Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why Transpower's press conference backfired this morning

Well, Transpower has given us a master class in how to look guilty, hasn't it?  

I mean, come on. Who doesn't now think that the crew took the bolts out of the leg, which caused the thing to fall over, which caused the entire region of Northland to lose power? And why do we think that? Because Allison Andrew, the Chief Executive, sounded guilty as all hell in her media interviews this morning.  

“I didn't want to talk about it, it's really unhelpful to speculate at the moment, we have to focus on the power restoration.” - I mean, come on. In 2024, when modern communication is in your pocket – no one believes that Allison Andrew doesn't already know what happened. Of course she does. If she doesn't, then she sucks at her job.  

Because in any decent organisation, the first thing that happens when there is a major snafu is the boss calls the points person who's on the ground and gets a preliminary idea of what happened. And they do that because if there’s a bigger problem, they need to know what happened.  

You cannot tell me that Allison Andrew, the chief executive, was like, “Oh, did you call them? No, don't tell me. It's not helpful. I'll wait for the investigation.” No one can tell me Allison Andrew did not want to know what happened. If she's or any good at her job, she already knows. So why didn't she just fess up this morning? She had multiple interviews, pulled the same lines and looked so guilty.  

The reason, I would guess, is that Transpower is trying to bury the details until we've moved on and lost interest. Because right now we are at peak interest. Not everyone's got their power back yet. And we've all seen the pictures on Reddit, haven't we? So we're all super interested right now, but fast-forward two weeks, two months... God only knows how long their investigation is going to take. Now, all of a sudden, it's not so interesting, right? And that is what they're banking on.  

But it's backfired on them. Because instead of burying the info this morning, Allison Andrew just left us with the with the impression that, “Yep. It was them.” They just don't want to say it. And look, there is always the chance that the investigations will find that it wasn't them. Maybe. You never know. 

But we all think it was them now, don't we? 

LISTEN ABOVE. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Transpower has given us a master class and how
to look guilty, hasn't it? How to look like it
was actually your fault? I mean, come on, who doesn't
now think that what happened to that powerpole or that
power pilon is that the crew that we're working there
took the bolts out of the leg which caused the
thing to fall over, which caused the entire region of

(00:21):
Northala to lose power. Who doesn't think that that is
exactly what happened? And why do we think that? Because
Alison Andrew, the chief executive, sounded as guilty as all
hell in her media interviews this morning, I didn't want
to talk about it. Really unhelpful to speculate at the moment.
Have to focus on the power restoration. I mean, come on,
no one in twenty twenty four, when modern communication is

(00:42):
in your pocket and you can literally call anyone you
want to if they're within your company, just access their
phone umber give them a phone. No one believes that
Alison Andrew does not already know what happened. Course she does.
If she doesn't know what already, if she doesn't already
know it, then she sucks at her job, because in
any decent organization. The first that happens when there is
a major snappho, and this is a major snappho, the

(01:04):
first thing that happens is the boss calls the points
person who's on the ground and says what happened and
gets a preliminary idea of what happened. And the reason
they do that is because if there is a bigger
problem that can accelerate or repeat, they need to know
what happens so they can stop it from happening. Right,
so they will know, they will have called the person
there and been like, what happened, and they will know

(01:26):
what happened. And you cannot tell me that. Alis and Andrew,
the chief executive, was like, oh did you call them?
Oh yeah, Now don't tell me. Nah no, no, no,
just now, I'm gonna wait for that. No, it's not helpful.
I'll wait for the investigation. No one can tell me.
Alis and Andrew did not herself want to know what
happened for the same reason, to stop it from happening again.

(01:46):
If there was a problem going on, if she's all
any good at her job, she already knows, So why
didn't she just fess up? This morning? She multiple interviews,
and she pulled the same lines out every single time,
and it just looks so guilty. Why did she do that?
The reason I would guess is that transpower is trying
to bury the details until we've moved on and lost interest.
Because right now we, you and I are at peak

(02:07):
interest because it's just happened, and because not everyone's got
their power back yet. So we are all and we've
all seen the pictures on Reddit, haven't we, So we're
all super interested right now. But fast forward two weeks,
fast forward, two months, fast forward, God only knows how
long their investigation is going to take. Now, all of
a sudden, it's not so interesting, right, and that is
what they're banking on, But it's completely besfired as backfired
on them because instead of burying the info this morning,

(02:29):
Alison Andrew just completely left us with the impression that yep,
it was them. They just don't want to say it.
And look, there is always the chance that the investigations
will find that it wasn't them. Maybe you never know,
but we all think it was them, now, don't we.
For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive, listen live to

(02:50):
News Talk said B from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio