've got damage beyond that you do need

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Speaker 2: to actually still get an electrician or someone to have

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Speaker 2: a lot out there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess that's where you know, these some

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Speaker 1: of these final five hundred I would imagine get a

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Speaker 1: little bit trickier. What's the process today in terms of

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Speaker 1: trying to work through all of those.

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Speaker 2: So we do have a register of all of those

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Speaker 2: who've got the coocs through, and we are working as

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Speaker 2: we can through those because we know we can go

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Speaker 2: and connect those. So and it's really just cruiser in

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Speaker 2: various areas. We're not like hitting a suburb. We're doing

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Speaker 2: things across all over the area so that we're actually

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Speaker 2: working through so cruiser in multiple different suburbs and we're

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Speaker 2: just going through primarily we've got those coocs where we're

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Speaker 2: working through them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, to anybody listening this morning who is still feeling

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Speaker 1: very frustrated their power may not be on, I mean,

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Speaker 1: what is your message to them?

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Speaker 2: So again, it is very important that we're aware that

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Speaker 2: your power is off, so it doesn't hurt even if

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Speaker 2: you've rung in three or four days ago, ringing again

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Speaker 2: say my power is off, just go through that, and

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Speaker 2: you know we do need to have you on our list,

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Speaker 2: and we just don't want to have people to miss out.

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Speaker 1: Not fair enough, Mike. We yesterday had quite a few

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Speaker 1: people who'd gone out to Marara to obviously try to

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Speaker 1: get their two hundred and fifty dollars relief payment. When

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Speaker 1: they got out there, they were, you know, maybe told

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Speaker 1: by Power and Water that there wasn't sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: there was, well, there was a few different issues. For

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Speaker 1: some people. It was that it didn't show that they

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Speaker 1: were without power for seventy two hours. First off to

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Speaker 1: those people, what do they need to do if they

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Speaker 1: know that their power was out for more than seventy

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Speaker 1: two hours, but for some reason it wasn't showing up yesterday.

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, we've got a list out there, which is

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Speaker 2: not perfect by any means. We've produced a list, and

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Speaker 2: that's showing people who have been off for seventy two

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Speaker 2: hours or more. For people who were told yesterday that

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Speaker 2: our list doesn't show they're off for seventy two hours,

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Speaker 2: please give us a call. We will work it through

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Speaker 2: with you. We'll go and investigate your particular circumstance and

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Speaker 2: find out, you know, where that power was up for yeah.

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Speaker 1: And try and work it through now. Others saying, you know, Katie,

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Speaker 1: I went out there to go and get my payment,

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Speaker 1: but unfortunately my accounts in my husband's name. For example,

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Speaker 1: one lady in particular saying her husband's very unwell and

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Speaker 1: obviously isn't able to go out there with her she

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Speaker 1: had his ID. What's the best advice for people in

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Speaker 1: a situation that might be similar to that.

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Speaker 2: So we've been in contact with various authorities. So the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory government has said that they will accept authorized

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Speaker 2: persons to come in on behalf of other people. You

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Speaker 2: can be an authorized person if you're named on the

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Speaker 2: account as an authorized person. If you're not, please bring

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Speaker 2: your retailer and get yourself on there as an authorized

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Speaker 2: person and then that should be okay from what we hear.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So if they're able to do that, then they

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Speaker 1: should be right to come back out and to receive that.

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Speaker 2: Payment from what we understand.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's a bit of a blur, you know,

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Speaker 1: like these lines blurring obviously because it's been managed by

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Speaker 1: the Department of Children and Families, but then obviously Power

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Speaker 1: and Water trying to you know, to make sure that

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Speaker 1: everybody that's lost their power for more than seventy two

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Speaker 1: hours is on that list. But as you pointed out before,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's I guess it's not the Bible for

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Speaker 1: one of a better word, it is, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: a list that's probably a bit of a moving feast,

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Speaker 1: I would imagine.

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Speaker 2: Look, these things are as you know, they're just happening

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Speaker 2: minute by minute, you know, so it is. It is

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Speaker 2: a difficult one to get it exact as we print

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Speaker 2: these things out. So yes, please, as I said, if

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Speaker 2: you believe that you've been off for more than seventy

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Speaker 2: two hours, and if we didn't have that down, give

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Speaker 2: us a call and we will work that through with you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I reckon that's probably a good piece of

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Speaker 1: advice for people as well, maybe before they head out there,

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Speaker 1: if they're worried in any way, getting contact and try

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Speaker 1: and sort through it before sort of lining up out there,

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Speaker 1: like anything else, we should be aware of this morning

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Speaker 1: before I let you go.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think if there are any other questions, because

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Speaker 2: I don't know the whole process, but people can read

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Speaker 2: ntes yes on one eight hundred eight eight eight nine.

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Speaker 1: Zero one yep, perfect, so they can always get in

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Speaker 1: contact with the different sort of authorities to try and

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Speaker 1: sort through everything because I know sometimes in these situations

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Speaker 1: it sort of feels like, you know, it shouldn't, but

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Speaker 1: it can feel sometimes like you know, the government's working

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Speaker 1: against us. But that's actually not anyone's intention. Everybody wants

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Speaker 1: to try to make sure that, you know, that people

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Speaker 1: do receive that payment if they're eligible for it. But

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Speaker 1: you know, sometimes the paperwork things just do not match

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Speaker 1: up the way that we want them to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think Katie and sort of these these

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Speaker 2: are not processes that have been refined over a long

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Speaker 2: period of time. People are trying to do their best

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Speaker 2: to help people out right across the spectrum, and some

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Speaker 2: of these things they come in and they do need

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Speaker 2: to be refined.

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Speaker 1: They're literally like in for twenty four hours and you're like,

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Speaker 1: oh goodness, we've got to work through these hiccups.

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Speaker 2: That's right. And so again, I know people are frustrated,

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Speaker 2: but there is if we can just be patient with

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Speaker 2: the process, I think we'll all get through.

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Speaker 1: It pretty Yeah. Yeah, Well, Mike Besilink, Executive General Manager

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Speaker 1: of Core Operations, I really appreciate your time this morning,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know we might have you on once

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Speaker 1: more this week.

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Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll see how we go on this ro

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Speaker 2: if I stop coming in.

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Speaker 1: Katie, so good on your MIC. Thanks so much,